Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Conquering Clutter

One thing Rob and I want to get a hold on is the overwhelming clutter that fills our apartment. There isn't much closet space, and there isn't much room to put things. There are stacks of bills paid, paperwork, magazine articles torn out, and more that cover the desks. I even have a feng shui book that implied it could help us. The solution? Throw everything you own out or give it away. That not being a feasible option, that book is now in the bin for the used bookstore.

But it's not just our apartment that needs help. We have two storage units, one larger than the other. The second larger one is not filled to capacity, and was rented when my dad sent some of my mother's things and my grandfather's furniture for me to keep for our future home. One of our goals is to wittle down the first storage unit and only have one. But in order to do that, we also need to find a home for the boxes of research we gathered for our Master thesis papers.

Then, for Christmas, Rob saved up and got me a ScanSnap S300. This nifty little device is a color image scanner that can take double-sided documents and turn them into PDF files. It accepts the paperwork like a fax machine would, so the process is very quick. We've already been able to throw out three bags of old paperwork (shredded, of course) that was laying around and had no home. Now we have a digital version, easy to back up as well.

We feel a step closer to managing the clutter. Now, to get started on those storage units...

4 comments:

BeadedTail said...

That ScanSnap sounds like a great solution to clutter issues! I once had a realtor tell me that she "pretended" like she was moving every 3-5 years so she got rid of everything she didn't want to "move" and her house remained decluttered. At the time I thought she was nuts but now I find I'm doing the same thing and it really does work!

Frau Zinnie said...

That sounds like a great idea! It's amazing what we can accumulate so easily!!

Dogonwear said...

what greats idea's you have!!!!

Mishkat said...

This is such a constant problem for me. I used to actually move every 3-5 years and that really helped, but that doesn't happen any more.

I kept all my masters thesis work for years too - finally I realized that I had (1)published everything that was going to be published and (2)I wasn't going to use it again (no matter how much work it was!). Plus since I work at a university, I am constantly having to dispose of *other* people's thesis research that they abandon here when they leave - so I've learned!