Everybody has that one drawer, that one basket, that one cupboard that holds all the crap.
The notes, the mail, the spare coins, the batteries you can’t throw in the bin, the shit you hide from the kids, coupons, keys, lipgloss, recipes on scraps of paper, shopping lists, pens, bobby pins…. everything. Everything that doesn’t really have a place yet or ever.
Mine is the top of the microwave.
It’s just out of sight enough so that I don’t clog up the rest of the house’s surfaces with detritus, and just handy enough to hold pretty much everything.
I used to actually love having a basket or drawer for crap, because you know if you ever lost anything, it would be in the crap drawer. It was a place for orphaned things to go. When my sister and I first lived together when I was 20 and she was 16, we had this thing where if something was in the house and we didn’t know where it belonged, we’d Blu-Tak it to the wall. We had ridiculous things stuck up there – notes, pens, a toy motorbike, business cards, phone numbers, international coins, even a hubcap at one point. It was unusual, but it was also a pretty rad talking point. And considering the house was an eyesore to start with (pink walls, brown carpet, red rug, and lime-green kitchen) it just suited the insane eclectic vibe. Plus we never lost the hot guys’ numbers.
But in my quest for pretty minimalism, I’ve tried to wrestle the stupid microwave melting pot under control. Some weeks I nail it, and other weeks (like this one) it’s covered in letters, people’s addresses, hand cream, bubbles, an old box, receipts and who knows what else. It’s my tidiness achilles heel and I can’t always stop people from dipping me into the River Styx by it.
I’ve found these tips to be super useful:
- deal with everything as it comes into the house. Don’t put letters somewhere and think you’ll read them or file them later. Do it now, it will take less than a minute.
- Really do have a place for everything. Put receipts in a certain spot if you need to keep them, keep pens in a cup somewhere else, scan your recipes into Evernote or email them to yourself, etc.
- Make your trap pretty. Why not have an eye-pleasing receptacle for detritus that doesn’t really have a place? we have a basket by the front door for that. You’d be surprised what we’ll find in there! I always get my woven baskets and wooden bowls from the op shop and I’ve got my eye out for just the right microwave topper.
- Purge regularly. I don’t have many cleaning rules, but I do at least go through the trap every week and toss the crap I just can’t deal with. It gets donated, recycled, rehomed or just plain binned.
- Be realistic. Are you really going to use that coupon? Because I’ve a track record of using 0% of any coupon I’ve ever been in contact with, no matter how interesting it is or how useful it might be “someday”. These days I just know I’m not going to use it. I hate shopping! I’m far more hardass with what I actually keep now.
- Stop and think. Normally I realise there really is a place this thing belongs, and I’m just being lazy chucking it on the microwave to deal with later. But that’s actually double-handling and very silly. So when I remember, I stop and think about what I’ve got in my hand before I do the chuck.
- Bring in less to start with. Only buy what you need, say no to the free pen, say no to the receipt if you don’t need it further down the track, minimise your lipgloss collection (yeah that’s hard), put the phone number straight in your phone, toss the junk mail in the recycling bin before you even get to the clutter trap area.
Now if we could just work on my car! Jeeeeeez.
Do you have a clutter trap? Where is it? How do you manage it?
sammie@theannoyedthyroid.com says
October 9, 2015 at 6:53 amI’ve got Virgo rising so I’m a stickler for putting things away but I’ve got so many places, I can’t always remember where I’ve put them. My husband on the other hand uses the massive drawers under the coffee table and it is a vast abyss of clutter. It makes me twitchy thinking about it, let alone looking into it. Great tips – I think I need to work on bringing less home to begin with, that would be a great place to start!
Veggie Mama says
October 9, 2015 at 2:29 pmit’s really the only thing that’s ever worked for me 100% of the time!
Danica Burrows says
October 9, 2015 at 11:49 ami like to let shit accumulate until it drives me INSANE then i go on a one-woman crusade against clutter and PURGE PURGE PURGE. How i love to purge…..
Veggie Mama says
October 9, 2015 at 2:29 pmhahahahaha i”m too lazy for that
Vicki @ BoiledEggsandSoldiers says
October 9, 2015 at 11:50 amI need the husband to bring less home with him as he is one giant clutter trap! In our old house I had drawers built into the kitchen island specifically for crap, everyone had their own drawer, as we have only just moved the whole new house could be described as a trap at the moment, I’m just closing my eyes to it! Great tips that I will be implementing
Veggie Mama says
October 9, 2015 at 2:29 pmoh my goodness, everyone has their own drawer! That’s genius. I remember seeing a house once with 5 kids and everyone had a shelf in this one big cupboard. So good.
