Shebolt, you hit the nail on the head about people buying more home than they need. I think one of the most eye-opening statistics I've found is the cost between having that "extra" guest bedroom vs. renting your guests a room at a local 4 star hotel. Hotel was waaaay cheaper (mortgage costs, upkeep, etc.).
On a related note, have you considered renting out the basement?
smallLife, there's no access except through my office. At this point, I don't even consider the space fit for human habitation, anyway. We need to clear it out, do a renovation of the floors, ceilings, and walls, and install a better dehumidifer. Perhaps if we needed the money, we could rent it. I'd much rather set it up as an efficient storage space for seasonal decorations and other rarely used items (like our snowboards and camping gear). If we could get it dry enough, I could set it up as my winter cycling training center. Right now I set up my bicycle in front of my computer when conditions won't allow me to ride outside.
This isn't a priority, since we still have a bathroom we need to rescue from the 1970s and some other renovations we need to do to our main living space. I will never again buy a house that needs as much updating as ours needed.
What will be our 3rd bedroom is currently a storage room, not really a junk room since we do use everything in there regularly (except DH's air soft guns). In our defense I think it turned into a storage room because it needs a 8'x8' section sheet-rocked and a window trimmed out. So, it wasn't like we could actually use it for a bedroom. In the mean time everything I couldn't fit into my decorating scheme in the main house (printer/books/treadmill/etc) got stashed in there. We are in and out of the room several times a day, but stuff is slowly making its way out into the rest of the house as I find ways to incorporate it into my decorating. I am hoping by spring the room will be finished and then it will no longer be a catch-all room.
I do think at some point, even stuff you use is clutter if you don't have room for it. We have a giant house (1600sf, full attic) and I'm trying to get rid of stuff so we can downsize in the future - if getting rid of the stuff we don't use isn't enough, it will be time to look at some of the stuff we use and see if we could get by without it. Luckily a lot of the biggest stuff is house-specific - we have a giant dining table for our giant dining room, we have a lot of tools acquired to do house upkeep, etc.
I have (had) one junk drawer. I am hoping when we move into a house again to not have a junk drawer at all. My husband disagrees with that though. I had cleaned out the closets pretty well.
My Mom has four junk rooms, two of them lined floor to ceiling with shelves full of stuff and two of them with stuff piled up so there are only trails. Visiting her is a very strong motivator.
walking past our "junk room" everyday should be a motivator for me...( tongue-in-cheek, smug grin) but rationalisations coupled with the mastery of procrastination kept that room in various stages of disarray for 5 years. Coming to this forum and owning up seems to be having an effect.
I believe (based on practice) that each room needs a place ( be it a basket, box, drawer) where we can put the smaller things that do not have a specific own place, yet are needed in that room. If you want to call it a "junk drawer", even though the stuff is not junk, well go ahead; i call it the "assorted things" drawer.
@Rosa -- your comment about things being "house-specific" is where I am at the moment: a lot of our things (and the location of our current home) are specific to a particular time in our lives, that spent getting a child through to adulthood. Now that time is over and we're ready to let someone else who is in that stage of their life have this place.
The apartment complex we want offers a guest suite on the 20th floor, so we only need two bedrooms, the second to be used as a home office. I can count the number of times we've had people (other than DS's friends) spend the night on both hands and have fingers left, so a guest room would be a unnecessary space for us. YMMV.
Yeah, Lucy, I think a lot of stuff is time/place specific, which makes it hard to imagine ever getting rid of them, but easy to actually do when things change.
I had this beautiful red flowered curtain for one specific apartment I lived in that had a big south-facing window and no other curtained windows. I carried it around for about six more years after I moved away from there, never had a place where it fit. After we bought this place (intending to stay for decades, at least) and there were no rooms that needed just one big curtain in a bright color. So I got rid of it. But before that, each place was temporary and there was a chance the next place would be the one...I should have just left it for the next tenant in the apartment where it fit.
Rosa,--"time and space specific". Well put!
I have found that to be true for every change in my circumstances. I think that is why organizing (and decluttering) is a process and not a fixed goal that will allow us to begin to live our "real" lives once we've "gotten organized".
I'm a big believer in systems, and those need to be tweaked or re-created at every new job/home/work schedule/life stage change. It's important to recognize that having fewer things to contend with helps transition (I mean this in a purely practical/logistical sense, leaving behind the emotional/mental aspect for now)
When one doesn't choose her system, her system chooses her. If one doesn't think about for a second where the mail should be processed in the new flat, then the mail will find a home--dumped somewhere in random piles.
When one doesn't have a system for laundry, then wet stuff ends up moldering in the washer and somebody runs out of socks. The problem with systems is that they must be adapted for each home.
I was taught organization by example only, and it wasn't until I'd grown up and left that I realized how beautifully our home ran because my mom had set systems and rhythms in place, adjusting as necessary, then letting them run themselves. She also had 17 children (that's right folks)
shebolt: We have a similar situation. We bought a house (not too big for us [3100sf], but there is some wasted space) that was a good deal because it was so ugly!! We've updated every bathroom except the basement one (our walkout basement needs to be fully remodeled, but for now it's the kids' craft area, wii area, tv room, and my dh's office is in the spare room adjacent to the open area. We put in a new kitchen, new floors on the main floor, new front windows and doors, and we STILL have more to do (back windows, update/upgrade deck, landscaping, etc.). We thought about down-sizing to a 3BR townhouse with loft (I have 3 kids of varying ages), but since the market has fallen, we can't get our money out of the house, so we're staying put for at least another 4-5 yrs.
Our next move (with luck) will be to our dream home, which I'm designing with my dh, who's an architect. I want a great room (b/c nobody uses a formal living room or dining room anymore) with a fireplace in the middle open on both sides, a galley kitchen, and a main floor bed/bath. No wasted space!
@ djk ... 17 kids?! Yikes. and Ouch.
Our 1500sf apartment has more space than we use, and we have packed it all full of stuff. Thus my multi-year decluttering journey. Still working on DH, I think we may have to start looking at retirement properties before he gets his head around the concept of "don't need this any more." :-) Our home office IS a junk room.
I have 710sf, and to be honest, I feel like it's a little too much (ie, some empty space!)
Before I moved in, I thought about where everything would go, based on use, need, like with like. Mostly it works. I think I use my baking supplies more than 'dinner making' supplies, so maybe some reworking of shelves.
As for 'junk' unprocessed paper (unfiled, un acted upon, receipts etc) wait in the stationary/paper shelf (which has the dictionary, atlas, tax envelope etc). Periodically (last night) I sort it all out, file, prune, act upon.
'Junk' stationary/kitchen stuff are nearby each other. Stationary + bracelets & necklaces and extra sunglasses live in a Ikea Fira (http://www.ikeahackers.net/2007/08/more-fira-mini-chest-hacks.html) Everything has a place. Then there's a little saucer in the top cultery drawer for elastic bands and cable ties as they are more 'kitchen' than 'stationary' (though they are only 1-2 metres apart!
Then I store two memory boxes, two suitcases (one holding out of season clothes) in a niche. And some carpet offcuts, for the niche to get redone 'one day'. I like that there's almost no 'junk' place... Helps to be reminded by atad etc to get onto getting things OUT!
My place is too small for a junk room. I have a junk box which is also my donation box. But I do think having a SMALL space denoted as "Junk" works for me. If I don't know where a thing goes, or don't have time to put it in the right place, or if it's in a difficult place to put it and I don't have the oomph, putting it in the Junk Box is a good temporary place. And if it's still in the Junk Box at the end of the month - it goes out to donate/wastebins so there's incentive to find a place as well.
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