Oh this one is hard for me. I am the hoarder in the relationship. The one that has trouble getting rid of stuff just in case we would need it someday. What if the zombie apocalypse dawns on us and we do not have an array of plastic bags? Or recyclable gift-wrap paper? And boxes. I am kind of ashamed to confess that I was kind of attached to the beautiful cardboard box in which our KitchenAid came. For lack of space we finally threw it away 3 weeks ago. As a result our (little) storage room looks more organized.
For a long time I used to keep my baking tins, muffin trays, bundt pan and so forth inside the oven itself. But last Christmas we got a roasting pan, one of those you use for the turkey, that comes with a grilling tray, which is quite handy because I can just bake stuff that you would normally fry (like chicken nuggets), without the food losing its crunch. With this last addition the rest of the stuff would not fit in the oven anymore. So we had to find a solution. We moved some stuff around (from under the sink, to the storage room or to the gas meter cabinet) and we found a space for my ever growing collection of pans by the water boiler cabinet.
Are you a keeper or a hoarder? How do you organize / keep everything you need (buckets, iron, cleaning products, vacuum cleaner, broom, mop, tools, stairs...) in a small place? Do you tend to collect stuff (like plastic bags or newspaper cutouts?
I'm the opposite of a hoarder, my moto is reduce,reduce, reduce and only then reuse and recycle. Every 6 months I do a purge and donate and throw. Last week, for example, we donated all of Luka and Zoe's baby stuff (from cribs to tiny things) to a local charity, for example, and cleared out all our storage. As for boxes, I only keep the one for the KA because I will take it with me when we move to another country. All others are gone the minute I unpack the appliance. Moving from country to country often makes you think twice before keeping stuff, I have to say, because shipping costs are so high!
ReplyDeleteNow I am preparing the big spring clean before the Chinese New Year and I'm looking forward to it: out with the old, in with the new!
I'll show pictures of how I organize everything as soon as I'm done with the clean.
Oh see, now you made me regret throwing away the KA box. What if we move !!! ? Haha.
DeleteI am looking forward to your pictures.
I do believe in recycling, and we did a big closet clean / donation 1 year ago or so? Maybe it's time for another one though. At least I feel inspired to organize my closet in a nice way, and then I'll see if there is stuff that needs to be donated.
And you are so right about shipping costs, to think I have to eventually bring a whole bookshelf back to Europe from Mexico. Or maybe we'll move to Mexico. Who knows.
That's why we are buying a kindle next month! I will only buy very beautiful cooking books on paper, and the rest will be electronic for that same reason
DeleteYeah I have been seriously considering a Kindle lately. It is slowly growing on me. Maybe for my birthday.
DeleteDo it! You won't regret it. I love my kindle. Its so limitless and frees up so much space. I do still on occasion buy and read actual books when not available on kindle or if I really love a certain author and can't resist a shiny new 1st edition hard back ( I'm such a materialist at heart) . But we almost had to move this year and we went on a crazy purge a couple of months back to prepare and even though that move fell through, we are loving how easy it is to clean the house with so much less stuff.
DeleteAlice you have convinced me . I also love hard backs, and some books are just beautiful, I have a thing for illustrated fairy tales.
DeleteBut yes, less stuff, less stuff.
And less books. English books are kind of a luxury here, so I ended up getting 4 books in London (some were 1 GBP each, so I HAD to get them) and I wanted to get another stack but it was not allowed. So I had to choose wisely.
We have a cupboard that looks very similar to that, although probably fuller. We want to put a bed in it so haven't started organising the shelves until we know what we are doing there. It stresses me out so I keep the door shut!! xox
ReplyDeleteYeah I also keep the door shut of the yellow room for that same reason (it used to be the place where we would cram all kinds of random stuff like boxes or paper on its way to the recycle bin).
DeleteAinhoa @alittlebitofeverything showed her storage room with a bed there and it looks super organized, I am sure you saw her post.
Este post era para mí verdad? Ja,ja, no sabes cómo me cuesta trabajo tirar y deshacerme de cosas, ya sean de cocina, de ropa, aparatos, cualquier cosa, soy una coleccionista de papelitos y etiquetas y boletos (como para hacer scrapbooks, justo) imagina la cantidad que tengo en dos años por aquí :) Glup!
ReplyDeleteJajajaja ya somos dos. Los scrapbooks son lo máximo, hay una marca que se llama Paperchase y me encanta porque sus albums son como los antiguos, con papel autoadhesivo transparente, perfecto para pegar todos los boletitos de tren, mapitas y demás.
DeleteYo empece con una caja de metal, y ya voy en la 3a, recién inaugurada. Tengo que dejar de guardar papelitos.
Paperchase! Me encanta!, pero aquí no encuentro nada parecido :S
DeletePaperchase es lo máximo me gusta tanto que aplique a una posición de "store manager" en la estación de trenes. Con todo lo que me gusta seguro que lo transmitía a los clientes y vendía (o compraba yo misma) la tienda entera. Pero nada... aqui si no estudiaste comercio, marketing o que se yo no te llaman ni a entrevista, ni para las posiciones más sencillas. Argh.
DeletePaperchase, buscaré suena lindooo jaja. Vele la ventaja a lo de la tienda hubieras quebrado!
