12 Days of Decluttering - A Challenge to Myself
I battle with guilt and internal unrest over the clutter and general disorganization in my life. I'm definitely not the worst when it comes to clutter. I'm not a hoarder (although sometimes the specter of being one of those people featured on Oprah is a good reality check for me). I've never been good at being especially organized and tidy. I like to come up with organization plans. I like to plan systems for keeping myself together. I tend keep important matters in order (financial, important life things, etc). But I've never, for instance, been able to maintain my bedroom in an orderly appearance. In recent years I've made huge strides in that I've been able to keep more public spaces of my home presentable to the degree that I am not totally ashamed to have people see into my home. I don't do a half bad job of it most of the time now.
But I also am plagued with this sense that life would be much easier if I pared down a lot of stuff. I have a very, very bad habit of not dealing with unused items and, particularly, paper clutter, and holding onto things for far, far too long. I just can't seem to part with some things or to deal with them immediately, even if I know they don't belong in my life anymore. I have boxes that came from my mom's basement that I know have miscellany and detritus from previous stages of my life. I know I don't need to have boxes with unsorted mementos, scraps, notes, old files, and mail. I just never did anything about them. Now they sit in a small rented storage unit that I had only intended to keep until the end of summer, at which point I figured I'd have dealt with the stuff inside well enough to not need to rent it anymore. But before I can deal with those boxes, I have to make room for what will remain from them in my apartment. I have a nice, big closet in the spare room that is filled with similar boxes (although these are more recent, are slightly better organized, and I have a decent idea of what resides inside, unlike the storage unit boxes). I've been working on some of this off and on, often half-heartedly, but sometimes in small bursts (a few hours every few months?) of obsession. I figured right now I'm ready to give myself a small challenge.
For the next 12 days, no matter what, I'm going to take a minimum of 15 minutes to do *something* related to my decluttering and whittling of stuff. It isn't ambitious, really. 15 minutes is very little time, but it can lead to 30 or 60 or infinite minutes once I've gotten some momentum. And if I don't get momentum, at least of I've done 15 minutes worth of the task. And since in the next couple weeks I'll be working a handful of evenings in addition to my normal workday, 15 minutes is still an amount of time I can commit to.
So, my 12 Days of Decluttering begin tonight.
But I also am plagued with this sense that life would be much easier if I pared down a lot of stuff. I have a very, very bad habit of not dealing with unused items and, particularly, paper clutter, and holding onto things for far, far too long. I just can't seem to part with some things or to deal with them immediately, even if I know they don't belong in my life anymore. I have boxes that came from my mom's basement that I know have miscellany and detritus from previous stages of my life. I know I don't need to have boxes with unsorted mementos, scraps, notes, old files, and mail. I just never did anything about them. Now they sit in a small rented storage unit that I had only intended to keep until the end of summer, at which point I figured I'd have dealt with the stuff inside well enough to not need to rent it anymore. But before I can deal with those boxes, I have to make room for what will remain from them in my apartment. I have a nice, big closet in the spare room that is filled with similar boxes (although these are more recent, are slightly better organized, and I have a decent idea of what resides inside, unlike the storage unit boxes). I've been working on some of this off and on, often half-heartedly, but sometimes in small bursts (a few hours every few months?) of obsession. I figured right now I'm ready to give myself a small challenge.
For the next 12 days, no matter what, I'm going to take a minimum of 15 minutes to do *something* related to my decluttering and whittling of stuff. It isn't ambitious, really. 15 minutes is very little time, but it can lead to 30 or 60 or infinite minutes once I've gotten some momentum. And if I don't get momentum, at least of I've done 15 minutes worth of the task. And since in the next couple weeks I'll be working a handful of evenings in addition to my normal workday, 15 minutes is still an amount of time I can commit to.
So, my 12 Days of Decluttering begin tonight.