PS congrats to greg for last weekend! That was a tough one to watch
JohannaGGG says
October 9, 2015 at 1:49 pmmy house is a clutter trap – I am not great but my husband has no idea there even are rules – I have got better – slightly – but don’t have many places for stuff which makes it harder (yes I know it would work better with less stuff) but I am much better with recipe clippings because I use Delicious and find most clippings are now online and I can bookmark online rather than keep a pile (though I am better at knowing I wont use many and just chucking them after some time)
Veggie Mama says
October 9, 2015 at 2:28 pmit’s so funny but after so long I’ve started going back to magazines and cookbooks again! I think it’s ok to have literary clutter, haha. I don’t like having to deal with the husband’s epic amount of letters that come in that he never reads but look important so I can’t throw out…
The Vegetarian Mermaid says
October 9, 2015 at 4:07 pmI did some major cleaning today and I completely agree with you!
So much stuff I threw away and so much other stuff I organized. Haha
Vegetarian Courtesy ♥ Cheese with Papas
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:49 amI love a purge!
Karin @ Calm to Conniption says
October 9, 2015 at 10:10 pmI have a clutter trap, I just am not sure where it is! It is a black hole where all our FitBits and hair elastics go to die. They have got to be somewhere!!
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:49 amDo you love your fitbit? I kind of want one!
Karin @ Calm to Conniption says
October 13, 2015 at 8:12 amI did… until I lost it. It didn’t work so well pushing the pram though so that was frustrating.
Veggie Mama says
October 13, 2015 at 10:28 amoh yeah I hear you’ve gotta do the whole arm swing!
Shari from GoodFoodWeek says
October 10, 2015 at 3:00 pmI seriously need to purge more and make a rule that if my husband doesn’t claim papers/things brought into the house and left on the bench within a week then I get to turf them!
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:48 amHa I often walk up to him and say “ok what can I throw out?” and he does the job on the spot
Maxabella says
October 10, 2015 at 7:06 pmI’m a third drawer down girl. The stuff I find in that drawer!! Mind you, I am so in love with your blu-tac idea that I just might reconfigure the clutter trap situation. x
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:48 amIt was quite the wall. We look back on it fondly.
Inger says
October 11, 2015 at 1:21 amWe used to have a very cluttered house – until I realised one day when planning which next storage unit to get from IKEA, that instead of spending money on hiding away things I don’t really need (cause let’s be hones – how much of our stuff do we actually, truly need?) we could just clean out the clutter instead. We’ve been renovating so I’ve been taking every opportunity to throw away excess furniture, (bad) books, clothes. I can usually tell something isn’t right for the house if I keep moving it around and never being happy with where it’s placed. Ruthless with paper – everything except bills go straight in the paper recycling – the bills also get shredded and tossed after a certain period. Toys – have culled so many toys – bag after bag have gone to the op-shop, and the kids haven’t even noticed. And the funny thing is, we didn’t really have a lot to begin with, but I have realised life is just a little bit easier with less stuff.
Inger says
October 11, 2015 at 1:24 amBut yes, I do have a clutter trap. It’s a drawer where free pens and single hairclips usually end up staying for much longer than I intended when I first put them there…
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:48 amIsn’t it funny how much you can lose even when you don’t think you have much? Especially when tastes change.
Hugzilla says
October 11, 2015 at 7:19 pmShit yeah to ALL of this. It’s exactly what I do to stay on top of clutter, and they are all super-effective. It’s just become habitual now, so I don’t really need to even think about it.
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:47 amSometimes I need to schedule a reminder, but I’m pretty bloody ruthless!
The Wholefood Mama says
October 11, 2015 at 11:46 pmWe have just arrived home after and two month road trip and I am ready for a MAJOR declutter. Traveling and living out of a bag is strong evidence that we need far less clothes, books, shoes etc; than we store in our homes. I am so looking forward to being ruthless and culling the excess, then finding a place for everything and then ‘training’ my children – not in a neurotic way of course – to keep remaining stuff in its places. Wish me luck!
Veggie Mama says
October 12, 2015 at 11:47 amOh how was it? I though it was a wonderful idea and have often wondered how you got on. I bet you realised how much you could live without 🙂