DrDeClutterBlog.com

 Here is a really great idea if you’re tired of a room in your house, or lots of rooms!, or have some tired areas in your home with which you find yourself frustrated.

When you use this method of itemizing you’ll give your brain a rest and release a lot of stress too.

You’ll need a notepad, pen and tape measure. Walk from room-to-room jotting down

- things that bug you (your spouse may be on this list!! )

- things you want to change

- items you’re ready to get rid of (but are still sitting there though you’ve been complaining about it or thinking about it forever)

- things that are broken or need repair

- etc.

Make this list for each room. The tape measure is for items that may be missing, like a bookcase, or to be replaced and you’ll need measurements.

Don’t get distracted and sidetracked – don’t do any of the jobs now, just walk and make the list.

BECOME YOUR OWN PROJECT MANAGER

Each of these rooms and/or items on the list now becomes a “project.”

Projects are now ready for a plan: decisions, time tables and action.

Decide which room or project needs attention the most and get to it! 

Borders Bookstore could close? Barnes & Noble close behind?

That’s blasphemy!

It was a big article in the paper recently.  Why this downturn?

Ebooks and electronic reading devices are taking their toll on our beloved book stores. A $550-million line a credit to keep Borders afloat may not be enough if we don’t buy more books at our local stores.

I’m a “real book” person. I have to flip pages, pick them up, stack them up, pile them around, dust them off, write and draw in them, highlight and dog ear them. That’s how my brain works best to remember information. I’m tactile and visual. I have to touch the page and feeeeel it. I’ve been told that I can highlight on an e-reading device. Sorry, it’s just not the same.

Captain Jean Luk-Picard always had a few “classic” real books from “the past” in his quarters. The rest? Paperless, e-reading all the way.

I’m not there yet. Don’t know that I’ll ever be.

I’ve offered lots of presentations at my local Borders too. What else can we do there!

If you want to see your favorite bookstores with real books in them survive and thrive… organize your time and money around buying your next books at the store instead of online or electronic always. Spend time browsing and being around other real book lovers and meanderers like me!

You don’t need a New Year to remind you to set and take action on goals. If you’ve already gotten back into old ruts, jump back on that horse and refresh your choices once again! Keep all movement going toward the BIG PRIZE! Whatever that means to you.

“What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple.
Whether you are willing to do it is another matter.”
~ Peter F. Drucker,
“Father Of Modern Management”

Here are the simplest 6 Steps to Get from Here to Your Ideal There for everyday projects and completions.   

1. Write a short list

When we have too many TO DOs on our plate, our brain gets overwhelmed and we do what I can “trance.” We stand and stare at it but don’t do anything to get the action going and jobs completed. Has that happened to you?  

So, write a short list of doable projects for the day.

  2. Time block your short list

If you feel overwhelmed and then look at your TO DO list and hear yourself thinking, “This will take all day! This will take forever!” you’ll never get started. You probably start feeling tired and then distract yourself by doing something else meaningless, or eat.   

Realistically time block each item on your list. Some may literally only take 5-10 minutes to do. Others may take a few hours. When your mind knows the time structure the project can be completed within, it relaxes into “doable” mode. There’s now a start and a finish to your task, making it much less stressful.

 3. Break down the big jobs

If a project is going to be 2-3 or more hours to finish, break it down into parts and each part into a smaller time block. Again, this will keep your mind from feeling overwhelmed. It’s easy to do small chunks at a time and then feel accomplished and good about yourself when they’re done too! 

4. Start!

Don’t let yourself distract yourself further by playing around with this list and time blocks! Get going on the first one and see great results quickly. 

5. Prep Tools

Some projects may need tools to get them done, for example plyers, screw drivers, nails, hammers, trash bags, trash cans, sorting boxes, bins for storage, etc. Plan this time in too and get your tools ready so that you can jump in and “stay in the room” to get the work done — not leaving to get the tools and then not coming back! 

6. KUDOS!

It feels great to check mark and cross off projects when they’re finished. Give yourself a pat on the back for each project you complete. Don’t let it go by without feeling good about yourself, especially if you live and work alone, like many people do. You need to feel good about your accomplishments, no matter how seemingly small, so that you can remember that feeling for motivation to do the next, next and next projects! 

“Winners take time to relish their work,
knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes
the view from the top so exhilarating.”
~ Denis Waitley, Corporate Trainer   

Even if your daily mountains are molehills, be a winner in your own life! 

It’s well known that people, especially women, use eating and weight, fat, to insulate themselves from the outside world. It’s a way of setting up armor for safety usually not created in appropriate ways in childhood.

Do you use your clutter and “stuff” – maybe even junk - to insulate yourself from the world?

