Bad Habits

Well, so much for my goal of being able to share a newly-organized living room this week!

I managed to accomplish three of my goals, though, which is better than nothing:

1. I cleaned out and reorganized the inside of my desk. I kid you not, I had 8 years worth of old check registers piled up in there!  
2. I moved the modem and router to inside the desk.  Now all those awful wires in the corner by the filing cabinet are hidden.  Not only does that area look nicer, it's less of a safety hazard.
3. I cleaned the piles of mail and books off the console table.  Now it's just the candle holder.  In theory I'd love to add a vase, but with a toddler in the house I don't see that ending well.

Since I don't have a finished product to share just yet, I thought I'd talk about some of the bad habits I have when it comes to cleaning and organizing.  Since my mission to streamline my house and my life is clearly a long-term one (seriously, if I finish this whole thing by Christmas, I will consider it a massive victory!), I'm going to have to break some bad habits so that the areas I de-clutter and organize at the beginning of this project remain as such by the time I make it through the whole house.

This article from Apartment Therapy is what got me thinking about the topic. 

I'm definitely guilty of #1.  I have a bad habit of letting junk mail and coupons I'm unlikely to ever use pile up.  They clutter up the console table, my desk, the kitchen table... 

#2 is a struggle for me as well.  I have a terrible time getting rid of things that were gifts or that are connected to a happy memory, even if I don't need or use them anymore.

The other items on Apartment Therapy's list, I'm not too bad about.  But related to #2, I'm often afraid to get rid of things I "might need some day."  It's not quite hoarder-level, but I do veer a bit into packrat territory, and my storage spaces are so messy and full that things are starting to spill into more visible areas of the house.  That crosses a line for me. ;-)

My other, biggest bad habit is a lack of follow-through.  All of Amelia's old clothes are sealed up in space bags, but I haven't transferred those bags to containers and put them in the attic yet, so they're still taking up space downstairs.  Space that would be better-utilized for things we will actually use again in the immediate future.  Likewise, I have clothing I have intended to donate or bring to a consignment store for upwards of a year that is still hanging in the hall closet and/or sitting in a pile next to the hamper in the master bedroom.  Oops?  De-cluttering doesn't count if you're just moving the mess from one place to another, does it?

Hopefully within the next week I'll have some photos of the completed living room to share.  In the meantime, what are your biggest organizational pitfalls?  Do you have any helpful tips for staying organized?