[ NEAT FREAK!!! ]

sooooooo... i have been untidy all my life. i walk into a place & create a mess! i won the 'messiest desk' award at work, it's my creativity! a brain can't be creative & tidy... well that's my excuse & i'm sticking to it!! now... add 2 young boys, a husband, a dog, 2 cats, a bird & fish to the mix & why am i surprised that it isn't any better!!!! i would really like to get organized, i don't want one of those houses where when i sit on the couch & try to make myself as small as possible because i feel like i'm making the place look untidy just by being there ~  well lets face it even if i did want that it would NEVER happen! i came across a local 'organizer' online & got quite excited! my friend, jackie, said save your money, she'd help me ~ i'd love that but i'm scared we have a big 'girl fight', hair pulling & screaming, over what i should throw away. [ whenever i think about women fighting, which isn't that often, it's always in the 70's, so maybe we should be wearing flared catsuits & flicked back hair...] when my mum came to visit me, i asked her to help me declutter. (everyone in my family is SUPER tidy... except me) i'd read that when you go through clothes you should bag up what you don't want & put them straight in your car to take to the donation drop off. i did that but couldn't sleep that night, thoughts of what my mum had bagged were racing through my head. before my mum got up the next morning i'd gone through it & pull some things out... it took about 3 months to not be stressing over one pair of baby trousers i'd got rid of... when we talk about people being tidy everyone mentions OCD... but i looked up the definition & i have it!!!!!! extensive hoarding!! how do i change that to have a pinch of the tidy stuff? i'd like to think that once i've got things sorted they'd stay like that, i need a system, i'm just clueless how  ~ i just must have been having coffee when they gave out this kind of info. soooooo... i love to hear all your de-cluttering, organizing, tidying tips please!! the best books you've read, ANYTHING!! maybe we'll all get something out of this! you can do it anoymously if you like, but please be nice :) here's some of things that bamboozle me! what on earth do you do with: ~ all your old greeting cards? (i keep mine in a box!) ~ odd socks, where on earth do the other ones go? (i keep these in a box!) ~ bills... & papers in general! (i keep mine in a box! ~ i'm sensing a pattern here...) ~ most of the stuff i put in boxes breeds. ~ keep the shoes tidy? you get the picture!!! jackie... just say the word ~ i'll dig out my curling tongs! i emptied out my bag the other day... as you can see i have all the essentials!! including the 'must have' acorn...