Clutter Fix

My weekend project is to organize the household. I've reached the maximum capacity to deal with the inordinate amount of clutter in our abode. I feel like the apartment walls are shrinking around me, and I've got a total of about 5 square feet of space to maneuver around. We, no doubt, have too much stuff for the space we live in, but I'm also convinced that we're not making the best use of our space either. So, I was going to get up early and go to Target on a mission to find the perfect-sized plastic containers, which will, no doubt, be the key to success in eliminating the clutter. That's right: store it.

I made a list of things which need to be contained:

• spices - gawwwwd, how many spices can two people use? Umm...why do we have three containers of paprika? I can't even remember the last time either of us used paprika? And did you know that we've got enough red pepper flakes to sprinkle atop 10 years worth of pizza? I wonder what you can learn about a person by the kinds of spices in their cabinet?
  
• items under kitchen/bathroom sink - is it even possible to keep a cabinet organized that has a curvy pipe inside? All my life the worst possible place to find anything is under my sink. I KNOW it's in in there, but it will require some work: usually taking everything out of the cabinet, stopping to consider the possibility that maybe it isn't in there just before shouting with delight that it was found, and then proceeding to put everything else back into the cabinet.
• the IW's makeup/beauty products - it's not that there are no containers to start with, it's just that there are a variety of things (makeup bag, moisterizer, foundation, combs/brush, hair dryer, curling iron, mousse, hairspray, perfume, body spray, etc.) strewn about on the night stand, at least one of which typically gets knocked over on a daily basis.
• medicine/vitamins - I went on a vitamin kick at the end of 2004 when i got very sick and a friend of mine had loaned me a vitamin "bible" of sorts. I stocked us up on a variety of individual vitamins, such as C, B, E, acidophilus, folic acid, and in some cases got 2 bottles (buy 1 get 1 free). Add that to a variety of pain relievers, cold medicines, NyQuil, fiber tablets, one-a-day vitamins, and any leftover prescriptions, the bottles were losing their battle with gravity from atop the ridiculously small shelf on which they sit.
• laundry - till the day I die I will despise that chore that is laundry. It's not that I mind doing it, it's just never done. Doing it is, like, a 3-step process that usually gets bottlenecked after step 2. I wanted a laundry sorter, though. A home base for the dirties. A divider to separate colors, whites, darks. An improved method to the madness.
• bills - I don't know about you, but bills tend to lie around a good week after they arrive before they are seen again. Buried underneath a newspaper, or book, or some other foreign object that happened to land on it, amongst the other things left lying on the kitchen table. We needed a place to organize what's due, and a place to put it after it's paid. I had a system going, but I need to clean out the drawers of last years crap, so until then, we need to adapt to something else.
  
• Office supplies - two words: Distaster Zone.

I had a mission. I would arise early to get the shopping done so I could spend the afternoon getting our things in order.

But then I started reading Dad Gone Mad before I went to bed. Bad. Idea. This dude had me rolling for almost three hours! I'm probably the last blogger on the planet to have found this site, but I gotta give credit. His writing rocks!

Needless to say, I didn't arise early by any stretch. I think I made it to Target around 3 pm. I did find the storage bins I wanted, the laundry sorter, a spice rack , ...and then some. I thought I'd gone a little overboard, and quite frankly, was slightly concerned about admitting how much I spent on my "organization quest". But? It appears that I got exactly what I needed, although I'm not sure if the storage cart I bought is going to fit where I had planned to use it.

Tomorrow shall be the day for cleaning, now that I can see several more surfaces than before, and continued reorganization. I'm hardly where I wanted to be by the end of the day, but I'm close to halfway at least.