It's always a fight, isn't it? You truly have my sympathy. I'm always hungry for good storage and declutter ideas! Should we share some here?

A few years ago, Sarah Susanka wrote a delightful book called "The Not So Big House" which is a wealth of ideas.

Here's more:

Here is a link that might be useful: Not So Big House

I would not use a book on staging for sale, as a guide for decluttering and organizing a home.

The things done for staging are often not practical for everyday living. For example, with staging they tend to push the furniture back against the walls rather than doing that "cozy" conversational seating arrangements in the center of the room. The goal is to show buyers how big and spacious the room is when they walk through it. Electronics are banned from rooms for staging. Nothing on the kitchen counters except one or two decor items or a "staged" cookbook or vintage toaster. More than once I've seen examples of stagers taking the cabinet doors off, in the kitchen or bathroom to "really open the space up" but they left them in the basement for the new owners because they KNEW that people want cabinet doors to hide clutter when they live in a place. A staged home is not the way to live.

Stagers like to go with neutral walls and furniture. This is very limiting and boring when living in a space.

Staging involves hiding the pet food bowls, not buying cute ones. Packing up children's toys and highchairs and hiding them off premise. This is not how one lives.

Like a previous poster suggested, look for books with tips on decorating a small home for living.

Mclarke, which one of her books do you recommend for decluttering and organizing? Nobody wants to share any tips? Photos?

I highly recommend "Clutter's Last Stand" and other decluttering books by Don Aslett. Reading his books a few years ago pretty much changed my life. In fact, I still have those books. I think I'll dig them out and read them again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clutter's Last Stand

I just joined yesterday and have been reviewing all the forums on GW and see they have an "Organizing the Home" forum. Have you been there? Seems they have a lot of people who know how to control clutter. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organizing the Home

I'm a big fan of Julie Morgenstern ("Organizing from the Inside Out").
She spends the first section of the book explaining why people get cluttered and disorganized, and how to determine which of those reasons apply to you. Then she approaches solutions based on your personality and goals, rather than a single plan for everyone. She's smart, experienced, and uncritical without being childish or icky-sweet.

Is your furniture sized correctly for your rooms? Years ago, I had to move from a larger house to a small small (did I say small?) apartment. One thing I learned was furniture can take up a lot of space. Once I replaced the large over whelming pieces I had with furniture that was more size appropriate it helped ALOT.

I think the key goal is just to have the things you use but not have them in places that keep you from getting to other things. For example, do you have to move something aside to get to something else? If I need to move three small kitchen appliances out of the way, say, to get to a cutting board or the knives, then that's something I'd try to organize better.

"Stuff" is not bad! Stuff on top of stuff on top of stuff... that could be bad!

It's very good you've discovered what kind of style you can live with comfortably!

I don't have cluttery stuff to move around, there are just things that fill up the room that I want to stay, like my large shelf with my African violets. In an ordinary sized house it wouldn't be a problem, but I have a teeny house.
My first ex drove me crazy because he was a pack rat, and because he had to have everything out where he could see it. It isn't that kind of clutter, I am not a packrat at all and regularly go through and donate stuff I don't use.
It is just the violets and stuff like that, that take up what should be empty airy spaces.

Good points that staged homes are not for everyone's real life.

Frankie mentioned Julie Morgenstern's new book SHED over on the Organizing forum.

Morgenstern's ideas are a refreshing change from the current view that you just need to throw everything away -- I always felt sorry for the folks they did that to for dramatic effect on TV. Morgenstern emphasizes separating out your true treasures, and using incremental changes to push your life forward in the direction you choose. (She also recommends dumping scheduled activities to free up more of your time). A good read.

-Lena

Here is a link that might be useful: SHED your stuff, change your life

I highly recommend "Clutter's Last Stand" and other decluttering books by Don Aslett.

Okay, I just bought this for $2.18. The shipping cost more than the book. Hope the book doesn't end up just being more clutter. lol!

I just bought a compact light cart to add to my shelf of African Violets, because I got some new streptocarpus.

