Decluttering physical items is actually a simple process. We, the do'ers, are what make it difficult.
Always Start In 3D
Define your area -- a drawer, a closet, a 1 ft space in a room, etc. (zoom in on your target to help from being overwhelmed by whatever else may be nearby or that will detract your focus from your defined area, i.e. more clutter, an area that you don't like for other specific reasons, etc.)
Determine categories to use for sorting the things stored in that area (a specific use that makes sense in the area, memorabilia/keepsake, homeless object that didn't belong in that area, etc.) and create a gathering spot for items in that category (i.e. a box or basket, a clean spot on the floor, a shelf, etc.)
Decide which category each piece in your defined area belongs into & sort the items accordingly by placing them in the gathering spot. (Deciding comes from a position of feeling/being powerful over your stuff, instead of being overpowered by it.)
A fantastic bit of advice that I have incorporated into my own life came from Alex Fayle at Someday Syndrome, in the Unclutter guest post Instructions for decluttering your home (in less than 500 words).
"Use the sorting time to reminisce about the objects — don’t make any decisions at this point. Allow the emotions to come up and clear themselves out so that when it comes to the streamlining stage you are free from the emotional ties and can make more objective decisions about them."
And...Action!
The final step in decluttering is Action, instead of Reaction.
Many of the reactions we encounter when decluttering relate to negative feelings...(feeling) that money was wasted, (feeling) guilt about the item, (feeling) unhappiness about our home & personal belongings, (feeling) overwhelmed by it all in general, etc.
To gain power over your stuff, instead of being owned by it, we need to focus on equating decluttering with Action instead, and positive Action at that.
So, what positive Action are you going to take regarding these objects?
Ask yourself the basic decluttering questions.
Do I want this?
Do I use it?
Do I love this?
Do I need it?
If you can’t say yes to any of them, then you have your answer: it is clutter to you. As Alex says in the above article, "Life is too short to fill out our spaces with things we’re indifferent to."
Once all items have been put into a category, it's time to get everything to its home.
Trash
Gather those items and take them from your working area first thing; preferably all the way to the trash can.
Donation Worthy Goods
Put all items together in a box or bag and put them in your car. The next time you are out and about, plan a stop at the local donation center of your choice.
Items to Keep
Now that there are less items in the area, the items you are keeping can be better organized and stored/used. Make it so.
Or, quite possibly, where the item was before was not the best home for it. Was it "homeless" and not stored with other like items? Was it there just because it always has been?
There are many questions I could pose such as these, but I hope that during this process you are learning to formulate your own questions in your mind. The Action will come from your answers.
It's Just An Object
Always remind yourself, especially in the beginning of any decluttering project, that you want to discontinue reacting to your stuff.
Deciding on your Action, and taking it, will empower you in ways that lead to a much more positive role in your own life. A side benefit is that each action fires up your Motivation Meter as well, and that also creates a positive effect in your life. The accumulation of positive Action will create balance in your life, including ownership over your stuff.
I encourage to begin to examine your life in terms of Reaction vs. Action. You may be surprised to realize the effects reach farther than just clutter!
Showing posts with label Defining Clutter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Defining Clutter. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, December 12, 2008
More on Defining Clutter...
A good question was recently posted in the comments on Focus Challenge - Month 9.
Sometimes, items put away nice and neatly stay under the Decluttering Radar or confuse us. I thought this would be a good post for most of us to read, just to make sure our Decluttering Radars are still charged up and ready. :-)
My answer follows Jacqui's question. What do you think? Do they count as clutter? I'd love to hear your input!
Jacqui said...
Do boxes stored in the attic and in the garage count as clutter? =) I have a hard time letting go. It's definitely getting easier since I'm running out of room to neatly store things out of sight. I'm mostly an "a place for everything, everything in it's place" person. But with the kids accumulating more things and with my sewing obsession (without a room to put it in), its getting harder to store them neatly. My daughter has no problem letting go of most things, but my son is more like me. Of course Mike would just like to see it all go. LOL
Blogger Suzanne said...
