Clutter, clutter everywhere
Apparently, 10 min a day is not enough. I put in at least 1 hour a week. Many times I just move things from one box to another. Unable to give up on things. I always find a use for everything.
So my question is this. What if everything I have has a use but no room for it? How am I going to make choices? How many of one thing is needed? Will it be cheaper to throw a needed thing away and then purchase it again when I am going to use it? Will I be able to find it when I need it? How much is it going to cost me to keep in terms of dollars, time, energy, and pain?
Keep these questions in mind as I dig thru the clutter that is my life.
So my question is this. What if everything I have has a use but no room for it? How am I going to make choices? How many of one thing is needed? Will it be cheaper to throw a needed thing away and then purchase it again when I am going to use it? Will I be able to find it when I need it? How much is it going to cost me to keep in terms of dollars, time, energy, and pain?
Keep these questions in mind as I dig thru the clutter that is my life.
Replies
Oh, my home is completely cluttered!!! I really need to start working on it. It just looks so overwhelming!! Also not enough room here for all the stuff all 3 of us have. I feel defeated before getting started. However, I should not let that keep me from trying. Good luck to us both!! :)
I find, because I hold on to stuff too, that if I can say that I haven\'t needed it, thought about it or used in 3 months (aside from seasonal things) I donate. I can\'t bring myself to throw perfectly good things away. So I either garage sale or donate.
Yeah, Sonya. You are ruthless. Your method has me shaking in my boots.:)
my house is tiny, I cant have a all that, it does get pretty bad tho. Then I get tired and just start chunking. It helps when you have a hubs that will just chunk stuff too. lol..
Some thoughts
1. The more you have the harder it is to find something.
2. If you have duplicate of triplicate then choose what is in best shape
and donate the others.
3. Sort according to absolute have to have, a maybe and then a donate.
4. Go back to maybe and see how many items you can remove from that
pile.
5. Once bagged don\'t go through it again.
Well, how about buying a storage box? I am not a hoarder like my mother use to call me, but I hate to get rid of things. I have boxes of cards and pictures. I just can\'t throw any of the cards that I receive, away! I liked hippyone\'s ideas too. Hugs
Hippyone, I like you list. That is a reasonable way to declutter. However. I have so much stuff that I don\'t have the space to spread things out. I do have a corner of the garage for donations and another corner I have things that need to be washed after the flood.
GB.\\, I have a 10\' shipping container in my yard. That is some of the problem. The city code enforcer issued me a violation for the container. In order to honor myself I need to declutter not just shift its location. BTW I have a small storage shed outside of town. (350 miles) That is a place I need to clean out also.
It is forecasted to rain the next 4 days.
Thank you all for your suggestions. You have all been helpful
Gentle hugs
I used to have a similar problem. But when we put the house up for sale (it was a 4 bed room town house) and had to move to the other side of the island and down size to a 1 bed room apartment... we had to get rid of 99% of our stuff. It was painful, but we did it. My husband helped me get rid of a lot of it, otherwise I would have tried to make space for most of it. LOL. My husband\'t the opposite he throws everything away. A few times I caught him just putting piles of my things (like CD\'s and DVD\'s) at the curb side and I had to run out and rescue them! Like you, we didn\'t have space to spread things out. It was a small place and my mom and brother were living with me at the time and they, too were going through their stuff because they were getting ready to move out. The house looked like a jungle while everyone had piles of maybe\'s, junk, donations, and keepers.
Try to get someone to help you who is organized, good at sorting, categorizing, etc. It usually helps. Anyway... good luck!
marion, i go through much of the same thing. only as far as needing more than one of an item, for me it\'s more of, I can\'t find the item, so I buy another one, then another one. like scissors for example. then one day you find like 6 pairs.
I have a story of to much....someday maybe I can share....it really did not start with me...but when too many people died...mother, dad and my husband within a short time and I was left with 3 homes to care for....
and a new baby......I have never recovered.....going thru the motions and finally counseling..... your doing fine....I know you are....I enjoy your messages....
Bluesun, That is what my mom did. She married her friend who lived across the street after my dad passed away. She sold her house and moved into his. She was only able to take a few things with her and she got rid of the rest.
Gusto, isn\'t that the truth. I can\'t count the times that I have looked and looked for something that I know I have. Give up and buy a new one only to find it a few days later. :) I now have enough scissors for one in every room!
Alice, I am so sorry that you lost so many in such a short time. Much of what I have has also been inherited. I still have emotional attachments to these things. But I have learned some tools to deal with that.
Marion I think it is baby steps. You clear to meet code. Get rid of what you have in donate pile and rethink the laundry pile. If all the laundry pile is precious and necessary and you have the laundry mats with the big washers proceed to there. Then once clean it goes to it\'s place. This may take a month or more. Once code people are not breathing down your back you just do what you can. Take it slow and easy. Possibly when donations are gone and laundry done there will be some space. Then you can sort. Box for paper. Box for kitchen. Box for tools. You get the idea.
All this time minimum for inside house. No big cleans and just a garbage bag to collect the clutter once a week or so and dishes when absolutely necessary.
In other words one thing at a time.
When we are stressed, physically ill as in great pain, anxiety ridden and carry the world on our shoulders we must take it in baby steps. Most important for us is to not give up. I have found a need to be able to at some point in time to complete a task. I can only do it by removing the stress. By doing it in my time and what is good for me. I believe you have this and know what is good for you.
Many warm hugs