Recently, I read a news item about a 74 year old British man who died inside a labrynth of
tunnels he had built in order to find his way through the piles of
foul-smelling rubbish he had accumulated in his home. He was thought to have become lost inside the tunnels and, unable to find a way out, died there of dehydration. Incredible!
And though I'm sure that your own clutter is on a very much smaller scale, I should imagine that it's a very rare person who has no clutter whatsoever...
Why do people accumulate clutter? Maybe they:
.
are rebelling against their upbringing, (if their parents were
sticklers for tidiness and insisted that their children lived by the
same standards)
. had a poor or deprived childhood and they surround themselves with 'stuff' to help them feel more secure
. are unhappy and are spending money on things they don't need in order to make themselves feel better
. are depressed and don't have the inclination or the energy to clear the clutter away or
. just can't be bothered to find a place for everything.
Most
houses have clutter 'hot-spots' - places where stuff accumulates on a
regular basis. The clutter hot-spots in our house are the hall table,
my desk-top, my bedside table and the sofa in my partner's office which
gets piled up with stuff that we need to take with us to the boat or
stuff that we have brought back from the boat.
Where is the
clutter hot-spot in your house? How does the clutter make you feel when
you look at it, or try to move past it or clean round it? My guess is
that you feel stressed, frustrated, slightly depressed and annoyed and
maybe even a little helpless and hopeless.
Next, think about the
great feeling you get when you walk into a room after you've completely
cleaned and cleared it. How good does it feel to get rid of all the
junk? Clutter takes up space in your brain. It is always there at the
back of your mind. It is always
there on your mental 'to-do' list, being carried around in your head indefinitely.
If, like me, most of your clutter is of the paper variety, use the Do, Schedule, Delegate, or Dump technique. The aim is to touch each piece of paper that comes into your house only once.
Set up a mail-opening station in the hall or in your study or office. Keep a bin handy by the work surface to throw unwanted items into immediately. Better still, buy and use a shredder to avoid being a victim of the growing crime of identity theft. Register with the Mail Preference Service (you can do this on-line) to cut down on the amount of junk mail being sent to you. At the same time, register with the Telephone Preference Service to stop all unwanted marketing phone calls. Both of these are quick and easy to do and you will be amazed at the difference it makes.
Every time you open an envelope, resolve to either Do, Schedule, Delegate or Dump the contents. Either:
Do it right away (file it, write a cheque, write a reply, sign it and send it back)
Schedule it if you can't deal with it immediately (write it on your calendar or in your diary)
Delegate it to the right person to deal with it or someone who can handle it or
Dump it straight into the bin.
If you find it too daunting to jump right in and clear the clutter from an entire room, start smaller. Start by clearing a drawer, a cupboard or a desk-top. Every time you leave a room that needs clearing, take with you five items that need throwing away or which should be stored somewhere else. Do a 10-minute blitz - go into the room and spend 10 minutes picking up everything that shouldn't be there. Set a timer and, when it goes off, stop clearing. Do it again later.
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