DrDeClutterBlog.com

Autumn is almost upon us! Don’t let it fly by into winter and still not have your clutter decluttered and chosen joys organized!

Look around your house or office right now. Do you have clutter? Is any of it “in your way” in a “if I don’t walk carefully around it I’ll trip over it” kind of way? Or, how about all that paper stacked in your garage-is it safe to leave there for another year or ten?

It’s the human condition really, we’re genetically programmed to collect, accumulate and to save a variety of things. Generations of people before us had to seek out and collect anything that was materially useful. They had to be not only resourceful, but, because they didn’t have a store or all-you-can-buy-for-pennies-24/7-MART down the street, they had to make everything (EVERY THING) themselves, so that collecting, consuming and storing food and “stuff” was critical to survival in long winters and in times of famine. So, it’s really in our DNA. 

But, we do now have 24/7 MARTS and shops and stores. We don’t need to collect and store and consume as much as we do. And, we’re really not that many generations away from “those” people in past generations. My parents grew up on farms in the Midwest where they didn’t have electricity when they were children, if they didn’t have “it,” they created it or did without. My grandparents didn’t have an inside toilet until I was about eight. They just didn’t see the need. A woman in my home town passed away last year, she was 87. She still didn’t have an indoor bathroom. She chose to use the outhouse as she was used to it, she didn’t need “bigger, better and more” to enjoy her life.  

I’m not suggesting that you give it all up to live that simply, but to become more mindful and conscious of your choices on a daily basis. Technology, most markedly electricity, (what a blessing) makes us masters of the universe! Or at least the master of our own personal universe. But there are two sides to every coin. Technology and “more” can also be a curse. We can stay up all night long with the lights on, we can travel farther, plug in more stuff and buy the next gadget. As we “trance” out (unconscious consuming) and keep buying and collecting more of what we already have or don’t need and don’t use, we become overwhelmed with what we now call “clutter.”

CLUTTER AND STRESS

There is a direct correlation between clutter and stress. Clutter can lead to health problems including stress, weight gain and physical hazards from an unhealthy environment piled with “too much, too long.” It also affects our behaviors; clutter is a contributing factor to noncompliance to taking medications, keeping appointments, being able to exercise and eat well.  

And to add to this growing list is the inability to be genuinely happy, at peace with oneself and limited social enjoyment due to not inviting people into ones home for embarrassment of the clutter. And, the big hazard, your house burning down due to mounds of paper too close to a flame, oil or gas soaked rags left in the garage or any number of ways that clutter can start or impede the rescue efforts when there is a disaster. (I have several real news reports pertaining to this in my ebook, Burn Your House Down.)

CLUTTER MESSES UP YOUR BRAIN

Messes on the outside create messes on the inside. Over time, subtle, constant, low-grade stress develop from living in a cluttered environment. Even though you may think it doesn’t bother you, your brain remembers and sees and catalogues it all. Anxiety over clutter literally messes with your brain’s alpha waves and interferes with your sleep, making you more fatigued, impacting your hormone levels (women and men) and increasing production of cortisol, leading to weight gain and other more serious medical issues. The more clutter you have the more you need to deal with it. The more you don’t deal with it the more you generate stress, overwhelm and depression.  

Over 97% of doctors office visits are stress related. How many of these are related to clutter?  

A little or a lot, clutter steals your time, energy, peace of mind, and productivity. Are you ready to change?

CLEAR THE CLUTTER, STAY WELL

• Schedule the time in your calendar to declutter making it as important as any other date that is a priority and can’t be missed.
• Plan 30-60 minutes per project.
• Choose one “chunk”, pile, drawer or shelf and dig in. Pull it apart, sort it out.
• Trash the real trash, recycle and repurpose what is still useable, donate what is still good enough for someone else to enjoy, and reorganize what you’re going to keep and enjoy.  

Keep doing this same pattern of activity over and over around your home and office until it’s done. If you feel overwhelmed, hire a professional organizer or ask for help from a friend.  

It’s “just start it” time!  

You should own your possessions, they should not own you. Take time and take charge of your environment. Open it back up for joy and fun and friends. That’s what life’s about, not stuff.  

