Tidy Tips? How are your drawers or shelves or anything?

My problem is untidy activities. Far too many books and insufficient shelves (I did have a cleaning lady once who kindly rearranged all my books in height order - it took me months to recover from the shock and restore some sort of order, albeit untidy). Too many newspapers with cuttings thst might be useful or of interest. Then I do patchwork and that leaves a lot of mess, we both cook and that takes all the tidy up time, then I have all the community papers and at the moment about thirty clipboards from our traffic calming petition. And I have all my work papers and books. And all the endless papers for my voluntary work. MiceElf and HymnsElf do woodwork and that's messy (I've never managed to get inside the (his) shed. And then there's all the grandchildren's toys and paints and drawing stuff and marbles and their books too.

I'm a lost cause I think.

MiceElf untidy activities is my problem too!
Family history generates papers....and I think they reproduce when I'm not looking! To the point where every time I start sorting them I get so far and give up.........

An untidy house is evidence of a busy life. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

Ooh now I am overwhelmed! Too busy wondering about what new ideas to bring in I haven't time to tidy. Like the idea of jewellery on the back of the wardrobe door, but a bathmat to stop it rattling!!. Coolgran65 I now imagine you, living a secret life, creeping in in the early hours as DH sleeps, hanging up your jewellery and sneaking into bed.
Wondering do I need to buy more flannels? How do I colour code the patterned things in my wardrobe? Shall I order my books by size, or alphabetically? Meantime things pile up around me as usual.
Can we start a "buddy" system? All us untidy slobs get an organised gran to help us out!!

I was going to roll all my towels and replace them nicely in the airing cupboard this morning. However, dealt with a glut of courgettes/marrows instead and now I'm going out for lunch.
Must remember not to stub my toe on the crate containing the family history files, not to trip over DH's shoes and to tidy up the weekend newspapers before I go.

Please may I have a tidy buddy? She could come and re-organise me while I am walking along the seafront in the sunshine.

Lol........
It's because I'm organized that I am able to have lots of fun time.
This lovely sunny morning was a leisurely walk in the park with my friend and my 3 year old grandson on his bike, back to mine for a forage in the fridge for lunch, tripping over the Lego, Fisher price garage plus a zillion accessories, tractors and dumpers. Just me and grandson out to feed the ducks this afternoon and kick ball.

trainer you made me laugh. I had to do something about the rattling, every time the wardrobe door was opened the long/heavier necklaces (quite a few) rattled and clunked against the wood and a bathmat was all I had. But I did cut it down a bit. The idea works but definitely is not pretty.

Following on from trisher's buddy system idea - there's a Skills Swap section on the Local areas - we could actually use this to match up the tidiers with the messies!

Not my day - I now discover I am somewhere between a slob and a slut , I think I need a miracle not a tidy buddy . But folding everything is so boring compared to searching for ancestors who may have committed a foul deed , all I have found is one drunk and disorderly

I always say my tidiness obsession is because ultimately I am quite lazy and like to have things all nice and tidy so I don't have to keep tidying them up. I can wisk round with the hoover and duster without having to move ornaments and general stuff- my sister says the same but she is even worse- she has frightened furniture.

Frightened furniture?? Is that like "This door is alarmed"?

Distressed? She has every excuse to leave it alone for several months to calm down - never mind the dust!

suebailey1 exactly.
You have explained it perfectly.
Getting organized actually is ideal for a lazy person.
There becomes less to do and what needs done takes less effort.
Thank you for this, it encapsulates exactly my own reasoning.

I'm with sueBailey1 and Coolgran65. Unfortunately I married someone who just puts things down and then wonders why he cannot find anything when he looks in the place it is meant to be. If he cannot find it, it is my fault because I must have moved it!

Flickety, I've got one of those too. But he also "tidies things into a sensible order" (his words), and then forgets what he's moved/where he's tidied it to. And that's always my fault, I must have changed the storage round and not told him... The garage cum workshop is his territory - terrifying place!

We have a beautiful big shed at the bottom of our garden. It is partly brick built, with a tiled floor and fully insulated. I even bought DH a magnificent calor gas stove to heat it when he is there! When he is where? Everything gets done on the dining room table, in the study or in the kitchen. He doesn't like being on his own and cut off from the house if he is in the shed. Her doesn't want me doing that either [Hmm].

Oh my goodness! Maybe the disorganised grans haven't got round to posting yet . . . .

I have regular 'purges', for a time everything is tidy then come one morning I can't decide what to wear so I try on various items, choose something, go outside and decide I need something warmer/cooler, get changed then there's no time to put away the discarded clothes and of course, later in the morning the window cleaner comes . . . .

Ah.... the man shed/garage.
Our garage has the answer for everyone. Any family member who needs a tool, a screw. blah blah comes to us.
There is a large plastic garden table to one side, with tv (flat screen of course), halogen heater, two chairs plus folding chairs for 'visitors'. A great place for watching the football and having a wee smoke. He can be working away repairing something while footie is on tv, ash trays abundant... golf gear in the corner, lawn bowls gear in another corner, clothes airer in the middle of it all.
It is very organised, not a spare inch on a wall, in a cupboard, on the floor.

But no room for the cars.

I haven't been on for a few days and Im horrified that you all are so organised and have so many clothes. I have an airing cupboard with spare towels all dumped out of the way. My clothes consist of a few t shirts, couple of pairs jeans and a few black 'work 'trousers and a few jumpers. One of you said all her jumpers were placed in order of colour. Does anyone have more than one jumper in each colour. I was going for a meal today in a pub with family and I had nothing clean, I don't have things for 'best' or 'going out', I just wear whatever's clean. Im just not interested in clothes. I ended up wearing the damp t shirt out of the wash and a pair of work trousers.
I admit to putting jumpers in an old suitcase in the summer and my one dress in it for the winter but apart from that I just have no interest in clothes, my DD is the same, she was interested to see her partner has a sewing box as he is a very smart dresser and he sews his buttons on when he irons. Like me she doesn't iron unless its for work or likely to be seen. My shoes lie under dressing table or on bottom of wardrobe until needed but as I wear mainly Docs in winter they stay in the living room to keep warm. Am I a slob

Yes, ethel. Welcome to the club!

Thanks, ethel, for making me feel quite organised!

Yes ethel, but don't wear damp t-shirts!!

I decided today was the day to start being organised, so I took all the towels out of the airing cupboard and started rolling them and putting them back. (they had been folded in piles.)

The first three were OK, then the fourth on top fell off. I put a folded row next to them to keep them steady and started rolling the third row, then removed the folded ones so that I could start putting rolled ones in.
They all fell over, so I stuffed towels back into the airing cupboard any old how and shut the door.

Is it me?

When I said 'yes ethel' I meant join the club.

Ok Rose, I know you didn't mean I was a slob lol.
Just never been interested in clothes unless it is an item that is really eccentric like when I wore goth things with my daughter a few years ago. I still do like black. I like long trailing skirts and long jumpers with leggings but I still just grab whats in the front of the wardrobe. Would'nt even have one of those just I inherited a lovely antique one

I always thought I would' grow into' this house-keeping lark but as I'm now 63 I have to accept it is beyond me!!!
Living alone with 2 dogs and a horse, my car is a travelling kennel filled with hay and other unidentifiable bits, my saddle lives on the bannister and there is always a trail of mud and shavings where ever I go. Clean is manageable but tidy and organised I can only dream about.
Think this puts me in the slob group.

Only just, jenn. Sometimes I don't even manage 'clean'...