Making a Bigger Mess Out of the Current Mess

Ever notice how when you set out to clean, you only end up making things worse?
That seems to be the case here - so I figure it must be a universal phenomenon.

As I've begun nibbling away at Mount DunnoWhatToDoWithIt, the clutter has only spread. 
Instead of it being one tall heap, it's slowly just melted into little pockets of things I don't know what to do with.

However, there is a solution!

Oddly, I learned this from writing - but, what I've learned is that, if you just keep plugging away, eventually
a) You know what to do with stuff, and
b) It gets done.

It might not look very pretty yet amongst the rubble of the grenade that went off, but things actually are falling into place.

I'm slowly working through the things I think I should post on E-Bay.

The pile of clothes that is - everything else is in a state of purgatory

I'm slowly working through the things known as: paperwork:

And there's a lot of it!

I think of all the things I have the hardest time getting sorted is all the papers.  And it's not that I don't have filing, it's just that I have a hard time figuring out what needs to be filed, what I need to save, and what can just move out with the trash.











Also, since I'm a writer, I probably have more papers than most - we hold papers quite dear - any little scrap or scribble is potential gold, ya know? :)
 

The Writing Box

I've figured out a pretty good way to get this stuff organized so I can begin filing.  Rather than rush out and start smacking labels on file folders, I started putting things inside a notebook, with a page from the notebook marked for what I will ideally label the folder for it.  This way, I can see what things definitely need to be filed and what things maybe I can consider tossing out if there's just a single paper or something.  Here's what this thing looks like:

And for things that I'm hanging onto, like memorabilia, that I haven't put into some sort of album or whatnot,

there are these really nifty plastic file folders, that are only 99 cents, to keep things organized until I can go through them and figure out how to display and keep them that's much prettier than just inside a plastic folder, but I highly recommend these things if you're a paper/photo hoarder like me!
 

Slowly but surely, whittling down the mountain ~

Not much to report here other than I am still breathing and alive amongst the current wreckage, but digging my way out.

Also - I haven't been very diligent about the whole Take Out process.  It's really great to put stuff in the Take Out box (which has now overflowed into bags), but then one must actually, well, take it OUT!  So, at the very least, I've begun hauling things down to the car so it can be ready to go.