Think about this seriously…
    1. What “payoff” do you get from keeping more than necessary stuff around your home, office, car, etc.?
    2. How does it shield you from pain?
    3. How does it act as a “high,” like self-medicating– a “soft-addiction?” 
    4. How would you feel if your house was extremely cleared out and you couldn’t buy anything more to “fill up” the/your emptiness?

Or, maybe it’s asking it another way…
    – Do you shop to feel good?
    – Do you feel like a hunter coming back from the great north hunt having “bagged” your game, showing everyone and telling the story of how and where you got it, the prices and “great deals”… your “hunting” story?
    – Who would you be if you didn’t go on the hunts?
    – How does that make you feel?

If you are getting anxious about now, you are indeed getting a “payoff” for shopping, finding, hunting, gathering, etc. and bringing home more stuff to “fill” your trophy room.

OUCH!

                “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing,
                                         the next best thing is the wrong thing,
                     and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

TEMPORARY FIXES DON’T WORK 

Temporary fixes are a short path to deep problems that just aren’t worth it.

Your surroundings should reflect the best of who you are. Everything in your home and office should be what you LOVE. Your LIFE should be 99% more than any of your possessions. There’s always more, there’s plenty, and even if you could “have it all” the bottom-line is that you deserve to do and be so much more in your life than a buyer, consumer, hoarder, keeper, cleaner, defender and insurer of stuff.

Don’t let advertising and sales mailings lure you in like a fish to a worm. You can swim for years in your pond and never have to have “more.” The few lily pads you have a beautiful, or get a few that are and really enjoy them.

Go shopping, go to garage sales, go to markets and festivals… enjoy the weather, the music, the people. You don’t have to buy anything! Invite friends and family, join clubs, enjoy yourself and the time in which you have to enjoy yourself … it’s short, remember!

Clutter and stuff that just keeps piling up and taking up room creates “visual white noise.” It creates visual and physical distractions. Distractions keep you off center, off balance and out of your natural state of joy and peace.

KEY: If you don’t have LIFE GOALS, DREAMS, PASSIONS and PURPOSE into which you pour your glorious unique and personal creativity, joy, time and energy… clutter and wasting time and energy will take up the space and time. The universe abhors a vacuum. If there’s a space open, it will get filled up. So, get on top of it. Fill it in with what you truly WANT, not with just stuff, new or old. Fill it up with open space, by choice, so that it can stay beautifully open and enjoyed.

DO THIS 

Sit down and write out your “do want’s” in life. WHAT DO YOU WANT?

If you decide what you WANT, clutter will not be on the list and will have to move aside and out of your life in order to make “space” for the good stuff. But, if you don’t know what you WANT it’s too easy to let the clutter sit heavy in piles and stacks and ….

So, the “price tag” for clutter is stress, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, guilt, etc. Up the standards by which you live your precious life, declutter and bring peace, joy and self-love (not loathing) back into your space and life. You deserve it!

YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO GET RID OF EVERYTHING AND
REDECIDE WHAT YOU TRULY WANT TO BE, DO AND HAVE.

Stop trading yourself for symbols of yourself.

I recently spent several weeks of appointments decluttering, reorganizing and putting closet shelving and systems in place for a family. After finishing the daughter’s room, Mandy, age 8, told me and her mother that she loves staying in her room now, that “it feels like home.”

As a professional organizer, January is an exciting month for me! I love organizing and because getting organized is one of the top New Year’s resolutions people make year after year, I’m all about supporting you to do that! Jump in today with vim and vigor!

Here are just a few tips to get you started (see the rest of my blog articles for tons more!) 

1. We use only 20% of our stuff 80% of the time.  So, start letting go of more of the 80% you never use and will never use.

2.  Everything needs to “live” somewhere in your home.

3.  Everything then needs to have a “home” in your home, or it is “homeless” and gets lost! A “home” is a place where you always put it when you’re finished and can find it when you need it. And, where other’s can find it too when you tell them where it is.

4.  Ask yourself the following questions to determine what you should keep and what you can let go of, toss or donate, etc:

  • Do I like it? Do I love it? Does it love me back? Does it bring me joy?
  • Do I need it?
  • Will I use it? How will I use it?
  • Do I have something like it already? Do I need another?
  • Do I have room for it?
  • Where will it live? Where will its “home” be?

A GOOD WAY TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO ORGANIZE

My book title, Burn Your House Down is going to give this one away . . . but, think about what you would want if you had to evacuate your house with only two hours to gather your things. This exercise will really help you identify what is important to you and what is just taking up space.

Jump into January with your organizing cap on! Enjoy your home and help it to love you back.