Bye,bye, airy. But I'm going to look and read and decide if there is a good way to arrange all these things.

In addition to Julie Morgenstern's book, I also like The Organizing Sourcebook by Kathy Waddill. She looks at why the clutter occurred and then gives advice on how to deal with it based on that.

Lucille, since you live in a small space, as do I, the chief thing I would recommend is looking at altering the space to fit your needs. It's my belief that the smaller the living space, the more important it is to tailor it exactly to suit how you live. Think of a 350 square foot RV. There are couples who live in them for months on end, because every square inch of space has been utilized.

If you want an airy and spacious living area, perhaps you can have "cozy and cluttered" in all but one room. Make one room airy and spacious, so that you aren't always wishing for something you really want.

Built-ins are wonderful in small spaces. Customizing your closets and/or creating a wall of shelving and cabinets can allow you to store more in the same space, while taking up less room. And it can cost a lot less than you might think.

I've been an apartment dweller for years. Early on, I would think, "Well, I might be moving in a few years, so it's silly to buy something just for this apartment." So I wouldn't get a microwave cart or an extra bookcase or whatever. And I did the "move three things to get to the cutting board" thing for *years*. Now, I realize that spending $100 or so to make day to day chores easier is an excellent investment.

After giving our kids what they wanted or could use, we gave away truckloads of stuff that I, my mother, mother-in-law and grandmothers had hoarded. When giving away was no longer an option, because some things I cannot part with, we put stuff in the attic, in the garden house, the storage shed,and once we ran out of space, we cleaned out closets and gave that to Goodwill. Now that we had done all we could and still had things we wanted to keep, we then rented a storage house in which to store furniture, rugs, lamps, clocks, Christmas and seasonal decorator items. We catalogued them so that when we want to use them, or to switch things around, we can find them.

We got rid of tons of books and encyclopedias that the library could use and those which they did not want went to Goodwill. Just about anything I want to read in the future, can be found on line. I only kept a few classics after giving the kids what they wanted. That other which I knew I probably would never use again, went in the give-away pile. (Did you know there are probably more gardening books and Cliff's notes at the Goodwill than at Amazon ;- I was sort of reluctant about offering them to the library).

Oh boy Patricia! After reading your post I'm really treasuring our basement!

Does anyone have a sleeper sofa they no long use the sleeper part of? We do and I've been debating of turning it into storage. It seems such a waist to have that bed in there when we don't use it. Makes me wonder if that's not possible with the other sofa too. It's a two piece sectional. Ofcourse as soon as I repurpose that space I'll have more company than I've had before and I'll need that extra bed.

Clutter... pack rat... I know this only to well. I recently moved and found myself facing the "pack it or toss it" Suddenly I saw things that I could let go of. Once I began it felt freeing to realize I actually would be "ok" without some of my stuff. Less to move and at the other end a new open feel.

Maybe it was a moving mindset that finally clicked on the "let it go" vibe, but I truly don't miss any of it.

I don't know if this helps at all and I am pretty sure the clutter could return because most of the fun is "finding" the treasures. I did a yard sale and loved watching others enjoy the great find moment.

Good luck. The pack rat life is fun. I will never let it go I am sure.

As I said, I'm not a pack rat. There's some difference between people who have tons of stuff they never use but keep it anyway on the off chance they might need it some day, to my situation which is having basic furniture items plus extra stuff like an African Violet shelf (or two) that fill in the available space. I've gone over every piece of furniture and the ones remaining need to stay.
I debated the keeping of the entertainment center since it is pretty big, and it has won a reprieve for now because of the storage it offers.
I actually had thought of getting rid of the violets but I didn't, and I'm happy with that, African Violets are pretty neat and bloom a lot of the time.
I admire the clean looks of some of the 'small space' examples I've seen here and elsewhere, but I guess when it came down to it, I wasn't willing to pitch the few extra pieces like the violet shelf that would have opened my living room area up.
Thanks all for y'all's suggestions!!