YOu mean there's another way?!?

MY DH calls me a pilot.

I pile-it here, I pile-it there............ I'm of the opinion that it isn't really a home without piles of "stuff". I have a Masters in Rationalization !

This is why rubbermaid laundry baskets were invented!

Too bad I read the feng shui book and can no longer bring myself to stuff said laundry basket under the bed. ;-)

Johnatemp - did you steal my identity? The joke in this house is that if there's a horizontal surface, there's bound to be cr*p on top of it! Right now I'm watching the Red Sox rolling rally on TV, eating lunch, and surfing the 'net at the same time. I have to get my butt in the shower and leave the house in 40 minutes to pick up my son from school. Hmmm, I wonder why these piles don't disappear??? Don't even get me started on kids' papers...

Well, there's just DH and me so we can't blame our clutter on kids. We try to blame the 5 cats plus the 4 fostered kittens, but that only goes so far. DH is a hoarder, and while I don't like it, I've learned that that's who he is and he's not gonna change. I've been thru some physical difficulties over the past couple of months that have rendered me useless when it comes to housework - consequently, our place is semi-sty-like at the moment. I do think, though, that nobody really lives in a museum, and clutter (even dirty clutter!) is just a fact of life. A fact I don't want to get too used to, but I am making an effort not to let it overwhelm me.

johnatemp, you're just NORMAL. I don't have kids at home to blame it on either but stacks appear. I just got my foyer somewhat like I want it in the last couple of days, walked in from work today and there's a big piece of plywood leaning on the stairs. I have NO idea why!! And a couple of suitcases have made their way from our bedroom to the foyer on their way eventually to upstairs (and we used them on our trip 2 weeks ago) Computer bag in the hearth room, mail on the kitchen cabinet, etc, etc....it never ends :-)

Doesn't every home have some of Flylady's Hot Spots? ALmost all of mine involve paper - the den coffee table (OMG), the dining room table, one particular bureau in the MBR, and parts of the kitchen counter. Then there's the "guest bedroom". When I redecorated it, it was, IMHO, a charming cottage-y room, with a lot of Country Curtains' Bellagio fabric. A show-stopper. Now it's where DH puts the stuff he's not ready to store in the garage, plus everything on its way to Good Will. And the reason we got a computer armoire with pocket doors was not to hide the PC, but rather the paper junk that piles up around it.

And six months ago we lost our cleaning crew of twenty years and haven't replaced them yet. Gevalt! And Auntjen is rignt - when someone in the family is sick or under the weather, just forget about showing your home for Better Homes and Gardens.

I've found that if I leave the piles long enough, the information becomes irrelevant in a few months and I can usually pitch it all. Problem solved!!

Inmca, ME TOO!!!! I always say, "Leave it long enough and eventually it takes care of itself."

I go through what I call binging and purging when it comes to piles of paper. When I'm in purge mode, look out!

You need to become more neurotic.... ;-) I hate piles. I work diligently to avoid them. I am a fan of throwing things away and handling things only once. And never sit down, move from room to room, even if that means sorting while standing. It seems more productive and faster. Take nothing into your home unless you need it. The first thing I do with the kids backpacks is purge purge purge all the little flyers they come home with for a million things. Write things on a calendar. Use a bulletin board, sort the mail and toss the junk immediately. It does work but it takes dedication.

We've always collected and kept too much stuff -- and now we have a business selling stuff on EBay .......

Sooooooooo ..... many many days my little house looks like a weird junk shop! Very hard for me to deal with ---- but a few boundaries have been established ----- and we BOTH try to keep to up with the stuff!!

In every home there seems to be a place, usually in the kitchen, where the mail and such pile up. We drop our keys, wallets and purses and always swear we will keep it clean. My last house it was a tiny surface that was about 2x2. My new house has this long separate counterspace that I love to use for buffets. Of course the rest of the time it is the dumping ground for everything from bills to keys to spare change to sale ads for stores I need to go to. Every now and then when I clean it off I am always amazed at how nice it is when it is clean. Then it is back to being messy.

My dh is horrible about his desk so I leave it alone. Every time I even dust it he claims I threw something out or moved it where he cannot find it. When the magazines he receives pile up in kitchen I simply pile them up in his office on the floor. Eventually he just throws them all out. I am going to start putting them in the bathroom for his reading pleasure. Then every week I will throw them out for him and put the new stack in there. He got really bummed when I took out the spare bedroom set from the office and gave it to our dd. I put her tiny twin in there. Currently there are the following on the bed: table pad I took off diningroom table, his swim shorts and a shirt, pile of magazines, a fishing reel, fishing lures in the bag still, and a bunch of other things that do not belong there. Oh, and lets not forget the video arcade game that he bought to restore... Luckily all this stuff needs to be removed when we redo the floors. And once it comes out it will not necessarily be going back in!!!!!!lol

I have become a neat freak in my last few years and although I will not be able to change my dh's ways, I can help make them more tollerable.

Yes, well, the excrement is going to soon hit the fan because the holidays are coming and in spite of my resolutions to find a place for all this stuff, I will end up shoving it in various places at the last minute and never finding it again.