Over the Christmas holidays, my daughter asked me if I where I keep all our pictures and I suddenly realized I had no idea if they were in the back of one of my closets or in the storage section above my apartment. When I moved into this building in 2016, I had no desire to unpack much that wasn’t a necessity: I didn’t really feel at home in the place and lacked the interest in pulling out my stuff to decorate. And over the past five plus years, I’ve done my fair share of purchasing things I thought I wanted but never used. This along with pouncing on pandemic items when they finally became available: masks, disinfectants, extra packages of toilet paper, eye goggles.
The chaos under my kitchen sink was dealt with thanks to a plumbing problem which arose Christmas Eve night which necessitated us pulling everything out and trying to snake the pipe open. Monday I finally got around to putting things back and even managed to dispose of a few nearly empty containers. I noticed that I have four different organic surface cleaners, two packages of rubber gloves, four bottles of disinfectant, three pet stain removers and various and sundry other products I never use. That night, I considered going through the shelves which
I was louging on the couch with my Kindle the other morning, wondering when I would get the energy to start dealing with all the extraneous stuff in my drawers, cabinets, and closets when I switched to my computer and came across an artile in the NYT Why We Clutter, and What to Do About It.
In the article, Jane Brody writes:
The burden of clutter doesn’t even end when we die. When my friend Michael and his brothers cleaned out their 92-year-old mother’s house in Florida after she died, among the many multiples they found were eight identical jars of mustard, five dozen cans of pineapple chunks, 72 rolls of paper towels, 11 walkers and four wheelchairs. Costly truckloads of clutter had to be carted away. I’d like my family to have better things to fret or chuckle over when I die.
Tips to tackle decluttering
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Establish a plan. You may want to go room by room or focus on a category like coats or shoes, but avoid changing course midstream before you’ve finished the task you started.
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Set reasonable goals based on your available time and stamina. If a whole closet is too intimidating, even as small a task as clearing items from a single drawer or shelf can get you started in the right direction.
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If a more gradual approach is more manageable, consider my friend Gina’s suggestion: keeping a container in each room to house giveaways. When she tries something on that no longer fits or looks good, it goes directly into the donation bag, not back in the closet.
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If needed, get help from a friend, family member or paid consultant who won’t have the same attachment to your possessions.
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Create three piles — keep, donate and discard. Don’t second-guess your initial assessment; immediately trash the discard pile and schedule a pickup for the donations or take them to a worthy destination.
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If your clutter includes items you’re storing for other people, consider giving them a deadline to pick them up, or suggest they rent a storage locker.
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Finally, avoid backsliding. Resist refilling the spaces you clear with more stuff.
A lot of time I feel as if I am trapped behind a wall that separates me from life and I’ve felt this way for so long that it’s hard to engage with life, that it’s all just clutter. I have my books and a couple of friends and little interest in poking into my past. There is almost an impenetrable haze surrounding it, one I don’t want to disturb. And then I think of all the stuff I’ve accumulated over the course of my life and it feels just overwhelming.
As Brody says:
People like me, who fill storage areas as long as the living spaces remain orderly, do not rise to the seriousness of being a hoarder, which is considered its own psychiatric diagnosis. But clutter has its own risks. Among them are the chronic and repeated stresses that can arise, for example while searching frantically through stacks of miscellany for an important paper or racing to clear piles of junk before visitors arrive.
Thursday Afternoon
I just roused myself from reading some junk fiction and decided to tackle the holiday clutter early. Succeeded in getting the lights off the tree but I’m going to have to wait for someone to help me unscrew the tree and get it out of the house. Tried to arrange everything in an organized manner in the closet so that next year it will be easier to get things out again. Realized too late that my Thanksgiving decorations were behind all the Christmas boxes.
The vet called to inform me that my dog’s ACL surgery is being moved from Monday to Wednesday. They have very strict Covid protocols so when I pick her up on Thursday no one will be available to help me get her into the car. They suggested bringing along a second person. I have three volunteers who are looking at their schedules to see if they are available. Gives me a week to try once again at training her to do her business outside my unit so we don’t have to navigate the stairs.