Need help! My house is overflowing...

[momtomonkeys]

I have posted here in the past as missy413....now I am momtomonkeys because that is exactly what I am ! My monkeys are helping my house get way, way too full of "junk" and I am getting less and less creative on how to store stuff.

How do you guys do it? I have a three bdrm house and no garage but a nice attic. Most of the storing goes in the attic, but the things that you use more often obviously cannot be stored up there. So, I am at a loss of what to do with all this stuff. I have my walk-in-closet floor full of stuff (gifts, craft supplies,baby books, old camera, etc) to the point where I can hardly get in it anymore to find something. Now, my dd's room and ds's room is fairly organized but I am finding with my 4yo dd that her stuff is adding up quickly. I end up tossing most of it in a teeny tiny playroom and then wondering if I will ever get in there to organize it.

Okay, so do you guys throw away a lot of stuff or donate? What do you do with all the kids toys? What do you do with all those cheap kids meals toys??? I know one friend of mine stores part of her dd's toys and then will rotate toys on a regular basis. My son is only 6mos so he is not overflowing yet, lol, but my dd is a collector. She has a million Kelly (Barbie) dolls and a million other collections...beanie babies, stuffed animals, purses?, books, videos...I could just go on forever. Anyway, I would love to get some good advice on how to get rid of/store/organize our stuff!

FYI...I have tried to tell family to limit presents to one gift or only money or clothes. So far, it is not working. :0( I am also guilty of too much gift giving in the past, but I have already rehabilated myself!!! Help me!!!!!!

[Sarah]

I hear you! I am on a quest to declutter, I have had great sucess using the flylady program...check out her website.

She sends you daily reminders to get things started

I love it!

[Mickey]

Yes! Great e-group! A little advice...get the welcome letter, print it out and read it thoroughly and implement their suggestions before you have the daily reminders sent to you! Otherwise, you'll be overwhelmed and not really understand the purpose of them. Definitely check it out!

[Leigh]

I am going to check out that sight gals. I have a feeling that when I start moving into the new house, I am going to have an overflow problem too. Thank you for the site. I hope that everything works out for you momtomonkeys.

[JeannieOR]

we are a family of 4 living in a 2 bedroom apartment. We use a lot of plastic modular shelves. We also make regular donations to the Associatation for Retarted Citizens. The ARC comes by our house once each month to collect anything we havn't used in a while. Also, I have discovered that I really don't need a coffee table.

[RCT]

love the idea of an email group...we too have discovered that we do not need a coffee table or end tables....LOL... another great book I have, but you can get at your local library is "Confessions of an Organized Housewife/Homemaker" by Deniece Schofield its great at helping you organize and get rid of things all over the house....we used it when we moved last time and I think its time to break it out again here too.....good luck...

[momtomonkeys]

Thanks for all the good advice. I did sign up for the email loop with the flylady. I cleaned out the playroom today...which gave me a big fat headache. But, atleast it is organized. Now, I have a small pile of stuff that I don't know what to do with. I feel like I just move things to different places.

Missy