Wednesday, January 5, 2011

why can't I keep my dining table clean?

I know some people use the table they eat off of as a flat filing cabinet, but I am afraid that only begins to describe my dining table abuse. Honestly, I cannot figure out what my problem is! Of course I must place plates of food there. And I even manage to clear them off regularly. Also, the daughter does homework on the dining table, and this amounts to seven pages, but usually in a stack, with pencils, erasers, scissors, glue, crayons, and the list of spelling words. That should be manageable, right? THen there is the mail, and man, does it pile up. I know I should touch each piece of paper only once, but who wants to pay bills the day they come in? No, I stack them and pay them in a bunch. Then there are the coupons. Clip clip and stack on the table. The books to read pile up until I move them. Then there are the little project stacks, and the rental movies, and before you know it there is no place to put the plates. I know a desk is the proper place for most of these papers and projects, but every desk I own is already covered with papers and projects and it just never ends or all gets done, nor does it even get filed discretely away. How does one declutter their life?

1 comment:

  1. Oh trying to solve this problem is a favorite past time of mine! For me, finding a place for each thing seems to help. Then I get suckered into buying organizing stuff to create those places. Do you have any free wall space for another bookshelf? Or one of those cube things? They sell them at Target and I want some so much but we have no where to put them in this house. Then there are those cute baskets that go in the individual cube spaces. You could have one basket for mail, one shelf for new books, etc. Individual baskets for the projects. Just plain old plastic tubs have proliferated around here. One for all playdoh stuff, one for paint stuff, one for all fish themed plastic toys.

    Tim still clutters up our kitchen counter with the exact same kind of stuff you are talking about. He is much messier than me but I think he gets more done than I do. I am still sorting things into different tubs when I should be getting to work.

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