Doodads, Thingamajigs & Whatnots

My husband (a Classic) is obsessed with bringing home random items: conference badges, hotel notepads, plastic hotel keys, (yes an entire drawer full), seating cards, ticket stubs, free tote bags. He sticks them wherever he can, lamp shades, photo frames, bookshelves, you name it.

Despite being an organizing guru with the same personality type, I’m always at a loss at what to do with them since he cries foul if I try to toss them in the garbage. Truth be told I have the same initial urges to bring these things home with me but hate the clutter so much that I fight the urge and don’t bring them home with me in the first place (except my first “speaker” conference badge … I was so proud of my first speaking gig, I didn’t have the heart to part with it).

I’ve tried a home “inbox” with him but it just fills up with these paper talismans and then overflows until I deal with them. I’d put put up a bulletin board near the kitchen where we walk in the front door but who wants to be greeted by 50 conference badges upon entering your home? When I saw this photo in Martha Stewart’s February issue. I thought, Voila! A custom bulletin board in his closet (although the cheap, freebie tote bags will likely remain a source of simmering marital discord).

This is a perfect solution for Classics and Funs as the visual clutter can be hidden away and “visited”. A bulletin board out in the open would be better for Organics who need to visually have these sorts of things out in the open to remember them (but this might not work if you’re living with a Classic or Fun and the closet might just be a perfect compromise). I imagine Smarts end up with this stuff, forget about it and then when they do notice all of these badges, have no qualms tossing it all out and I doubt there is a Smart in the world who collects plastic hotel room keys.