The kitchen table was starting to get away from me again.
Taking on a life of its own. There were stealthy rustling noises coming from under a pile of papers, and the thought that I was harboring wildlife that was evolving into something ugly and frightening crossed my mind more than once.
So after sleeping until noon again, I started cleaning it on Sunday.
It's scary to admit that there are uncashed checks in the mess, receipts for groceries bought two months ago, grocery lists for those same groceries, gum wrappers and toothpicks and cell phone chargers and medications and reading glasses and advertising circulars and credit card offers and vitamins and supply catalogs from work...
Well yeah.
And every time I get it cleaned off, it looks so nice and is so nice to come home to that I promise myself I am NOT going to let it get that way again.
But then I do.
I know that if I got an extra large shredder, one of those that will shred CDs and slice bacon... and parked it at my end of the table underneath, that would help.
It pisses me off when a credit card company sends me an offer to shred and I have to open the envelope and take the fake credit card out and pull off the adhesive off and fuck with it for five minutes just to shred it.
If I didn't even have to open the envelope and could just shred it as it comes in the door, I think I'd have fewer things piled up.
I've gone to online billing/payment for most things. That helps cut down on the amount of crap that comes in the mail, too.
But it still piles up. And I lose stuff underneath it all, end up having to shuffle through stuff, mixing it up even worse.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then count yourself lucky. Smartass. However, those of you who are even a tiny bit like me... what's your best suggestion?
I think we have the exact same table. Does your's also have pens and pencils and Chinese restaurant menus?
ReplyDeleteThe "Flylady" calls it a "hotspot" -- those places that collect your crap, from bills to car keys. The place you pile things as you walk through the door in or out. Where you put stuff "to deal with later." I don't have a kitchen table, or it would probably become that monster. For me, it's the desk in the livingroom.
ReplyDeleteI've tried keeping tabs on it, but honestly, screw the Flylady. I need somewhere to put the "to deal with later" stuff. I just need to deal with it more often, I think.
My advice: make an appointment, a weekly activity, of dealing with the "to deal with later" stuff. That may help both of us :)
I have a "thing" for clutter. I can not handle it. I also have an addiction to table linen's.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 drawers in my house that are full of junk.. I lay awake at night stressing over those drawers! I have set aside time Saturday to organize them.
One suggestion is to get rid of your table.. We got rid of ours today. Of course in 2 days I will have a new one...
um...Ami...many a flat surface in my house ends up the same,my bedside table, the pool table, the table where the phone is, the corner table between the lounges....I TRY to keep the dining table clear , one spot without the papers lol
ReplyDeleteuncashed checks? no way...lol
Our kitchen counter is our spot. Terrible. Every few weeks I clean it off and it looks nice for a while. My biggest issue is that there's stuff I want my husband to deal with, but he won't. Then it just sits there. Argh.
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion ? Throw your table away. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you sistah. Sometimes I just move my "stack" from the table to the counter to the bar and back again. Just because I don't want to deal with EACH piece of mail.
I also have the catalog problem. I spent 90 minutes the other day on the website "Catalog Choice" trying to cancel all the catalogs that come to me.
When you finish dealing with yours, would you come visit me ? I have several for you to dig through.
BTW, can't tell you how much I had to laugh at your "visitor" from the world of boycotting females. Then, after I stopped laughing at this guy, I had to feel sorry for him. How sad that he is so angry. Makes you wonder what's happened to him to make him this way. What a loser.
I am so with you on the credit card ads. They are hard to rip in half. I am thinking about moving a shredder out to the mailbox...
ReplyDeleteMy hot spot is the top of my dresser. I recently cleaned it up and dug out some of the crystal I inherited from my grandma (plus a bowl I got as a wedding gift) to hold my odds and ends. My dresser now looks so pretty that I WANT to keep it tidy.
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen table is also a hot spot, but I ruthlessly toss things as they come in. Once today's newspaper is brought in, yesterday's goes in the recycle bin. I don't care if you haven't read it yet. You aren't going to. I collect the mail in a basket that lives in the front door closet so it never sees the kitchen table.
If you can help me out with the top of my kitchen storage cupboard, which is an open junk drawer, I'm all ears.
UGH!! I hate clutter; I really do and am prone to go head into it and just throw throw and throw things away to just get rid of it...I don't have a solution except I heard once that you should only touch a piece of mail one time wither to pitch it, pay it, or file it away...
ReplyDeletesounds like good advice tome, but gosh, that's awfully impulsive, wouldn't you say?
Clutter is my enemy. Yet I live with it. In my candominium on wheels. 400 square feet of clutter. I try to keep it under control, but it grows like a mold. I, too, pay most of my bills on line, but we still have CLUTTER!
ReplyDeleteI have a laundry hamper in the kitchen (the tall kind with the fabric sides... I got it at walmart for like $15) and set my shredder right on top. When stuff comes in, I shred it right away, and then close the lid so I don't have to look at it. The hamper also serves as the paper recycling for the house... all school papers checked over goes in daily, cereal boxes, newspapers, etc. Then once a week I bring it to the recycling by work. easy peasy. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have the same table, I can keep it "nice and clean" for about 3 days, then it starts to build up again!! Hate it!!
ReplyDeleteAfter moving my clutter heaps from one spot to another all over the house, trying to get them out of sight, I finally went to Walmart and bought 3 of those Rubbermaid-type square tubs that come in see-thru pretty colors. (I bought hot pink, bright blue, and light green.)
ReplyDeleteThe pink one is mine, blue is the boyfriend's, and green is the son's. Whenever we get mail or bring home a newly aquired piece of junk, I throw it in the appropriate bin. Then each person has the responsibility of getting to it and sorting out their tubs whenever they get a chance.
I'm pretty responsible with mine, but 'whenever they get a chance' for my bf and son tends to be NEVER. But at least all of that junk is no longer on my counter/island/bedroom floor/end table/nightstand!