Does your house look junky?

I hear you! I can straighten up and clean all day. The next day it's a mess again. I'm fighting a losing battle.

Look at it this way....pick up an item.....do you love it? do you need it? is it something you have to keep because it is a family heirloom? If no to the three questions, get rid of it. Sometimes the "junky" look is just clutter and the best way to get rid of clutter is to get it out of the house, donate it to goodwill, salvation army, or even put it up on craigslist.
Good luck!!!

Start room by room. Don't look at it as one space but as many. For instance, I start in my living room, grab a trash bag, throw away anything not worth keeping, then I bought some cute baskets, put mags in one, and throw pillows in another. Put movies on a cheap dvd stand, fold blankets and hang them on a quilt rack... There's a start. If you can't do it all in one day, don't stress, make a list in the evening after the kids are asleep, and then only do what you can in the evening, or the next day...

Trust me, I know the feeling! lol. I try to get up early every morning and clean before the kids wake up. But once they are up, forget it, and then I babysit other children and they come over and I'm so busy through out the day by the time everyone leaves and its just us and the SO walks in the door, my hair is standing up in puffs and the house can look cluttery sometimes.
I have been trying to make it a habit to throw away unnecessary stuff. Like my sons school papers. He gets upset when I toss them, so I sneak and do it,lol.The junk mail gets riiculous here.We like to keep it for the wood burner but it really gets out of hand so I've been tossing that.I try to keep the main areas of the house neat and tidy as possible and if I just dont have time or the energy to clean other rooms that day, I just shut the door. What I don't see can't depress me,lol.

Get rid of all the crap and don't buy more crap to replace it. It's hard, I know. Im a pack rat and a reformed shopaholic. Just throw it all out and organize what you have left. If you cant get it all to fit, go through it again and toss more. And don't but more stuff. You don't need it.

Maybe you just have too much stuff? I hate stuff LOL. I'm a minimalist, which really helps to keep the clutter down. I go through the kids' toys twice a year (Christmas and summer because their birthdays are in the summer) and get rid of anything broken or that they don't use anymore. We regularly go through clothes and donate the ones we are no longer using and we just don't bring a lot of stuff into the house.

I'm also the type to have a designated place for everything and we put things away as we are finished using them. I'm a clean as I go type.

Partly I think organization is a personality thing. I am just uncomfortable with mess and when my environment is cluttered my mind feels cluttered. So that prompts me to keep things tidy. But I've met people with a high tolerance for disorder and I don't know how you get organized if that's the case.

The best way to keep a house looking neat as a pin is to move out! Yes, you're going to have to pick it up everyday, but if that is all it needs, that's okay. As long as it isn't downright filthy with bugs crawling everywhere, who cares if the mail is piled up on the side table and there are toys on the floor? Personally, I'd rather be spending time with my children, not my broom.

I think it was Erma Bombeck or someone that said she wished she had worried less about the house being clean and invited people over for dinner more often. I try to stick to this philosophy! My house is always junky, and I am glad I have a child so maybe people won't blame it on me lol! :o)

i have learned that many of the items we have are not needed. I was the WORST about buying lotions, potions and all the other bath and body works goodies. our entire family was bad about buying things we didnt really need. now i am embracing the "frugal lifestyle" it has been a bit of an adjustment.. but it sure does clear out the clutter and stops needless spending. now if we have something that doesnt get used, we either sell it, give it away, or recycle it into something else.for every new thing we buy, we try to get rid of something we dont use. and we all make it a point to pick up after ourselves. I have a basket in each room for things that dont belong. at the end of the night i put those items where they belong. it cuts down on the "junk" that collects in each room.