Taexalia

wild.life

Clutter and Me

Actually it's clutter and us, but I am only responsible for my own shit (although I confess to seeking creative ways to hide house his).

I hate clutter. I really do. So if you were to walk into my home on any day this year knowing this, you could be forgiven for being confused. Of course this year I have had the luxury of "being gentle with myself" based on the fact that we had our central heating hauled out and replaced. We also had half a kitchen, for several months, before the incompetent git we hired finally turned up to build a new one. Do not even ask me about the incompetent git - but if you are planning to replace your kitchen and you live in the Lothians, feel free to run your chosen kitchen man's name by me in case I can save you from disappointment, ineptitude and a wall unit that seems to be sliding down the wall. I feel entitled to publicly rant about this and use the term incompetent git since he has now avoided coming to fix his mess for months.

Anyway, the truth is that clutter did not suddenly happen to me this year - it has been following me around for years. Literally. It is a combination of lack of space, lack of organisation, pack-rat tendencies and two people who collect *stuff*. OK and yes - sheer laziness plays a part too.

So I have been trying to conquer this demon and it is an interesting journey - when I am paying attention to what my inner tape player is saying. I de-clutter better when I can get myself into a ruthless type of motivation - when I cleaned out my wardrobe I went like a dervish and filled a bin liner in the space of 30 minutes. Then I thought about listing it all on eBay and then I realised that was just a sneaky way to really keep the stuff for longer - I just know some of it would have sneaked back into the wardrobe... so off it went to a clothing recycling bin. Pronto.

Other stuff is medium easy - you know the crap you get at Christmas that you keep because you don't feel right dumping it immediately? Well I purged that and it feels good! I see Crimbo looming with trepidation, but I will try not to be so *nice* on Boxing Day.

But the books. The books HURT. And I'm never going to stop buying books, and clearly I've been book buying in my sleep this year! But in light of the fact that the floor may not actually take much more book weight, and the fact that I managed to muster some self-discipline, I took out (that sounds so violent!) more than a bookshelf's worth of books yesterday. The bookcases are still full, they just don't have the horizontal piles on top of the books now, and I confess the books now sit in a forlorn pile having been listed on Amazon (one sold so far) so they may not go anywhere fast.. This may qualify as a cop-out.

So I am making progress and I really like the feeling of calm that prevails when I spend time in a newly conquered room. The problem, though, is maintenance.

I'm thinking about the "reasons" I gave earlier and wondering how valid they really are. I just don't buy "lack of space" - two of us live in a flat that is bigger than the one I lived in as a child with four other people. It isn't lack of space, it's Too Much Crap.

Then there's lack of organisation, which is relevant - and sadly linked to laziness. Which I'm really not going to manage to deny. Really. And with too much crap, it's just never going to be organised.

The most interesting one (your mileage may vary) is the "pack-rat tendencies". I say I get it from my Mum, and we both get it from Grandma ~ but in Grandma's day keeping things was to do with survival and things not going to waste. In this day and age consumerism is so rampant we end up with so much crap that when the "save it for a rainy day" thing kicks in it means we have a couple of skips worth to deal with.

You could say my pack-rat gene just hasn't modified to the modern throwaway lifestyle.

But the truth is - I don't want it to! I want to do away with the consumerism and stop buying/collecting crap.

This leaves me with two problems ~ what to do with the remaining clutter I haven't yet tackled.

And Christmas.

[del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] More »
Related Posts with Thumbnails

Tags:

Posted on October 22, 2007 in Homing.

2 Responses to “Clutter and Me”

  1. seventh sister says:
    October 22, 2007 at 9:46 pm

    I think we all have those tendancies. In 2001, We had only what would fit in the back of my pick up and Stephen’s car plus a few boxes of clothing that we shipped to North Carolina when we moved from Florida. When we moved back to Texas, we lived in a tiny place and had to store some our clothing outside in plastic storage containers. We are now in a 3 bedroom house and have been acquiring stuff to fill it. I am amazed at how fast that can happen.

  2. Misssy M says:
    October 23, 2007 at 7:45 pm

    I feel the same way about Christmas- not so much about what I get but the truckloads the kids get from other folk.

    We’ve only just sorted out all the shite they got for birthdays in April/May before the horror of Christmas and rellies phoning up to say, “What do the kids want for Christmas?” Nothing! They want nor need NOTHING!!!!

    And I can’t believe you only filled one bin bag of clothes. One sesh would get me two easily. there’s one woman on Freecycle who waits for me to post and snaps them up.

talk to me on Twitter subscribe via RSS feed connect with me on Facebook read me on Kindle