Like so many other people this time of year, Recycla has been on a major cleaning, organizing, and decluttering frenzy in the last few weeks. She lives with three people who tend toward packrat tendencies, so decluttering is an ongoing, never-ending task for her.
So far, she has completely worked over her closet, just recently shoveled out her daughters’ toy room, and is plunging into the kitchen today, to be followed afterward by dealing with the mountain of papers in the family’s shared home office.
Recycla knows she’s not alone in this desire for order. In recent weeks, she has seen a number of articles and blog posts about decluttering, including this one about throwing out 50 things. According to the author, getting rid of 50 things will not only free up your home, but it will also free up your mind, plus it will be easier to be more organized simply by having less stuff. This is an interesting concept and Recycla agrees, although she thinks that rather than throwing out 50 things, it would be better to get rid of 50 things via donations, Craigslist, Freecycle, recycling, and the like. Only throw away those things that truly cannot be reused or repurposed or recycled.
50 things might seem like a lot, but you don’t have to do it all at once. Find a few items in your kitchen and pantry, find other stuff in your bathroom, and then a few other things in your closet, and so on. Eventually, all those “few other things” will add up and you’ll hit 50.
Recycla feels so much better — more free, really — by having fewer things in her house and by keeping things tidy and organized. She really does feel calmer and more balanced when everything is in place.
If you are interested in clearing your life of clutter, but don’t know quite where to start, you might want to consider visiting Kanelstrand’s blog and taking her Simple Living Challenge, which starts next week on February 1st. The challenge aims to help all participants take the first steps to a simpler, more meaningful life. For three weeks Sonya will post tips, ideas, and her own personal challenges.
acccckkkk… my office is the WORST! I never seem to be able to steel myself to deal with it until the piles of paper are threatening to devour me, and then it’s an awful task to tackle. Can I just click my heels and become one of those ‘file as you go’ peeps? (I’m a ‘clean as I go cook’, so why is it so incredibly difficult with my office?)
Which room is problematic for me? Any room my husband is in. (Sorry, honey.) Tidy and my husband? Never the twain shall meet.
I can go for weeks ignoring clutter and stepping over things and then I will finally snap and clean up. (His clutter, his things, you understand.)
What makes me NUTS is, my husband can find stuff in his supremely unorchestrated MESS, and I lose things in my meticulously ordered files. All the time.
Overall, my house is pretty organized. Both my husband & I routinely purge our closets at least twice a year, and I manage to go through the kids’ stuff at least once — usually before school starts. My office, however, seems to serve as the catchall for everything! As I rec’d this post via e-mail, I was going through the stacks of papers on my desk. I need to start making some plans for 2012, and I simply CANNOT do it when my office is messy. Now that everything’s straightened up, I’m going to get started — after I take the dog out
!
It’s better than it once was. I still have those pockets of clutter, but they’re fewer in number. Last weekend I dragged up Mr. D’s old tax files (2001 and earlier) and told him the boys would shred if he’d clean them out. I added a HUGE pile of shredded paper to the compost pile, gained a nice amount of basement shelf space and Mr. D didn’t have to buy new accordion files for this year’s tax stuff. Win-win-win.
I think if I could double the size of the pile headed out the door to our local thrift shop next week, I’d be really really pleased.
I’m organized but I too live with a partner and kids who are messy and dislike parting with anything. It does drive me crazy sometimes! One thing I’ve done with my oldest daughter (she’s almost six) is that if she wants a new toy, she must get rid of some things first. I usually give her a small shopping bag and ask her to fill it with stuff she is willing to part with. Then I decide if the stuff is trash, or donation, or recycling. As much as I’d like to go through her room myself and get rid of half the stuff, this method gives her some choice and control while keeping a lid on the number of things she has. I wrote a post about decluttering. Perhaps you’ll find it helpful: http://wellbeingforpp.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/why-and-how-to-have-less-stuff/
Thanks for the link to the Simple Living pledge! Will look into it.
Reading this post and the comments above, is tidiness and unclutteredness perhaps a woman thing more than a man thing? (I am a man and as untidy and cluttered as they come!)
Still, a challenge like the one suggested would be a good thing- I’ve far too much accumulated junk that has to go!