Got clutter?

[lizardsally]

I was just wondering how many of us are clutterbugs?  I thrift a lot stuff that I intend to do somethign crafty with, or put up on eBay, and don't always get around to it right away creating clutter on every available surface.  I'm getting better (I recently formulated a plan for decluttering and am starting to implement it) but it will take a while before my house is in good enough shape to have people over.  Anybody in the same boat?

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Absolutely. I have to get myself in gear to Ebay some extra dishes and things I no longer need because the easy thriftability of these things has caused me to have too much stuff!

[SecondhandSophisticate]

I'm trying to be reform, lol.   

[alexandra]

I'm slowly wrasslin' for control of it.  I even posted on my blog today about it.  Right now, I am waging a war against a nasty flea insurgency.  I can't fog until the clutter is gone.  And we need to fog!!!

Thriftily,
Alexandra
www.livingwithoutmoney.blogspot.com

[MrsGoodwill]

Guilty.

If you open the closet door in my bedroom, you will find all my 'goodies'. Stuff that I have "rescued" or bought with the intention of ebaying it or making it into something else. Heaven only knows when I will get around to actually doing anything with it!

I really did try to break myself of the habit of buying stuff I don't need/really want! [sigh]

I don't know if everybody will get this reference, but my closet looks a bit 'Sanford & Son'. It's terrible!

I don't know why I do this to myself! I hate clutter!

[eddieb]

LOL @ MrsGoodwill... my place TOO looks like sanford and son's place...

i'm the same way... but aside from my thrift store purchases, i am drowning in my records!!

[ChrisMiss]

Me too and I live in a RV so really have no room for all this clutter!  I went to my storage unit and brought stuff back to start selling on ebay this weekend so now my place is even more cluttered.  Every little tiny available space is filled with stuff.  I have stuff that SOMEDAY I'm going to sell, I have clothes that I couldn't resist buying for me and hubby and now I've got Christmas presents starting to pile up!  And of course since family is driving down for Christmas I've started buying them clothes and stuff to carry back with them.  Someday I will get control of all this clutter!  But really who can resist those great bargains?

[foutchie]

Alexandria - until you can fog, sprinkle baking soda on the carpets every night and vacuum the next day sometime - it dehydrates the fleas, other critters, etc. and kills the eggs too.   Will help in the process and free you up some!

[Cookie]

I don't know if everybody will get this reference, but my closet looks a bit 'Sanford & Son'.

I love me some Sanford & Son!  I watched that show all the time and thought their house looked cool.  I was intrigued by all their stuff.

I have a ton of sewing patterns I need to eBay and I definitely am not the most organized person in the world (GB is rolling his eyes at this understatement  ), but I have gone through three major purging episodes in the last 7 years so it's not as bad is it could be over here.  I am looking forward to our garage sale in January when I can get rid of more stuff.  Moving always forces me to purge. 

[ChrisMiss]

If you have items that you're planning on selling online some day but not right now I have a suggestion.  Get sturdy boxes that can be stacked maybe 3 tall, too many in a stack can topple over.  Using a marker label all 4 sides and the top of the box with a number.  Start a spreadsheet.  I used to have over 70 copy paper boxes of dishes that was my inventory of dishes for selling.  So for the dishes I labeled my columns, Manufacturer, Pattern Name, Item Name (bread plate, dinner plate), Quantity (how many in the box), Size (inches), Defects, Location (Box number), Cost.  Examine each dish, noting its condition, defects, measurements, etc. Wrap to protect, store in box, noting the box on the spreadsheet.  Now my inventory was organized, I knew exactly where each dish was.  If I got an online order for any of the dishes I could go right to the box it was in, verify the condition and sell the item.  Sometimes as I was looking on ebay at auctions I'd notice that one of my dishes was a hot item and I'd quickly list it on ebay.

This method could be used to store items other than dishes too of course, just name the column headings according to what kind of information is necessary for you.  I modified my spreadsheet several times as I learned what kind of info was important to know about the dishes.   