DeleteSí, definitivamente entraría en bancarrota. Entra a su sitio web, tienen toda clase de cosas super bonitas (papel, sobres, álbumes, libretitas, plumas, tazas, botellas de aluminio, cajas y chingaderas variadas).
DeleteFor 2 years I held onto every cardboard box I acquired because I knew I would be moving. It turns out that one can acquire a lot of cardboard boxes in 2 years! Thankfully, the process of moving sort of takes care of all that on its own!
ReplyDeleteHaha yeah, that is a lot of cardboard boxes. I am slowly learning to let go of unnecessary stuff. Then of course as soon as it is away I find some kind of use for it.
DeleteI am the opposite of a hoarder. I am constantly purging, purging, purging! Sometimes to the point that I regret getting rid of some things (but not for very long). We try to keep small spaces organized by using vertical space. For example, in our tiny linen closet, I hung up an organizer on the inside of the closet door that now stores our iron and ironing board.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea, the vertical organizer. We should check those out. I think a trip to the Swedish place should be scheduled.
DeleteBefore we moved in with my mom we purged a lot of stuff ... and we still have way too much. I got rid of a lot of old clothes, and some kitchen "stuff" that we both know we'll never use but we still have so much. The sad thing is right now it's all packed up and in storage because we can't even use our own things.
ReplyDeleteThe big one for me that needs work is my massive book collection (I'd call it a library, but that would be missing the point that half of the books will never get read again). We live surrounded by bookcases, boxes of books and piles of books. It's gotten to be a little bit overkill. There's a need for a major organization shift, it's just hard figuring out where to start when everything's in boxes in garages.
For a long time I had boxes of books and such in boxes in the garage of the boy's old house. It took us a while to bring the boxes and another while to actually take everything out of them. It is nice to have everything in their place.
DeleteAnd I know about the books, I have a full bookshelf in Mexico and I have to figure out what I will do with it.
I hope you'll find a place for both of you soon.
BTW: your post got me inspired, we went to the bank this morning and finally joint accounts fully. We still have to wait for some paperwork to arrive and sign it, but it should be ready in no time. The main thig stopping us from joining accounts all this while was actually making the time to physically go to the bank, but we were in the neighborhood today so it's almost done.
I am the hoarder, guilty of collecting random papers -souvenirs-, recycling wrap-paper and bags, oh an the plastic bags... I have this thing for storing cool plastic bags and Matt and I once got in a fight because he used my plastic bag from -the Beatles Museum- for the kitchen garbage bin!! (mini heart attack).
ReplyDeleteWhere we live in Mexico, the space problem doesn't exist but it did when we lived in Vancouver and it will when we move to Sydney, I am sure. Luckily for me, my husband is very good at organizing things, so when we clear out rooms I only follow his instructions; the only danger is when his getting rid of stuff gets out of control. His rule is "if you have not used it in one year, you will never need it".
Oh the plastic bags. Did I mention that just very recently we had a discussion where I ended up crying in the kitchen floor because I wouldn't throw away the plastic bags? I just think of them ending up in the Ocean and I can not take it. We ended up selecting the good ones and taking them to the recycling bin.
DeleteIt is good to have husbands that are good at organizing things. Makes for good balance. That is a good rule I guess. But it has also happened that as soon as I throw something away the next day I find a possible use for the thing.
I have the same one year rule as your husband's, clothes included. Eveything goes seems to be my motto ;)
DeleteAs much as I try to get rid of stuff and live a more simple lifestyle, things just seem to accumulate! I've been attacking some cupboards recently and being a bit more ruthless about what we keep, what we give away. I once read about a guy who packed up his whole house, like EVERYTHING and then only unpacked what he needed when he needed it. At the end of the month, the majority of things were still packed, so he gave away or sold it all. Extreme, oui oui. But it makes a good point - I could do without so much of the stuff that surrounds me.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing huh? The amount of stuff we accumulate. But we have also become a lot more selective in the stuff we keep and choose to have. We also try to purge more or less regularly.
DeleteAnd wow, the story of that guy is quite amazing. But it is probably true we do not need that much stuff.
El marido mio es el acumulador y yo soy su conciencia! "Bota, bota, bota! Para qué quieres esto? Porque no lo botas?"
ReplyDeletejajajaja... Pobre!
Una vez compramos una nueva impresora de esas con wifi, scaner, fotocopiadora... o sea, una cosa supersónica, y cuando le pregunté qué ibamos a hacer con la impresora vieja, se quedó paralizado!
La vieja impresora pasó meses en la oficina, esperando ser buscada por uno de los amigotes que dijo que la quería, hasta que un día me cansé de verla y la envolví en bolsa negra, y la puse a la puerta de la casa.
Al día siguiente, no estaba más.
Al fin entendió que el amigote no iba nunca a venir a buscar el aparato ese y mejor aún, entendió mi indirecta!
jeje
Jajaja que risa con la pobre impresora. Pero yo de verdad estoy aprendiendo a deshacerme de lo innecesario. A ver si un día de estos hago limpia de armario de nuevo.
DeleteQuiero verano! Y eso lo testifica la gran parte de ropa que sale de mi closet 2 días al año. Todos los vestidos dicen: escógeme a mí, escógeme a mí.