respponse to your entry: "Came home last night to my overstuffed room.This room disturbs my peace of mind.It has too much in it,and yet I do not know how to approach making it more liveable although the answer is very simple:Get stuff out of here!

My whole house is full of clutter. I find I spend most of my time trying to organize it which in effect really only moves it from one place to another. I find peace of mind when I am able to donate things. I like giving things away but I have a real problem throwing things away. My daughters collect lots of shoes and outfits.
They seem to never get tired of buying more and more things. When they want to get rid of them I take personal offense since I paid for it. Their taste keeps changing, but the things I held on to they are now wearing as it is considered Vintage. Their size keeps changing one minute they are too thin another minute they are close to being plump. As a result I store their clothes. I know their weight will go up and down and they often can go through 2 to 3 different sizes in a year.

Two weeks ago my youngest daughter threw away bags and bags of clothes. She claimed she wanted a clean room and a new look for herself. She just turned 18 and feels all grown up. In my opinion she would have a long way to go before her room would look uncluttered, but it was an improvement. On Saturday she got carried away and bought 2 huge bags of clothes from a Thrift Shop in Manhattan. Yes many of thd items were great but many of the items looked identical to what she threw away last week or things I have collected and stashed in my attic. The only difference was again I got to pay for these items.

I am not so much into clothes. I tend to save books. Now thanks to technology I have reduced a lot of my papers and books and instead store more things on the computer. As you know computers can crash, so I still tend to hang on to things I really cherish. Although cd's should have replaced tapes and records, I still own all 3 varieties. DVD's have replaced VHS tapes yet I have both. My son is now converting all my VHS into DVD's. I guess at some point I will have a huge garage sale. One of my kids always takes things of mine when she visits like books, unopened toys and games, Play Station and Sega games. She has made quite a profit selling them on E-bay. Somehow I never see the money. She feels she is doing me a favor by helping me get rid of my things.

I stubbornly refuse to let go of my books, especially my piano music and classics. Yes it is true we can read most books now on line but nothing in my mind replaces the feeling of holding on to a book as I read. It is like having an old friend.

Although the obvious solutions is to get rid of things, another one might be to have custom shelves built in your room and around the house. They take up less room than book shelves and can be added often quite easily to your room without having to move lots of furniture. Personally I had a captain's bed built so I could store things safely under my bed. It gave us lots of storage space. I also love big old fashion desks with all their compartments. It helps to keep me more organized.