You may want to take pictures of the item before storing it away or you can wait for taking pictures when you list it on an auction.  Some of my dishes I had listed online in a store so I took pictures before storing the dishes away.  These pictures can be filed on your computer in their own folder too.  I had my pictures organized in one big folder of ebay photos, then folders inside that of various groupings (Dishes, Pottery, Ashtrays, etc).  In the Dishes folder I had folders of Manufacturers (Pfaltzgraff, Corelle, Lenox, etc.) with all my pictures of dishes made by that manufacturer. 

I hope this information is helpful in getting your items organized that you want to sell.   

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Absolutely it is! And the irony is, this is part of the method I've been using so far. I know I'm not going to get to this until after Christmas.

And Cookie: "I love me some Sanford & Son!" TOO FUNNY.

[superiorgirl]

I love to thrift.
I hate clutter.
It's tough to keep both of these things going at the same time!!! I can't bear to pass up treasures when I find them priced cheap, but I can't have them knocking about messing up my house. I wrap stuff up, fill boxes, have a room to put them in. When the room gets full I have a gigantic sale, vow to never to do that again, and start all over. I've deduced that the cycle takes about 2 years. DH swore this last sale was the final one. Then I counted out $2k that I took in and he turned his head when I came home with the next treasure! Fortunately, I do not need to rent a storage unit and we also have a building on a major traffic route that I can use for a sale every couple of years.

Where is that number for junkersanonymous???

[ChrisMiss]

I don't rent a storage unit to store the stuff I've bought at the thrift stores.  We rent one because we have stuff that we don't want to carry around the country with us but yet it is important enough to us to keep it.  Since there was a little room left in the storage unit I put a couple of boxes of things I intended to sell on eBay.

When we had a house though it was filled with stuff that I found at the thrift stores, yard sales and flea markets.  Getting a RV has helped me limit what I buy because I have no room for it. 

With all the Christmas shopping, eBay selling, sorting of stuff in RV and storage unit I really feel that the walls of this place are ready to explode.  I've got presents stacked to wrap, shipping supplies stacked around, items waiting to be listed on auction, etc.  It's a mess around here.  I'll be glad to get it all done and out of here!

I had mentioned that I started selling stuff again on eBay.  I've done very well on the stuff I sold.  Some items I expected to do well didn't sell at all.  Collectable stuff changes over time I've found out.  Several years ago Brown Bag Cookie art molds were highly collectable and fetched a pretty penny on auctions.  Now only a few are still as collectable as previously.  Most of the ones I've picked up around the country aren't collectable it seems.  But it's not a total loss.  My granddaughter is now into baking and decorating.  So she's getting a large collection of cookie molds to use for her baking of cookies.   

[Mattie]

I'm not sure if I'm a clutterbug or not.  Some people on another forum asked me to post photos of my art studio, so I did, apologizing for the mess.  But everyone commented on how neat and tidy and organized everything is!  I have labeled boxes and bags and buckets and jars full of art supplies (and by "art supplies" I mean the stuff I use in my assemblages and collages - lint, buttons, googly eyes, hair, used bandaids, scraps of paper, broken eyeglasses, dog fur, tea bag strings, etc.).  To me it's a vast hoard of junk, but I guess it's neatly organized.

My collections, however, are very tightly controlled.  When I buy antique photos and postcards I put them in archival pages and put the pages in albums.  I store my dog license tag collection in plastic boxes sorted by state or city.  My View-Master reels are in numerical order in an archival box.  My CDs are in alphabetical order by artist.  And everything is entered into a database when I buy it.  I'm obsessive about that. 

[Mattie]

Alexandria - until you can fog, sprinkle baking soda on the carpets every night and vacuum the next day sometime - it dehydrates the fleas, other critters, etc. and kills the eggs too.   Will help in the process and free you up some!

Foutchie, does baking soda work for silverfish and carpet beetles?  They are my sworn enemies.