Jacqui: First, hello my long-lost friend!!! :-)
Clutter is any thing you don't Love, Want, Need or Use. Defining your own things as clutter or not is only a decision you can make.
Items stored in boxes, whether in an attic, garage, on a closet shelf or just on the floor are only clutter if they don't meet the above criteria.
Meaning...
- Do you want them? This is probably yes, since you've taken care to store them away. But, sometimes, this is the easiest question to answer because we surprise ourselves and realize that, no, we don't want them. So, out it must go!
- Do you use these things? If no, then they are clutter. Decide to use them and do it, or realize that you need less physical clutter in your life and let them go. When you purge the physical clutter, the mental clutter follows it out the door. Imagine, not having the friction against Mike's desires and your own, not forgetting what you have and spending money on more, not feeling emotional mental clutter about it (see next item), etc.
- Do you love them...or do they make you sad, feel guilty, make your life feel inadequate (as in you wish you had time for other interests, but don't, and these things just remind you of that dissatisfaction), etc.? If they bring on unhappy feelings, they are clutter.
- Do you need them? If they are used and loved, then think about whether you need them. For example: Say you have one of something in your kitchen but have another that a relative gave you. That one isn't really your favorite so you put it away for "special occasions". If you bring it out and use it, then only you can decide whether its useful in your life to have a duplicate of something. If you are only keeping the second because of mental clutter, let it go. Find it a better home. Selling or giving things to someone who WILL use, love, need and want them will not be clutter to them, as they were to you.
Happy Decluttering!
Sometimes, items put away nice and neatly stay under the Decluttering Radar or confuse us. I thought this would be a good post for most of us to read, just to make sure our Decluttering Radars are still charged up and ready. :-)
My answer follows Jacqui's question. What do you think? Do they count as clutter? I'd love to hear your input!
Jacqui said...
Do boxes stored in the attic and in the garage count as clutter? =) I have a hard time letting go. It's definitely getting easier since I'm running out of room to neatly store things out of sight. I'm mostly an "a place for everything, everything in it's place" person. But with the kids accumulating more things and with my sewing obsession (without a room to put it in), its getting harder to store them neatly. My daughter has no problem letting go of most things, but my son is more like me. Of course Mike would just like to see it all go. LOL
Blogger Suzanne said...
Jacqui: First, hello my long-lost friend!!! :-)
Clutter is any thing you don't Love, Want, Need or Use. Defining your own things as clutter or not is only a decision you can make.
Items stored in boxes, whether in an attic, garage, on a closet shelf or just on the floor are only clutter if they don't meet the above criteria.
Meaning...
- Do you want them? This is probably yes, since you've taken care to store them away. But, sometimes, this is the easiest question to answer because we surprise ourselves and realize that, no, we don't want them. So, out it must go!
- Do you use these things? If no, then they are clutter. Decide to use them and do it, or realize that you need less physical clutter in your life and let them go. When you purge the physical clutter, the mental clutter follows it out the door. Imagine, not having the friction against Mike's desires and your own, not forgetting what you have and spending money on more, not feeling emotional mental clutter about it (see next item), etc.
- Do you love them...or do they make you sad, feel guilty, make your life feel inadequate (as in you wish you had time for other interests, but don't, and these things just remind you of that dissatisfaction), etc.? If they bring on unhappy feelings, they are clutter.
- Do you need them? If they are used and loved, then think about whether you need them. For example: Say you have one of something in your kitchen but have another that a relative gave you. That one isn't really your favorite so you put it away for "special occasions". If you bring it out and use it, then only you can decide whether its useful in your life to have a duplicate of something. If you are only keeping the second because of mental clutter, let it go. Find it a better home. Selling or giving things to someone who WILL use, love, need and want them will not be clutter to them, as they were to you.
