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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Cutters

So the thread over there...ST's no one will care...has got me thinking...



What do you do to cut time? Cost? Or anything?



I need some clutter ideas that are cheap, easy, and easy to maintain. I hate clutter and used to clean out everything before we got married about every six months or so. But really, this house is to big for me to do by myself so then I get unmotivated.



Any ideas?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I need to read the thread first.

Anonymous said...

Mail: As soon as it arrives, I open it all, toss the envelopes and fluff and shred anything personal. I then save the payment page for bill-paying day, which is usually pay day.

I need to do this to Michael's mail. Big time. I hate his mail. It's almost like a full-time job.

Food: I'm not a good coupon person, so I try to buy things that are on sale or that are of equal quality. There are things I will never buy generic like TP or paper towels. But some things are just as good.

I buy cleaning and personal products at Target. They are cheaper there.

I used to buy Conner's clothes in bigger sizes really cheap from the clearance racks at Old Navy and then sell them to a consignment shop for more than I paid. But then he started putting more wear and tear on them, and that doesn't work anymore.

I use Dryel instead of dry cleaning.

I buy picture frames, accents, things I see at Pottery Barn at Target.

I drink a lot of water. A lot. Especially at restaurants. I don't really drink alcohol.

I used to cut Conner's apple juice in half with water. That might work for James.

I fill up when gas prices are going up instead of only getting $20 or so. I'd rather get a whole tank at a lesser price. I prefer to fill up when it's going down, but I usually do the $20 increments then.

Anonymous said...

Cutting my hair saves money on product and time, but not necessarilly on cutting expense.

Anonymous said...

Are you tired of hearing me babble?

Syren said...

LOL...Nope, I'm actually sitting here thinking I do that, or I could do that.

Thanks!!!

I am the same on TP or paper towels. Has to be the brand name. I don't shop at target too much because we don't have one as close as Walmart or Kroger, but maybe I need to give that a second thought.

Buggy said...

I used to think the house was cluttered because it was a little tiny thing with no closet space. I always thought if I just had storage space, I wouldn't let it get messy.
Then I had a big house, with lots of closet space and I said the house is too big for me to handle. Every one of those closets was full of mess.
What the problem really was, I let it get over my head.

When I quit my job I acted like the house was a job. I assigned myself projects, and went from there, one project leads to another. I didn't worry about the whole mess, just did the projects.

Baskets, cheap way to contain stuff and it looks like you meant to have that stuff there. We used to have stacks of magazines and books in the bathroom, now we have cute baskets in there and when the magazines don't fit I throw some away. Hubby used to have a pile of stuff on his dresser, now he has a little basket to put his crap in.

Big Lots! Cheap for baskets and storage stuff and cleaning solutions and trash bags, and they have name brand toilet paper and paper towels, just not always the same stuff every week.
I always check there first, sometimes it's lots cheaper than the grocery.
They have an off brand space bags ( that I like better) I used them to reorganize the linen closet, and store extra blankets and sheets. I think they were 6 bucks for 4.

I think the biggest thing that I did to get rid of the clutter, was to just get rid of stuff. I just started giving tons of stuff away, mainly clothes we didn't or couldn't wear.

Put something in the crock-pot for dinner , and then take a dresser or a closet or the bathroom cabinets , and just do that one spot til it's clean. Get a box for give-away, and a bunch of trash bags and just go for it!
I started with the bathrooms, but I should have started with the dressers, made laundry easier to put away when all the clothes were organized.
I of course don't have a baby, so I could get as OCD as I liked. But he's big enogh to give a damp paper towel to and have wipe off the baseboards, make it a game to 'help Mommy'. Listen to music, listen to bad daytime tv, teach the kiddo songs.

As the clutter goes away, the mind feels less cluttered too.

Oh wow, maybe I should have emailed this to you, I did go on and on. But for the last 3 months, I have been doing the organize thing.

You know I'm home most of the time, if you want we could phone chat while throwing stuff away together. I have free long distance.
Let me know.
We could pep talk each other on the job hunt thing, I'm starting that now too.
Just don't try to do everything at once, the big picture gets overwhelming.

Nailbone said...

Darlin', you've been TAGGED!!!

Puffy said...

I just found this. What great ideas!