[holidaymama]

And it looks TERRIBLE!

Alright, we live in a small home and I am turning our family room into a daycare space which means our den/what could be office is our family room...so there is no room for a desk/office.

I have a small area of countertop in our kitchen that looks TERRIBLE because all of our junk that has no home is piling up. Like bills, the laptop, school forms, coupons, magazines, etc. It is mostly things that I shouldn't throw, but I don't know what to do. I have tried a little divider, but it broke because I was dividing too much stuff! It really is the only space we have for an "office" but I need some advice on how to organize it...it's like 18 inches of counter space.

I am open to ANYTHING!

HELP!

 

[Krisis]

:

 

[doubledutch]

can you make room in one of your cabinets or drawers?

 

[hillymum]

I have two piles of "stuff" that don't belong anywhere. I put a smallish basket to contain one area which works really well. It's got all those annoying pieces of papers or letters that I don't want to address at this moment as well as a small bucket keeping writing /drawing implements together.. The second pile has all the papers that come home from school. They belong in a leather portable magazine basket but I just haven't decluttered that yet. Having a place for the things to belong is the only way I have found to control the grrowth of these piles.

 

[jtbuko]

We are also space challenged. Our living room currently houses daycare space, normal living room function & office. I will try to come back and post pics of where the clutter lands later. It would drive me batty if it landed in the kitchen.

 

[Oliver's Mama]

I saw this at Ikea and thought it was the coolest. Maybe it's not quite what you had in mind, but it's still a neat idea:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10139134

or what about something like this to hang on the wall?
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70083501

or what if you clear out a small area inside one of the upper kitchen cabinets and stack a couple mailboxes?
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00032384

since coupons are real tiny and would get lost in any of those things, I used to keep mine in an envelope clipped to the fridge. Now, I just get in the habit of taking coupons to the car and I keep an envelope there with the coupons, cuz I always forget to take them with me when I need them!

can the magazines go somewhere else? Where do you typically read them? put them there, then.

for bills, ours are mostly paperless, but the occasional one goes straight to the filing cabinet, a folder for each billing category.

 

[holidaymama]

Thanks Oliver's Mama! Those are great ideas!!

I cleaned it up AGAIN last night! I like the hanging ideas...although I am not sure they would work for my situation. The paper trays look great though.

I also like the basket ideas...those could be good! Keep the ideas coming if you have any!