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unclutterI've been fighting a battle with clutter for years, at snail's pace progress, and hope that joining this community will help me to free myself and let go of more 'stuff'.
My problem areas are books, piles of assorted papers/notes, clothes, and craft stuff for painting/drawing and for sewing/knitting. I tend to find it hard to get rid of things because it might come in handy , a kind of apoca-anxiety that civilisation may collapse and I'll be really glad I kept that old woollen jumper/copy of a classic novel etc. This, I know, is not very rational , and means that my house is full of stuff from the past which often doesn't serve me any more.
So, I don't know if I can manage one thing a day, but I really hope that in a weekly review I'll be able to report some progress here.
Recent decluttering to report now - last week, we cut down a walnut tree in front of our house. It hurt to do it, but it was necessary for practical reasons, and my goodness it lets more light into the place! This afternoon, I clear out lots of Stickies on my Mac, which will declutter the screen when I use it.
My problem areas are books, piles of assorted papers/notes, clothes, and craft stuff for painting/drawing and for sewing/knitting. I tend to find it hard to get rid of things because it might come in handy , a kind of apoca-anxiety that civilisation may collapse and I'll be really glad I kept that old woollen jumper/copy of a classic novel etc. This, I know, is not very rational , and means that my house is full of stuff from the past which often doesn't serve me any more.
So, I don't know if I can manage one thing a day, but I really hope that in a weekly review I'll be able to report some progress here.
Recent decluttering to report now - last week, we cut down a walnut tree in front of our house. It hurt to do it, but it was necessary for practical reasons, and my goodness it lets more light into the place! This afternoon, I clear out lots of Stickies on my Mac, which will declutter the screen when I use it.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-09 08:25 pm (UTC)What I do, I don't know if it helps for you:
For books, re-read them and see if you want to keep them? For classics I decided that if I did not really like them and they're readily available from the library, they could go. So I only keep classics I really like (or have not read yet, after which I'll decide for those).
For papers/notes: enter the texts in a long text-file, so you have it searchable! Of course then you have an extra file on your computer, but it's better than many papers in which you can't find anything interesting anymore.
For clothes, wear them again and see if you like it. When in doubt, wear it again...
We just cleaned out my grandfather's home who kept a lot of things because it might come in handy. Actually it turned out (after 20+ years for some things) he didn't need most of it. That helped me too: if you don't use it now or within the year (depending on the season) or haven't used it the past two years, it is probably not necessary. Though I wouldn't throw away empty papers for drawing, dried-up paint is not useful to keep. For books I keep the ones I like and all others can go to other people who might enjoy them more.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-10 03:19 pm (UTC)Re books, I think I'm going to get a Kindle soon, not to replace all my physical books, but there seems to be lots I can replace for free or very cheaply. I have a whole shelf waiting for the re-read decision, but I've been stalling for months on that. I'll just pick one at random this evening.
Re papers, yes, much better on-line and searchable.
Re clothes, the rejects tend to migrate to the Rag Rug Making cupboard, which kind of defeats the object of the exercise!
In general, yes, so much clutter is no use to anyone and can be binned, or can go to a charity shop for other people to benefit from. and enjoy.