Ali Brown always shares the right stuff! “Run Your Business From Home? Here’s 10 Ways to Be More Productive” http://tinyurl.com/33ku4o6

The One Minute Effectiveness Rule states that, “Whatever you can do in less than one minute, do it!”
 
There are lots of little nagging things that accumulate over time that can be decluttered, moved, put away, closed, fixed, tossed or some action that will give movement to otherwise stagnated stuff and energy. Doing what you can do in that precious one minute on the way by the stairs or kitchen counter, dining room table or through the mud room will also keep things from accumulating more.
 
I know it doesn’t seem like much, but doing just a one minute declutter at a time will bring peace of mind, more energy and cut down on frustrations and stress.
 
Plus, outer order contributes to inner calm. We can all appreciate having more of that! 

Men, this one’s for you!

Dr. Oz has a few things, well, 25 things! to say to you about taking care of yourself. 

Women, tell your husbands and boyfriends, everyone forward to your friends, brothers, father and sons. It may just save their lives. 
 
Dr. Oz’s 25 Greatest Men’s Health Tips
 
As you well know by now, Dr.  Mehmet Oz is a professor of cardiac surgery at Columbia University and a founder of the Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He is co-author of the award-winning Healing from the Heart: A Leading Surgeon Combines Eastern and Western Traditions to Create the Medicine of the Future and YOU: The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger. He has frequently appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and currently hosts The Dr. Oz Show.

Oz says, “On The Dr. Oz Show, I’ve learned that once people are emotionally involved, change happens quickly, especially if they feel that their behavior is letting loved ones down.”

He goes on to say, “Even though large-scale change seems daunting, we still want and need simple routines that we can automatically follow on a daily basis for our best health. Adopt some of the steps described here, which work for me and that anyone can do, and you will like your life more in just a couple of weeks. Plus, you’ll live longer.”
 
My note: I’ve left most of Oz’s tips as simple self-explanatory titles, to others I’ve added more information to round out the point. Enjoy!

1. Roll on the Floor Laughing

2. Don’t Skip Breakfast

3. Hit the Sack (7+ hours of sleep!)

4. Admire Your Work — check out your poop!
Don’t be so trigger-happy with the flusher. Turn around and take a look at your poop, which speaks volumes about your gut and overall health. Poop should be smooth and S-shaped, like your colon. If it comes out too lumpy, or drops into the bowl like marbles, you’re constipated; increase your fiber and water intake.

5. Don’t Pamper Your Bad Back

6. Taste the Colors — Vegetables and Fruit

7. Brushing is Not Enough — Floss!

8. Take a Deep Belly Breath

9. Join a Yoga Class

10. Don’t Be an Island

11. Avoid Fad Diets

12. Be a Smart Patient

13. Lose the Beer Belly

14. Go Green — Green Tea

15. Sweat Until You’re Wet

16. Save Some Money

17. Have as Much Sex as Possible (Get ready ladies!)

18. Know Your Numbers, then Aim Lower
These include blood pressure (which ideally should be below 115 over 75), LDL cholesterol (under 100), resting heart rate (under 70), and fasting blood sugar (under 100). If your numbers aren’t ideal, change your diet until they improve.

19. Add Some Weights

 20: Grab Your Nuts (I’ll fill this one in!)
Nuts are among the best sources of healthful fats and protein around. I keep a bag of walnuts in my fridge and use their massive dose of omega-3 fatty acids to boost my brainpower while I see patients. Half of a handful eaten about 30 minutes before a meal will temper your appetite and help you avoid the drive-thru.

21. No, Seriously, Grab Your Nuts (I’ll fill this one in too!)
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men ages 15 to 35, but it’s usually curable if caught early enough. I strongly urge you to grab your testicles and check them for bumps at least once a month. Each testicle should feel smooth and slightly soft, and one should hang slightly lower than the other, like two avocados (which, in Aztec, actually means “testicles”) growing on a tree.

22. Hit the Dance Floor

23. Do Your Penis a Favor (I’ll fill this one in also!)
Step on a treadmill. Men who exercise enough to burn 200 calories a day significantly lower their chances of impotence. That’s because impotence often has the same cause as heart attacks: blocked arteries. Your penis is like a dipstick for your arteries, so check it. If you’re interested in keeping it up later in life, lace up the sneakers now.

