By Mary Lynne Murray
Reprinted from Contra Costa Times, September 14, 2002
What can I do
to get a handle on the clutter at my house? -- Amy of Walnut Creek
A good place
to start is on the inside -- begin to be aware of where your clutter
comes from. Here are some important patterns to consider:
- Impulsive buying – see something and buy it,
then feel bad later.
- Compulsive buying – you ease depression by
going shopping.
- Connection with the past – grandmother's teapot,
mementos from a special trip, etc.
- Hoarding – things are on sale; you can't have
too many of these; might need this someday, etc.
- Perfectionism ("all or nothing") –
don't have time to go through the entire closet, so keep everything.
Any of these patterns of acquiring things can put a hole in the
dam through which clutter leaks -- or even flows -- into your
house. While you might feel like you're drowning, the key to dealing
with clutter is realizing that you get to decide what you will
allow in your space. It's a matter of exercising your right to
control the inflow of things in your home, and to also determine
the outflow.
I used to read my girls a book called "I Can Get Organized,"
by Karen Erickson and Maureen Roffey. Its simple format for toddlers
gives some great examples of how to get a handle on clutter. Here's
one:
"Everything is so mixed up -- who put my shoes in the refrigerator?
How did my toothbrush end up under the dining room table? Why
is my truck in the kitchen sink?" (Hint: Put like things
with like things, and as close as possible to their point of use.)
Then the excuses: "I'll never get things back in
their places. Everything is too messy. It would take forever to
clean my room. I can't do it. I'm too little."
Then the aha: "But who's going to do it? Maybe
I'll just start. Pick up. Put away." (Hint: Just get started.
Getting started moves you toward a better balance between order
and clutter, and you'll gather momentum with action.)
To keep the clutter bug from becoming the clutter monster, practice
these steps toward a less-cluttered home:
When you come in from your day, don't throw everything
on the first horizontal surface you see. Instead, hang purses
or backpacks on a hook, door handle or coat rack. Establish a
basket to drop the mail in until you have an opportunity to read
it. When the kitchen counter and dining table are not used as
a repository for these things, you have a clear workspace to make
dinner and a place to eat and relax.
Your mother may have called this "a place
for everything and everything in its place." Some items,
usually large and odd-shaped (like granddad's violin), seem to
resist finding a home. But when most of your things have a home,
you will feel at peace. Having a mental picture of where your
things are gives a sense of security and lets you relax.
Toward the end of the day, swoop through each
room and pick up and put away stray items. Use a basket to gather
and redistribute things, but don't make a marathon out of picking
up and putting away. Keep it short and sweet, spending five minutes
or so in each room. Get your kids involved.
Do one thing at a time. Make a "pocket of order," as
recommended in "Making Peace With the Things in Your Life,"
by Cindy Glovinsky. This means choosing a task that is doable
in the time you have available. Once done, it becomes a positive
reference point of what you are capable of doing when focused.
Clutter represents delayed decisions. A common
reason for letting things pile up rather than putting them away
is that we haven't decided how they fit in our life. "I'm
not sure if I want this book on 100 ways to cook chicken, so I'll
just set it here for now." Forget perfection and strive for
progress, which will let you strike a balance between order and
chaos.
In response to a recent column on organizing paperwork, Janice
from Pleasant Hill writes: "I would advise that everyone
have a shredder, because whenever a paper is tossed that includes
your account numbers, Social Security number or other personal
information, it should be shredded to prevent identity fraud."
Regarding the same topic, David of Walnut Creek writes: "When
you get junk mail, write 'Return to Sender' on it and put it back
in the outgoing mail. Junk mail companies don't want to spend
money sending to addresses that are going to bounce back, and
they seem to be very quick about removing addresses from their
lists that come back to them."
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