Removing Clutter

As I type this post I sit at a desk with papers covering it. I look across my room and see a table with junk in it. Then past the table is a stack of magazines that’s been there since 2008. Lots of junk that needs to be stored or thrown out. I debated on attaching a picture but felt like we could envision that instead.

Often when one thinks about clutter we visualize just physical clutter. All those receipts in my “to file” box and all those papers and empty containers just laying everywhere. Even my significant other has commented on it. But what about clutter elsewhere in our life? Let me give a few examples:

  • Money Clutter – I consider this to be when your money and financial life isn’t in order and it’s over complicated. I.e. you have no idea where all your money is going or how money flows in and out. Kinda like where you spend a lot and you do not track it and you get a bunch of bills in and they just accumulate.
  • Task Clutter – I have several items on my to do list and it seams crowded. Instead of just setting one project a week to do, I try to fit in several. Which I hardly manage to get just the one done. But had I just set the one project to be done I could have focused all my attention on it and marked it off my list. Else it’s just “cluttering” my list up.
  • Emotional Clutter – We should all have a good idea on what this is. We commonly refer to it as “emotional baggage” or some other term that just means past feelings that were bad or painful for us. This one is a bit harder to get rid of, but never the less it holds us down.

I’m sure you get the where I’m going with this. It is very important that you keep your life uncluttered as much as you can. This week my to do list is to remove some physical clutter and hopefully remove the table that sits in the middle of my room.

Off-topic:

Just an update on the trying to only use $20 cash for the weekend, it failed since I went out to eat with family. But it was less then $40 so at least it wasn’t double.

2 thoughts on “Removing Clutter

  1. Oh wow. A big project and good for you for tiakng control of your life.First thing is to get the task framed up in your mind. This isn’t going to be a one-weekend project. It’ll likely take several weeks of steady going. Work on one room at a time start with the part of the house where you spend most of your time so you get to enjoy the benefits of your work right away.Second get firmly onboard with the idea that you’re not going to keep most of it. You’ll have five basic catagories:Recycle bundles of old magazines and newspapers, clothing that can be used as rags, recyclable plastic, recyclable metalTrash broken things, stuff that’s gotten wet or mildewed or mouse chewed, everything that’s been laying out in the weather that can’t be recycled. Don’t kid yourself that you’ll get around to gluing together the broken china it got broken 20 years ago, and it’s broken Get rid of projects’.Donate clothing/shoes/toys/household goods in very good condition that Goodwill or the Salvation Army would wantGift stuff that may have sentimental value to family members; anything they don’t want goes in the Donate catagory.Keep the smallest catagory: those things that you use regularly or want to see every dayYou’ll want to set up a way of keeping stuff separate as you organize it. Go ahead and rent a small dumpster. I know it’s hard. But a bin with a lid gets the discards out of sight (and out of mind).Get a pile of boxes just as if you were planning to move.Plan to haul out the Donate and Gift boxes as quickly as they fill. That will clear floor space.I acknowledge that going through 30 years of stuff is likely to be a journey through memories. Keep your task firmly in mind there’ll be time to savor the precious things you choose to have in your life when you can do it in the peace and calm of your newly tidy home.

  2. Aww thanx 🙂 I do love my things.But you are so right about how that show moiteatvs. Funny how even though we love to collect treasures, we feel more “zen” with less stuff…just need to find that happy balance I guess??? Thanx too for the follow….I am gonna go check out your blog as well 🙂 Hugs..and Happy De-Clutter’n..Liza

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