When one has issues with clutter, one of the biggest blocks to getting past the clutter is deciding where to start getting rid of the clutter. Do I start in my children's rooms? Where each child has enough stuff for 3 children? Do I start in the kitchen where the collection of gadgets sometimes attacks you when you open the cupboard? Personally, I think that I need to start in my bedroom/home office. Oh the mess in there! I have paperwork to deal with as the Ombudsman of my husband's ship, paperwork for my home business as a Tastefully Simple consultant, paperwork for my Girl Scout Brownie troop, and of course the piles of personal paperwork consisting of bills, junk mail and stuff my kids bring home. I have a file drawer that holds the personal stuff and the long term Girl Scout stuff, a file crate that holds my Tastefully Simple stuff, and a plastic file box for the Ombudsman stuff. And of course there is my stack of plastic file boxes for all of the above. Oh yeah, and the multitudes of piles on the floor, on my desk, on the dresser, etc. of stuff from all these things that needs to be filed away or dealt with. I would love to hire an organizer who could set up a system for me and teach me how to use it, unfortunately, that's not in the budget. So I'm left to figure out the mess by myself. It's kind of funny, I must put on a good show because everyone outside of the scope of my family and close friends think that I am an amazingly organized individual who accomplishes tons of great things. Little do they know that I'm barely surviving, swinging by the seat of my pants, mere moments ahead of the deadline.
You know, I think I'll start by making my bed.
I'm a perfectionist with clutter issues, who may or may not have ADD and just a touch of OCD. This is my journey to find myself amongst the clutter (and maybe some peace for my family along the way). I'd write in a paper journal, but I can't find my pen.
You don't have to hire anyone, I'll do it for free! :) But you probably wouldn't like it, because I like to throw stuff away. Extra paper is something I do NOT keep in the house, as soon as the mail comes in, whatever I don't need to keep goes straight into the shredder or recycle bin.
ReplyDeleteI empathize. My husband has the most orderly, regimented filing system ever- he actually has an office-sized filing cabinet- and I'm always envious and in awe of how quickly he can find things while I'm left guessing where my own important papers are (usually they're gnawed on by my now-deceased pet rabbit or crumpled up in a random box).
ReplyDeleteThe FlyLady program is one of my resolutions this year. Fifteen minute chunks of throwing stuff away.
We can both do it! I have faith! :)
That's the thing Allison, I don't have a problem at all with getting rid of what I don't need. I have a bin where the recyclable paper goes and a trash can for the rest. My problem is the piles that have to be kept. Did you know that every Girl Scout permission slip has to be kept for 3 years? I must have 1/2 a forest of paper stuff related to the Ombudsman gig. I can't seem to keep up with the putting away, the filing and the dealing with of the stuff that isn't for the trash. *sigh* I'll get it straight some day.
ReplyDeleteOh how I envy people like your husband Mandy, lol. I started trying the FlyLady program almost 5 years ago. I do great with the 15 minute chunks of decluttering but that's about it. If you go back to my very first post in this blog, you'll see :). I think it would work if I wasn't so scatterbrained, lol.