Decluttering - digging deep

Well, I will have to put my money where my mouth is because I have a situation that needs to be addressed soon, which involves decluttering. 

Remember I said there were a couple more containers on the floor in the office? They hide behind my recycling and garbage can, so they often get forgotten. 

The junk containers hiding behind the garbage

I found room on the desktop for the two vertical containers. 

Three containers full of what? 

I decided to open the box underneath. Oh my -- what's in these bags? 

What's in those bags?

OH  -- I needed these decluttering lessons ten years ago! So while I had just scratched the surface of decluttering 10 years ago, that did NOT stop me from picking up crap! Yes, the paper in those two bags was from BICYCLE SHOWS from 2015 and 2016. I brought all that crap home and NEVER once looked at it again!! SHAME ON ME!!!

Brochures and maps from a bicycle show

Underneath the bags was more paper!!! I am an accumulator of paper for sure. 

More paper

OK, so let's step back a moment and evaluate this. Yes, I should take the entire lot and toss it in the recycling. However, I am unable to do that! I know—call me crazy—but I'm slow and methodical, and I need to touch and look at each piece. I can't help it. Maybe I'll get over that one day. 

However, I can go through it quickly, and here's something that I need to take to heart. When I read Messie Condo's book, called Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die, her philosophy behind the book is decluttering for DEATH. It's all about what you want to leave behind (or not), so I will keep her thoughts in my head as I "quickly" sift through those two stacks and toss them. 

Bicycle or tourist maps from various regions throughout Quebec and Ontario. Do I need them? No, so I don't need to store them, like I have for ten years. 

What's really sad is that I NEEDED to pick up all those maps at the show. How many other people also picked up those items, and how much of it got used? We are such a WASTEFUL society. Just to show you that I can, I just picked up a handful of brochures, and after a quick perusal, they are now in the recycling. It's all about baby steps, and I MUST LEARN to let go. I'm trying hard, and I've come so far; everything I toss is helping me reach my destination. 

I hear some of you struggle with my slow speed. "Why not go faster, dump all the paper, and be done in less than one hour?" I can't. I'm learning to let go. Others are saying, "Why bother cleaning it at all? Let someone else do it." I am more responsible and more respectful of others than to leave this mess to someone else. 

The issue with hoarding tendencies, and, let's be honest, it's related to mental health (both the cause and the effect) and our desire to possess stuff, even if it's useless or the piles have become so large that we don't even know what we have. We must deal with it in a way that works for us. I'm slow and methodical, but I know I'll get there. And I'm learning, at the same time, how to organize and NOT let stuff accumulate again. Others might go fast and dump it all but learn nothing, and the clutter becomes an issue again. We all have to find what works for us. I have a MILD case of hoarding, but each time I walk into this office, I feel calm, and I'm not done yet! I wish I could explain that better or allow you to feel the difference between walking into your personal space when it's a mess and when it's not! You cannot believe the difference. 

Here's my garbage. It was emptied yesterday, and now I get to start all over again! I have another stack of CDs to go through this morning, and that box definitely has a lot of room in it now. 

The garbage bin is filled with CD junk

What is challenging is time. I am easily distracted—probably because there is so much that needs to be taken care of, and I struggle to focus. I'm of the mindset that ANYTHING I get tidied up, even if it's a bit, is better than not doing anything. Those unfocused moments have led to a much nicer space to work in, and so I can't complain. There are so many ways to do something that no one is right. 

I'm not sure what your weather is like, but I walked to the UPS depot to drop off another box, and it was so beautiful that I was in shorts. Has anyone looked at the date on the calendar? I had to take my sweatshirt off because I was sweating! 

Shorts in November

Then I stopped in at the mall to find a pair of flip-flops for the gym, as mine broke the other day. No flip-flops, but the Christmas decorations are out! With the help of my friends, I found out I can order the flip-flops and have them ready for pickup at the mall in a day or so. I'll take care of that later today. 

Christmas decorations at the mall

One more customer quilt is done! 

Customer quilt

I also did quite a bit of work on the Dear Jen project, and I hope the worst of the homework prep is over for this month. The quilt was initially hand-pieced with templates. The book provides minimal instructions and no cutting directions, so I'm recreating the blocks and providing details. It's a bit consuming, but all is good. 

I'm on an adventure tomorrow, so I must be heads-down today. I only have time to work on Dear Jen. But if I finish early, which I just might, then I can prep the next quilt or splice that darn video together. 

So much to do, so little time!!! 

As you are decluttering today, here are a couple of thoughts. You'll find these in Messie's book, but I had also thought of some of them as I've been cleaning these last ten years. She goes into much more detail in her book. 

1. Remove all emotion from the process. It's just stuff. Take a picture and move on. I did NOT say these thoughts were easy!

2. If you haven't used it (like my ten-year-old brochures), you can live without it. TOSS!

3. If you feel there is stuff you would like to keep for memory reasons, but the items will have ZERO meaning when you are gone. - put that stuff in a box (try to keep the box small). Label it as such. "When I am dead (let's be realistic - we are going to die), toss this box. No need to look inside, it's just meaningfully to me." Again, Messie goes into great detail on this process, so if you haven't read the book, you should just keep in mind the F-bombs in it. 

4. Even if you like a cluttered home (I ask myself why you would want something that drags you down, prevents you from inviting people into your home, etc.), you can have lots of stuff around but have it neat and tidy. Just like our grandmothers used to do when they had thousands of knick-knacks in the house, it was neat and tidy - cluttered, but neat and tidy. 

5. If you have a SO who doesn't want to get rid of stuff, get them to read Messie's book. Or better yet, read it together at dinner. Talk about it—why don't they want to get rid of stuff? Talk about responsibility. How would they feel if the things they were hoarding belonged to the children? Would they tolerate that mess? 

6. Above all, if you or the SO have NOT touched something in ten years, it's time to get rid of it. Now, that timeline might be different depending on your house. I know one reader, that time frame would be 3 months! But for the rest of us just getting our feet wet, we need more extended time frames to help break this down. 

7. Have RATIONAL discussions with your kids when they are over. Get them to help the other partner realize what is happening. It's a challenge—trust me, I know, having dealt with it and continue to deal with it with my mother. However, in her case, the more she gives up, the more she wants to - or so I keep telling myself. It's tough, but someone down the road is going to have to do the cleaning, and I doubt your kids want that job on top of their already crammed daily lives. 

I pulled this off the internet. It is NOT funny. It's a sign of a serious hoarding issue. Who is going to deal with that? 

Well, after that -- it's time to go. I have convinced myself to take 20 minutes today to review those two paper piles. Let's see how I do on that assignment. If it's successful, I might just do a 20-minute tidy-up every day - just to sort through some of this paper I've accumulated and know I don't need, but I want to see it one last time before it goes. I would have NOTHING in this office (well, almost nothing) if I could get rid of the useless paper! I CAN DO IT!!! I'm just slow. 

And on that note, I'm out of here!  

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!