24. Learn to Cook

25. Some Pills Should Be Popped — Vitamin D

26. I’ll have to add a 26th Tip here men! — Get organized!
The more organized you are the less stress you’ll have all ’round!

 
Do you want more information on each of these? Click here for the full article on each healthy idea from Oz.

Losses throughout the year of any kind, human, animal, health, wealth or of spirit can take an extra toll during the holiday weeks. Here are a few steps to take care of yourself during this time.

1. Make time to grieve.

Set aside time to really feel your feelings, cry your tears and let it all go where it needs to. Your body needs to mourn your loss or change all the way through.

2. Get support from others.

It’s not always easy to ask for help. Being “strong” isn’t smart. Being “human” is. Whether you talk to family or friends or see a counselor or minister, you will find layers of grief just waiting to spring forth when you talk to someone else and tell your story once more.

3. Develop skills that help you remember you are a worthwhile person.

You can let grief control you and fall into a deep depression or illness, chipping away at your self worth; you can ignore and deny it and stay busy, keeping your “mind off of it”; or, you can gain knowledge of how to embrace your pain and grow positively from it.

4. Create a physical environment that supports rather than stresses you.

During the mourning process stress levels increase. You need to create a space where you feel safe, comfortable, quiet when you need it and nurtured, even if only by yourself.

5. Take care of yourself.

There are physical as well as emotional aspects of grief. Exercise increases your strength and stamina and reduces your stress. Healthy eating gives your body the good nourishment it needs. Find quiet time. Schedule a massage to stay connected with your body.

Bottom line, grief is hard. Make sure to take the time to face it and deal with it, otherwise it will affect you for years to come.

“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” 
~ Charles Dickens, author of “A Christmas Carol”

Merry Christmas to you and yours,

Kim

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Oh, those fun people over the pond! We need more of this, pronto!What cool and creative thing can you create in your home, community or area?

Are you too old to be messing around, playing and having too much fun?

NEVER!!

Make sure to have fun on vacation, on holiday, down the street and in your back yard! People who play and laugh more are healthier, friendlier and live longer!

Here’s my friend Jan up in Rochester, MN. She’s sitting pretty in a really big chair on display in front of a store. Jan is going to be a grandma again pretty soon! Go grandma!

“We are driven by five genetic needs:
survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.”
~ William Glasser, M.D.,  American psychiatrist
The developer of reality therapy and choice theory

Life’s short! Organize around fun!

No matter your age, play today! Take a photo and share your fun in the sun!

 A continuously organized closet is a happy closet! REWARD!

When you “practice organizing” and get a rhythm to decluttering and bringing order and (almost) continuous joy to your space, it actually is very rewarding.

Like everything else in life, organizing is a habit. A bad habit = clutter, messes, frustration and no organizing. A good habit = organized and decluttered areas of the house by doing it on an ongoing basis to keep up and enjoy your space.

Let’s focus on the good habit!

1. One way to start your good organizer habit is to start with one zone or area and keep it decluttered all the time. Maybe just the kitchen counter or a coffee table. As you get this down pat, choose another area and reclaim control over it. Take a week or two for each area to really see the incoming and outgoing traffic. As you do this one by one, you will be in charge of your environment again (or for the first time!) REWARD!

2. Another good way to stay on top of incoming and stagnant stuff and things, is to plan a weekly go round with a large garbage bag the day before trash day. Be ruthless! Check every room for anything to throw out. These are really things that have no HOME in your HOME (bah-bye) aaaand, they can’t be donated or recycled, they’re really trash. REWARD!

3. If it’s donatable, have a second bag or box that you sort for these items. Go round again if you don’t want to carry it with you the first time. Feels great to release things for others to use. REWARD!

4. If it’s recyclable, do another walk through. REWARD!

TIP: If you have kids have them help you as they’ll start seeing how they contribute to the mess! Discuss as you go how there are things you keep finding that are tossed that maybe they don’t need more of! There’s a concept!! REWARD! REWARD! REWARD! REWARD!

BONUS: Think of all the good exercise you’ll get doing this in a couple trips around your castle, as well and really finding things you were missing and remembering where things are when you do need them. REWARD! again!

All good!