Where to start?

[holyschist]

This is a request for tips and advice!

I was making good headway on decluttering about a year ago. Then I moved, and then I moved back and immediately started a new job. I'm drowning in paper (the amount of paper I acquire in a year is mind-boggling, and I don't have the storage space for anything but minimal files) and surrounded by chaos and I have no real idea of where to start. I'm barely staying on top of my laundry (it doesn't help that my current job is part-time and inadequate, so I'm still job-hunting at the same time).

Any ideas for how to get started/make headway on this kind of chaos? 15 minutes at a time does do it, because there's no "away" to "put" most of the stuff at this point. It lives in piles, and our apartment isn't that big.

My other issue is craft supplies: the bulkiest is the fabric. I should probably go through and see if there's any I can sell/give away, but for the most part the solution is going to be to do projects that actually use stash...and get finished, instead of sitting around forever in pieces. Do other crafters have any tips on motivating ones' self through using stash and NOT acquiring more supplies at an equal or greater rate? I mean, my stash problem isn't bad...compared to my friends with houses. But it's a lot of supplies for a small apartment.

ETA: I do historical costuming, so any project is a Project, which is part of my problem--right now my issue is not so much acquisition as lack of motivation to actually project. My last finished project took about half a year. So IDK, does anyone know of stash challenges/support communities that might help provide some incentive to just do the darn sewing?

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

I started to tackle my paper mountain by having a couple of boxes and a bag. I sorted the papers into work related, house related and trash. Anything that didn't need keeping went straight into the bag to be disposed of. I went through several piles like that until my boxes were full. I then took one of the boxes - the house one first and sorted the stuff again - into old and current. Anything current went into a file, the old went into a box to be sorted later. I repeated the process with the work box. Doing this meant that anything new coming into the house could go straight into the current file as appropriate so I wasn't adding to the piles needing sorting. I then took the now empty boxes back to the mountain and tackled the next layer down.

Also as I tackled the piles, I was creating space in which I could keep the newly sorted boxes. It was a little daunting at first but gradually the overall pile was reduced and was left in broader groups and then as time went on I could sort each of the groups more and more usefully. The house one went first into current and old - then each of those got sorted into bills, finance and other stuff. Then the old section was grouped by year - gradually I began to find more things that I could get rid of because of how old they were. The grouping made it easier - "Ohhh look everything in this folder is x years old - it can be disposed of! Now I've got a new file for this year's current, making last year's current old!" kind of thing.

With regard to the crafting supplies, I've boxed my supplies up according to the kind of project (jewelry, cross-stitch kits, other sewing projects and wool related projects). I'm basically not allowing myself to buy anything new unless it's for an already underway project. The boxes are then packed neatly with just the current projects in bags to hand which encourages me to concentrate on getting those finished before starting anything else.

Good Luck, I hope you find a solution that works for you. x

[holyschist]

*deep breath* Okay, I think I can do that. Why is there so much PAPER? (Also, I struggle with determining the "x years" after which stuff can go. Is there some kind of rule of thumb?)

[peaceful_sands]

I'm not sure what the answer to that is. I have different cut off points for different types of paper work and whether it's just reference (like the work stuff) and is going out of date - superceded by something more recent, guarantees and credit card receipts and the like and stuff that is needed for tax or whatever. I don't know what the definitive cut off for the tax stuff is (might even vary from place to place - how far back can they require information from you even after it's paid?)

Not a terribly helpful answer I'm afraid, although I'd be interested to know other people's opinions, because I'm sure I keep some stuff way longer than I need to!