Free Republic

Nicole Anzia, professional organizer and founder of Neatnik, joined staff writer Jura Koncius for The Washington Post’s Home Front online chat. Here is an edited excerpt. Q: What are the main reasons that resolutions to get organized are derailed?A: Trying to do it all in January and then stopping. People work really hard at decluttering and purging at the beginning of the year and then think they’re done. But organizing isn’t really something you’re ever done with. As long as things are coming into and leaving your home, it’s a continual process. Do a little bit here and there, but...

Most of us know we own too much stuff. We feel the weight and burden of our clutter. We tire of cleaning and managing and organizing. Our toy rooms are messy, our drawers don’t close, and our closets are filled from top to bottom. The evidence of clutter is all around us.Today, increasing data is being collected about our homes, our shopping habits, and our spending. The research is confirming our observation: we own too much stuff. And it is robbing us of life.Here are 21 surprising statistics about our clutter that help us understand how big of a problem...

A few years ago, I worked at a web design agency as a product manager. The part of the job I loved the most was working on product with our design team and clients. Unfortunately, this was only about 10 percent of the work that I actually got to do. The majority of the time, I was trying to control the constant flow of stuff–keeping track of meeting notes, searching for files, and trying to stay up-to-date with the latest technology news.I was mentally exhausted. I’d get home feeling that I hadn’t really accomplished anything. Once I left the agency...

When you declutter and organize your home, sometimes it's helpful to play a little game called "Let's Pretend We're Moving Overseas." Armed with this mental filter, you analyze every item in your home by wondering if you'd pack it in your tiny luggage space. You ask yourself, Is this thing worth hauling 6,000 miles across an ocean and in to a new home? Is it providing that much meaning and value to my life? If not, why bother having it now?

Attention, pack rats: science may have figured you out. Researchers say they've found an area of the brain that seems to govern the urge to collect. For most people, collecting is a perfectly healthy behavior. It's an outlet for expressing passion for just about anything, such as stamps, wine, art, shoes, or Elvis memorabilia. Collecting is also common among animals, and not just for food. It's been observed in creatures great and small, from mammals to insects. For instance, some birds can't resist aluminum and bright objects, while hamsters gather glass beads when given the chance. But in rare cases,...

Second sad story about abused dogs in the state.

52 cats and one dog were removed from the home of a 76 year old Elkhart woman Tuesday by Elkhart Police Department's animal control officer and Humane Society workers. Elkhart Humane Society Assistant Director Rachel Dennis says the cats and dog are all in poor health, suffering from respiratory problems, matted eyes and infested with insects. Adult Protective Services was called to assist the 76 year old woman who was living in the feces covered trailer. The woman is now living with a family member. Elkhart Police say a maintenance worker at Four Season Trailer Park flagged down an animal...

SPCA Officials Stunned After 2 Feet Of Feces Found In Room Of House Located In Million-Dollar Community Officers Say It's One Of The Worst Cases Ever Reported Reporting Sean Hennessey CHESTER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ― One New Jersey SPCA official said it was probably the worst case he's ever seen.

y father never had much use for fairy tales. The fifth of five brothers raised in a one-bedroom tenement on the Lower East Side, he preferred real-life grotesqueries. And so at bedtime, I would listen raptly to his urban horror stories, tales that filled the dark with chimera, bogeymen, golems.The most macabre was the tale of the Collyer Brothers, the hermit hoarders of Harlem. In lugubrious tones not unlike Boris Karloff's, my father described the vague aura of evil that had endowed the four-story brownstone on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 128th Street for much of the 1930's...

The cases never cease to fascinate: reclusive people trapped by their own accumulations, in rooms made unlivable by floor-to-ceiling heaps of newspapers, books and saved objects — from twist ties to grand pianos.Some pass into legend, like the Collyer brothers, "the hermit hoarders of Harlem," who in 1947 were buried by the piles of urban junk that filled their four-story Harlem brownstone. But even less extreme examples, like that of the Bronx man rescued on Monday after being trapped for two days under an avalanche of magazines and catalogs, haunt the public imagination.Such compulsive hoarding is being recognized as a...

My wife’s decided what she wants for Christmas — a Dumpster. Not to keep, mind you, just long enough to fill it up. A second one then might be in order. It all started with an innocuous question: What’s in that thing? “That thing” was one of the ubiquitous Rubbermaid bins that have transformed yesteryear’s random piles of tattered pasteboard cartons into tidy, tasteful storage. What was in it had been there a while — darn near a decade, if the cancelled checks are to be believed — taking up room in a closet we couldn’t reliably close the door...

To many observers, clutter reflects the mind-set of the modern household - overburdened, disorganized and compulsive. To others, clutter is a broader symbol of a ravenous culture dependent on easy credit, piling up debt and consuming a lion's share of the world's resources without considering the consequences. "People's homes are a reflection of their lives," says Los Angeles psychologist and organizational consultant Peter Walsh. "It is no accident that people have a huge weight problem in this country, and clutter is the same thing. Homes are an orgy of consumption." The obesity analogy isn't a joke. While personal spending drives...

<p>For 25 years, a difficult-neighbor problem plagued Curtis and Elaine Colvin of Seattle. The neighbor's home and lawn resembled a junkyard. Finally, last spring, the elderly man was taken out of state by relatives.</p> <p>Konstantinos Apostolou bought the house — and sent in five men to clear the floor-to-ceiling junk. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," says his son, George Apostolou. There was nowhere to walk, except for a narrow "goat path" connecting the rooms. The men hauled out seven Dumpsters' worth of clothes, books, magazines, spoiled food, firewood, car parts, tires, bank statements and 50-year-old tax records. "I feel bad for the guy," says Apostolou. "I'm sure he was ill."</p>

It's not your imagination: Clutter is getting worse. Even with TiVo and other digital video recorders now holding out the promise of a commercial-free viewing experience, the leading broadcast networks continue to pack more and more advertising spots into each hour of television, according to the latest MindShare Clutter Watch report, released this week. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox all aired more commercial time per hour in the first quarter of 2002 than during the same period last year. Fox increased its commercial time the most, averaging 8 minutes 39 seconds per hour, 10 percent more than in first quarter...