Happy Decluttering!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
How I Define Clutter
Defining what is or is not clutter is a very personal choice, in my opinion. Just as one man’s trash is another’s treasure, the same is true for clutter. To me, clutter is anything that I do not use, want, love or need (the real one--not the guilt-causing kind!)
When I declutter, I look for the obvious. Such as stuff that was laid down here or there to deal with later and now I do. My procrastinated filing falls into this category too…the paper was put in a pile but I still need to do the real “work” and deal with it so it will no longer be clutter).
I also look at my stuff with someone else’s eyes and, with that different perspective, I decide if it is clutter or not. I look at my clothes, my furniture, my knick-knacks, my housewares, etc. When I see these things with this perspective, it is so much easier to see the clutter for what it really is. I don’t see it as an emotional attachment, a fear of not being able to have what I need when I need it, etc. I see it as an inanimate object that has no more meaning than I am placing on it at that moment…and, remember, I’m seeing it as a stranger would.
Finally, I allow reason to override emotion. I need peace more than stuff. I want to see every single thing as something that I would choose to bring into my home today.
If I purchased the item, I will evaluate it in today’s dollars—not ones I’ve already spent. Would I buy this today? If the answer is no, then it is out of my face and out of my space. There is no guilt allowed. The money is spent and there’s nothing I can do to undo this buying mistake. I don’t allow that object to own a time period of my life sufficient to justify its purchase.
This way of thinking was not how I started, I assure you. I grew up not having much. If anything was useable (and I admit that I used the definition loosely sometimes), I felt I had to keep it.
Having those things around me didn’t make me feel more secure. Instead, I felt unsettled. I was keeping the past very close and always worrying over the future. The present wasn’t even in my thoughts. When I started letting go of things, the priorities changed. The present became of utmost importance. This is the time I controlled. And what I wanted to feel right now was fulfilled, happy and peaceful. I can’t change how I felt in days past and I have no way of knowing what the future brings.
No matter how you choose to define clutter, please remember: surrounding yourself with things that make you fulfilled (not wanting), happy (not sad) and peaceful (settled) will allow you to make “the present” the true gift it is.
When I declutter, I look for the obvious. Such as stuff that was laid down here or there to deal with later and now I do. My procrastinated filing falls into this category too…the paper was put in a pile but I still need to do the real “work” and deal with it so it will no longer be clutter).
I also look at my stuff with someone else’s eyes and, with that different perspective, I decide if it is clutter or not. I look at my clothes, my furniture, my knick-knacks, my housewares, etc. When I see these things with this perspective, it is so much easier to see the clutter for what it really is. I don’t see it as an emotional attachment, a fear of not being able to have what I need when I need it, etc. I see it as an inanimate object that has no more meaning than I am placing on it at that moment…and, remember, I’m seeing it as a stranger would.
Finally, I allow reason to override emotion. I need peace more than stuff. I want to see every single thing as something that I would choose to bring into my home today.
If I purchased the item, I will evaluate it in today’s dollars—not ones I’ve already spent. Would I buy this today? If the answer is no, then it is out of my face and out of my space. There is no guilt allowed. The money is spent and there’s nothing I can do to undo this buying mistake. I don’t allow that object to own a time period of my life sufficient to justify its purchase.
This way of thinking was not how I started, I assure you. I grew up not having much. If anything was useable (and I admit that I used the definition loosely sometimes), I felt I had to keep it.
Having those things around me didn’t make me feel more secure. Instead, I felt unsettled. I was keeping the past very close and always worrying over the future. The present wasn’t even in my thoughts. When I started letting go of things, the priorities changed. The present became of utmost importance. This is the time I controlled. And what I wanted to feel right now was fulfilled, happy and peaceful. I can’t change how I felt in days past and I have no way of knowing what the future brings.
No matter how you choose to define clutter, please remember: surrounding yourself with things that make you fulfilled (not wanting), happy (not sad) and peaceful (settled) will allow you to make “the present” the true gift it is.
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