Clutter isn’t just physical

I am slowly trying to get rid of the things that clutter up my life and prevent me from accomplishing some of my goals. This clutter can also cause stress with not knowing what to do with it. while I was going through my emails the other day i realized that I had another clutter that keeps building up and prevents me from having better time management. I realized that all those emails we get every time we buy something online, or answer a survey, or sign-up for a deal at a restaurant or grocery store we are now on their email list. My mail box is full of emails I never open. Yes, I delete them but they keep coming and coming. finally today I decided I was going to do something about it. I started “unsubscribing” to them. I felt so good. Before, I felt like if I “unsubscribed” I would miss out on a great deal or opportunity, but if I didn’t read them how was I going to get that great deal.
It will feel good to not have to open my email to find all those junk emails anymore. The down side is I may not be getting as many quality emails as I think I am.

The Joy of Uncluttering

My goal last year was to enjoy my Sunday’s relaxing around the house watching football. Even though I did watch football, I think I only had one Sunday where I saw two games from start to finish without working on some project. It seemed every weekend there were so many things that needed to be done on the to-do list that I couldn’t just sit there and enjoy the games. The irony of it was that many of the chores still never seemed to get done. With so many big projects, like distributing 9 tons of rock in the yard or cutting down a tree, I would ignore the not so important projects like cleaning out and organizing the guest room – which was more like a storage unit than a guest room. In fact the more big projects I had, the more cluttered the guest room and other areas would become, to the point that they now became one of my big projects.

As I finally tackled (pardon the football terminology) my tool shed (see my recent post “There’s Nothing Funny About Clutter”) I began to realize why taking care of all the clutter can help reduce the stress of every day and help getting the big projects accomplished. Now I look forward to coming home in the evenings and organizing my stuff. I find myself feeling a sense of accomplishment when I am purging myself of items that I don’t need or will use. One of the biggest burdens we put on ourselves is holding on to material things we no longer have a use for and will never use, but for some reason whether sentimental or whatever, we can’t seem to let go of it. Last night I let go of some dishes that were taking up space in my cupboards. They weren’t fancy dishes, they were probably bought at a dime store many years ago. I never used them because they are under the dishes I use everyday and they are so old they aren’t microwavable. For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of them until last night. These nondescript dishes had a hold on me because I have been eating off of them all my life. I felt that if I got rid of them I would be losing a little bit of my past. I finally realized that i have so many more important and meaningful items that have real value to not only my past but future. Mom’s paintings, pictures, her good china, etc. I don’t need to hold on to every little thing to keep memories alive.

This summer my goal is to have all the clutter organized, donated, or thrown away so that I can enjoy my pool. I realize that living in a house that is almost 50 years old there will always be projects around the house and I will probably be fixing things every weekend. But If the clutter is gone I will be able to enjoy the pool after I finish my weekend projects and not feel stressed and guilty that I should be cleaning out that room, closet, or shed.

Don’t Be an April Fool

April is a fun month, not only do we start the month off with April Fools but April is also National Humor Month. The entire month is dedicated to humor. Take this month to dedicating yourself to putting more humor in your life. It will help you reduce stress and live a healthier life, but don’t end your quest of putting humor in your life with the month of April make it a year-long, actually a life long quest to incorporate more humor in our lives.

April is a good month to reinvigorate your humor, the days are getting longer, flowers are starting to bloom and despite a few April showers the weather is a little bit warmer. This is also a good time for Spring Cleaning, clean out your closets and get rid of those things you no longer need. By purging yourself of unwanted clutter you will also feel a sense of accomplishment reducing your stress and therefore making it easier to find time to find humorous things to do.

I enjoy entertaining friends for BBQ’s and pool parties but my house and yard have been so cluttered with stuff the stress of cleaning up before guests arrived and having to move my things from room to room and still have clutter always hampered my ability to completely enjoy my get togethers because I was tired from shuffling my stuff and embarrassed because I still had a mess. This year I decided to get organized and I can’t wait for my gatherings. The back yard is organized so that there isn’t anything out-of-place. A friend was over and asked me what I had done to the yard. I have done a lot around the yard but the most notable thing is that you don’t find things just randomly placed. everything has its place and makes the backyard much more welcoming.

Now I can enjoy my spring with friends and share the laughs not having to feel like I have to apologize for the mess.

Celebrate National Humor month and combine it with some spring cleaning and you will reap the benefits of combining the two.

Nothing Funny About Clutter

·         Fibber McGhee and Molly a radio show that ran from 1935 to 1959 had a running joke about their closet that was so full that every time they opened it stuff would fall out and Fibber would say, “I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days.” But he never cleaned out that closet. The bit was funny and has a lot of truth to it. Do you have a closet that needs to be cleaned out? I do. I have a whole house that needs to be cleaned out.

I moved into the house I grew up in a few years ago and as wonderful as it is I also inherited almost fifty years of stuff from my parents. For sentimental reasons I put much of it aside because I didn’t want to deal with it right after Mom passed away. The problem is with their stuff combined with my stuff there isn’t enough room for all of it in the house. So I am constantly moving things from room to room depending on the occasion. When my cousins come to visit I move what’s in the guest room out to the party room so they have a place to stay, but move it back into the guest room when I am entertaining. Not only does it physically wear me out but the stress of the clutter hampers my ability to do the things I should be doing not to mention the time it takes to constantly shuffle it around.

I joke that I am a hoarder and even though I am by no means considered a hoarder I do feel the burden of my clutter. Recently I have been trying to fix up the house that I had neglected the last few years while concentrating on my mother. Every time I started a project I took so much time looking for the tools I needed because I didn’t have a place to store and organize my tools where I could find them. So last weekend I decided the next project around the house was to clean out the tool shed that was being used as a storage unit. I took everything out of the shed and we divided it up between three piles. Throw away, donate and keep. Because the stuff in the shed had been there so long the majority of the stuff we took to the dump, then the second load went to Goodwill and the third and smallest pile I organized and found a place for it. It felt so good to clean out that shed and make room for my tools. The shed is organized and i now will no longer have the stress and use up precious time looking for the right tools.

It’s funny, the more I held on to stuff for sentimental reasons the more stress I created for myself. Taking the time to determine what is worthwhile to save and what needs to go helps to add extra value to the things you keep for sentimental reasons.

The more I get rid of things the easier it is to relax and maintain my sense of humor and a positve outlook.