Conquer Your Clutter

* Image source: www.apartmenttherapy.com

Are You In The Midst Of Clutter Chaos?

If, like me, you’re a recovering clutterbug (or if you’re still a dyed-in-the-wool pack rat), you’ll undoubtedly recognise the following scenarios:

• Your desk at work (or at home) is covered in several ramshackle piles of paper – in no discernible order;
• Your house is only ever tidy for very brief periods of time (although, to be fair, this could just be a sign that you have kids);
• Your shelves are groaning with books – some of which you’ve actually read;
• You possess an old biscuit tin filled with various mobile phone adapters, wires, battery chargers, and spare fuses, but you don’t know where it is;
• You have a drawer of clothes you haven’t worn in years, but which you’re keeping “just in case”;
• You own more than one expensive item – perhaps a kitchen appliance, or a piece of gym equipment – which you bought full of good intentions to use every day…and it’s still in the packaging;
• You have piles of CDs you’ve hardly listened to, and DVDs you still haven’t watched (and you’re still buying new ones);
• You have boxes and boxes and boxes of unsorted photographs, and you’re too overwhelmed to even consider organising them into albums;
• Your house is full of various unused “bits and bobs” that you bought for that “special project” you’re going to start “one day”;
• You regularly can’t find something when you’re looking for it;
• At least one cupboard door in your house has to be wedged shut, or it’ll pop open, spilling the contents everywhere;
• You have a whole room which you haven’t been able to set foot into for years, because it’s full of your unsorted stuff.

Familiar?

Clutter is the bane of many a person’s life. Several of us wish we could de-clutter, and live with a continually nagging feeling that if we could only clear some space in our home (or our office, or our car, or our cupboards) we’d also clear some space in our mind, and would be much more calm and efficient as a result.

For some people, the issue of clutter has grown so large, they hire tidier people to come and help them sort it all out. Life laundering has become a big business.

But there’s a problem. In my experience, once a clutterbug, always a clutterbug. That is, unless the habit of collecting clutter can be replaced with something else; something which minimises the chance of clutter building back up again, or at least swaps the hoarding of meaningless mess for the collection of joyously useful junk.

How to do it? Before we can effectively deal with clutter, we need to properly understand what it is.

Firstly, it’s important to consider what it’s not. Not all clutter is rubbish, for example. Don’t mistake precious mementoes and objects of specific sentimental significance for clutter. Things we’ve gathered over the years that remind us of special people or important events are important. It’s fine to keep them. If you’re compulsively keeping everything, you may have a problem. Some people can get by with nothing material in this area - just their memories. Good for them.  But if you’re not there yet, don’t let anyone suggest you should throw these things away. Keep them – but keep them well, safely bestowed somewhere that’s both secure and accessible. You deserve to be able to find them whenever you want, so you can enjoy them as often as you like. Don’t let them get swallowed up in irrelevancies.

What Is Clutter?

At its simplest, clutter could be defined as “various things you don’t use and don’t really need, but which you’re still keeping, and which are taking up space around you”.  But in order for us to make some meaningful headway into dealing with (note that I didn’t say “clearing”) our clutter, we need to understand that clutter is actually a far more sophisticated and interesting beast than the above definition allows.

The truth is, your clutter is a physical representation of your innate desire to fully realise your potential.

We gather and collect things because we really believe that we’re going to “do something” with them at some point in the future. If you’re someone who’s interested in building a life you love, there’s a very good chance that you’re also a pack rat. The two things seem to go hand in hand, because you are automatically attracted to things that whisper to you of future possibilities (why else would you have those “Learn Spanish” tapes which you still haven’t listened to?) These items, pregnant with possibility, are as attractive to you as shiny objects to a magpie, and pretty soon, your nest is full of them.

But clutter doesn’t help us realise our potential. In fact, it hinders us. It keeps us busy tidying and sorting it (or fretting about the fact that we aren’t tidying or sorting it) to the extent that we expend vast reserves of energy on it – energy that could be channelled into moving forward with our dreams and wishes.

If all this sounds depressing and overwhelming – don’t worry. I have some nifty tricks up my sleeve which will help you sort out your clutter, once and for all.

Getting Through A Clutter Crisis

First of all, forget the idea of bulldozing through your clutter all in one go; it’ll take too long, and will become terribly disheartening. Your time is too precious to be spent tied up in that kind of task. Instead, try these techniques, each of which can be deployed for refreshingly short periods of time, yet can have visible effects very quickly:

1. The Time Capsule: No, not one of those boxes you fill with interesting artefacts and bury in the garden for some future soul to excavate and coo over (although that is one way of getting rid of some of your stuff).  This is about setting some deadlines for you and your clutter. You will need a box or some other large container. Sort through the clutter that falls into the “I’m going to use it some day really!” category: the foreign language tapes; the expensive, unopened kitchen appliances; those books you haven’t yet read; the paints and brushes you bought because you felt you’d like to get into something artistic…Put them in the box with a sticker on them upon which you’ve written the date by which you’re going to get round to using them. Be realistic and firm with yourself, not ridiculous or woolly: “sometime in the next five years” doesn’t cut it; “By 30th April 2010″ does. Mark the same date on your calendar, along with details of the item in question, and commit to using it by then. If that date comes and goes, and you still haven’t actually used the item – get rid of it.

2. The Mini De-clutter or De-clutter As You Go: Rather than one big blitz, tackle your clutter bit by bit, while you’re doing something else that doesn’t require much in the way of hand-to-eye coordination . Pick a cluttered corner and sort through it while you’re chatting on the phone, for example. Even if you only dispense with five of six items at a time, if you repeat this one whenever you can, you’ll soon make a noticeable dent in your de-cluttering schedule.

3. The Power Piles: This is the one to use when you have a bit more time – a couple of hours, say. Pick some of your clutter, and start working through it, sorting it into various piles: The Give Away Pile is for those items which you’re happy to donate to charity, or pass on to a friend; the File Pile is for those items you really do want to keep for reference, such as books that need to find a home on a bookshelf (you could also put items in this pile for later labelling and depositing in your time capsule); the Ancient Pile is for mementoes and sentimental keepsakes – those things you’re going to keep and treasure; the Find A New Place Pile is for those items which are clutter in one room, but could be something useful in another, and need to be moved accordingly; and finally, there’s the Trash Pile, which is self-explanatory.  Once everything’s in the relevant pile – deal with that pile appropriately, as the various names suggest.

Living Your Life Post-Clutter

Don’t think for a minute that once you’ve established some degree of order, things are going to stay that way for very long. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do clutterbugs. You can be sure that any space you’ve managed to open up will soon be filled again. The key question is – filled by what?

If you do nothing, the chances are the same old clutter, in a different guise, will re-establish itself. It’s important, therefore, for you to make some conscious choices about what will fill the space you’ve just created. If you’re ready to start crafting a life you love, then you can make full use of that space by using it for that very project. If you take the time to seek out your pleasures and talents, you can fill the space with artefacts which help you to pursue those pleasures and talents.

Someone once said “the only way to get past bad habits is to replace them with good ones”. The same holds true here: the only way to get past bad clutter is to replace it with something meaningful. You don’t have to turn into an uptight cleanliness freak, living in an empty shell of a home or office; you can still be surrounded by glorious dishevelment, if that’s the way you’re made (many of us are). But believe me – if that dishevelment is a testament to your dreams, rather than your indecision, you’re going to start feeling the benefits immediately.

Happy de-cluttering!

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© Brian Cormack Carr, 2009

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