Where to start?
Jan. 20th, 2012 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holyschist posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
unclutterThis is a request for tips and advice!
I was making good headway on decluttering about a year ago. Then I moved, and then I moved back and immediately started a new job. I'm drowning in paper (the amount of paper I acquire in a year is mind-boggling, and I don't have the storage space for anything but minimal files) and surrounded by chaos and I have no real idea of where to start. I'm barely staying on top of my laundry (it doesn't help that my current job is part-time and inadequate, so I'm still job-hunting at the same time).
Any ideas for how to get started/make headway on this kind of chaos? 15 minutes at a time does do it, because there's no "away" to "put" most of the stuff at this point. It lives in piles, and our apartment isn't that big.
My other issue is craft supplies: the bulkiest is the fabric. I should probably go through and see if there's any I can sell/give away, but for the most part the solution is going to be to do projects that actually use stash...and get finished, instead of sitting around forever in pieces. Do other crafters have any tips on motivating ones' self through using stash and NOT acquiring more supplies at an equal or greater rate? I mean, my stash problem isn't bad...compared to my friends with houses. But it's a lot of supplies for a small apartment.
ETA: I do historical costuming, so any project is a Project, which is part of my problem--right now my issue is not so much acquisition as lack of motivation to actually project. My last finished project took about half a year. So IDK, does anyone know of stash challenges/support communities that might help provide some incentive to just do the darn sewing?
I was making good headway on decluttering about a year ago. Then I moved, and then I moved back and immediately started a new job. I'm drowning in paper (the amount of paper I acquire in a year is mind-boggling, and I don't have the storage space for anything but minimal files) and surrounded by chaos and I have no real idea of where to start. I'm barely staying on top of my laundry (it doesn't help that my current job is part-time and inadequate, so I'm still job-hunting at the same time).
Any ideas for how to get started/make headway on this kind of chaos? 15 minutes at a time does do it, because there's no "away" to "put" most of the stuff at this point. It lives in piles, and our apartment isn't that big.
My other issue is craft supplies: the bulkiest is the fabric. I should probably go through and see if there's any I can sell/give away, but for the most part the solution is going to be to do projects that actually use stash...and get finished, instead of sitting around forever in pieces. Do other crafters have any tips on motivating ones' self through using stash and NOT acquiring more supplies at an equal or greater rate? I mean, my stash problem isn't bad...compared to my friends with houses. But it's a lot of supplies for a small apartment.
ETA: I do historical costuming, so any project is a Project, which is part of my problem--right now my issue is not so much acquisition as lack of motivation to actually project. My last finished project took about half a year. So IDK, does anyone know of stash challenges/support communities that might help provide some incentive to just do the darn sewing?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-21 04:27 pm (UTC)I found when I started going through boxes of papers, I had utility bills from 3 houses ago, and ridiculous stuff like that. Generally I find when I tackle paper, there's a lot of stuff that is easy to throw out. I also bought myself a small, two drawer filing cabinet, so that at least I have somewhere to stash "keeping" paper. And I will get around to organizing it some day.
Paper is one of the areas that I try to tackle in a manageable amount, with one pile or one box or whatever. I usually have to sort into "action" (unpaid bill or the like), "keep" (goes in the filing cabinet, probably, and "garbage" (into the recycling). Sometimes I've tackled a stack of magazines, or some other kind of paper. I'm loath to let any unwanted paper into the house, too... declining photocopied recipes, or printing off knitting patterns "just in case".
I use a few techniques to handle my knitter's stash. First, I try and be mindful about acquiring new yarn. I also keep all my wool in a chest - so if the chest is full of yarn, I don't need more, right?
I also learned to throw out or get rid of yarn. For me, the first step was the hardest, but like with a lot of other decluttering, after learning that my world didn't collapse the first time I gave away yarn, it was so much easier the second time. And the third. I drastically reduced my stash when I decided to get rid of all acrylic and novelty yarns and thoroughly embrace my inner yarn snob.
Sometimes my knitting has been really stalled because I'm trying to finish a project that I don't like and isn't going well. I stopped knitting for a few years because I wouldn't give myself permission to start a new project/buy new yarn until I finished a sweater that wasn't working out well. Eventually I abandoned it and went back to knitting. And years later, I gave up the illusion that the project or the wool was salvageable and threw the damn thing out.
One of the things I've read about hoarding and clutter is that hobbies is a big area for us. That we tend to collect the materials for a lot of hobbies... ones we actively do, things we used to do, things we want to do... So I have yarn and fabric and board games and a potter's wheel and a sailboat and canoe paddles and bikes and skis and cookbooks and aquariums and books and musical instruments... and I only actually do a few of those hobbies in any kind of active way.
I'm, um. Working on this problem. And the voice in my head that keeps suggesting that I could use it someday.