Originally Posted by mtalk

This is a constant struggle for me.

I have a passion (like the rest of you) for getting awesome deals, free things, etc.
I love having a supply of things on hand - it's awesome having plenty in the closet!!

But... I have the hardest time organizing it all, and keeping it from making my house feel so full.

It's a struggle between loving a stockpile vs. overwhelmed by the quantity of stuff in my house...

Does anyone else have difficulty finding the perfect balance in this???

Originally Posted by frugalmum

ITA! I was just talking about this with DH and a friend over dinner last night.

I agree with what you said about hoarding and consuming one's time (and ink and gas!). It doesn't make any sense to take advantage of a deal or stock up if in the end you have to give away/sell to family, freinds, have gargage sales or sell on ebay, etc.

You are so right. There are always sales and deals.

The point here is to save YOUR immediate family money - maybe get lucky and get a few bucks in overage. I like sharing/helping others with the deals, too, but I just give away the coupons and tell them where the deals are. It's up to them to take the time to go get them - or not.

Originally Posted by KeizerMom

I wish we didn't live on opposite sides of the country. I'm more than a tad OCD and/or AR {an*l retentive}. My last job rather fell into my lap from being an online volunteer for a non-profit to becoming the Administrative Assistant to the owner. By the time my oldest was 4 she'd simply picked up on, I promise I didn't make her do it, alphabetizing all her Disney movies on her shelf, she matched the pictures on the cases to the movies she knew, matched the titles to the titles on the tapes, and could find Pocahontas or The Little Mermaid with no problem.

I also love doing income taxes for people, free of charge, I just like doing them.

If you were closer I could come over, we could look at all your available space, possibly build more/different shelving, use bins/tubs/baskets for organizing, devise a system of what goes together.

This is bad, I'm getting excited about something I won't even do. Then again I totally revamped all the cupboards above my washer/dryer last week to accomodate all the cleaning supplies, ziploc bags, laundry soap, paper towels, etc that I got. Today I cleared out a small cupboard I'd had kids coloring books in as those were moved weeks ago to the bottom of the new desk I got them {built in shelves, yay me!} Then I set about completely reorganizing my 'pantry' which is more like what most people might call an entry way closet, only I have an entry way closet, and this closet is next to the fridge in my kitchen.....I'd take over the entry way closet too if I hadn't already put all my tools, nails, screws, vacuum, circular saw, etc in there. I have a tall cupboard I bought that fits next to my fridge on the other side and they were literally bursting at the seams and more than one of the shelves suspiciously looked like they might just be sagging in the middle. It was time to move all the jars/cans to the bottom shelves and figure out a better system.

I can give you this much advice, but it's just common sense that you surely already do:

Group like items. Don't worry about name brands, put shampoo with shampoo and that should go with/near conditioner, which should be near hair dye, mousse, gel, hair spray, etc. Soap with body wash, bubble bath, shower gel. Shaving cream with razors....

I have little plastic baskets on my shelves for things like spice mixes, jello boxes, tea bags, single serving sizes, etc, that way they stay organized, not sliding all over the place. I use big ziploc bags to put similar tea bags together, soy sauce pckts, hot sauce packets, etc. I alway check my random trial/sample sizes before I go on vacation. Grabbing a few packets of sugar or splenda and having them is great if you stay with someone who only uses a product you don't use like Sweet 'n' Low.

If you're going to use the big plastic tubs, try to find the clear ones, sometimes they cost a bit more, but it's worth it so you don't have to go through stacks of tubs, I find even when I label them, either the labels fall off, wear off, or I wasn't quite descriptive enough somehow and I'm intending to ONLY buy clear ones from now on.

In that vein, I'm going to put an empty tub in the back of my van for the days I make big trips so all the frozen/refrigerated food can be in there while I visit the second store. I'll buy ice and put the bag on top then close the lid. If the ice doesn't melt, yay, ice to make smoothies! If the ice does melt, yay, I spent $1 and saved the food from being ruined, as clearly it was warm enough or I took too long and it warranted the ice.

Originally Posted by raviendha

Where do you live? I am so unorganized and it is killing me. No matter how much I try I can not get my house organized - I don't even know where to begin! I don't have the $$$ to hire a professional organizer (and DH would fight me on it anyway) but if anyone in the North Dallas area is good at this and wants to barter let me know!