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Take Back Your Life from Hoarding and Clutter
We can’t change the things we most want to change, so let’s change what we can.
Posted March 31, 2020
In these troubling times of social distancing and remaining in our homes for an indeterminant period of time, it is normal that one of two things may happen. Either the unaddressed tasks like clutter begin to cause agitation and overwhelm us, or as a self-protective measure from fear and uncertainty, we may put blinders on, start to cocoon, and let the byproducts of our day-to-day life build up around us.
Neither of these options is a good one. Instead, let’s consider taking back our lives in the ways we can, by adopting the principle:
When we can’t change the things we most want to change, let’s change the things we can.
This will allow us to continue moving forward in doable ways.
Take a minute and look around you. What is irritating you most? Is it that pile on the tabletop that has been there way too long and feels like it is putting down roots? While you are waiting for “social distancing” to be lifted, why not invest in your own peace of mind and comfort by gradually making small changes that add positively to your life and the spaces you live in?
In past blog posts, we have explored:
1. Setting realistic expectations to begin decluttering:
- Remember, be gentle with yourself. Starting is ALWAYS the hardest part. There is nothing wrong with you if that is what you are experiencing. Welcome to normal!
- You don’t know where to start? It doesn’t matter where you start. Choose the place that is most irritating you, or just start in one corner and work your way around the space from there in fifteen-minute intervals. No matter how big or how small the task, don’t pick a 4-hour job when you only have a reserve of half an hour’s energy and focus in you that day. Stay at it in 15-minute intervals. Also remember, when you start a 15-minute interval, you must finish it, so think long and hard before you promise more of yourself than you can deliver; otherwise you won’t continue to go back to it. In the long run, it really is the 15 to 20 minutes you do reliably every day that will get you to where you want to be and keep you there.
2. Setting goals that support you to move forward:
- Remember Elaine’s "There’s More to Life Than Decluttering Goals." Go back in the inventory of our blog posts and review them. A quick snapshot of them is, in equal parts, find the Joy, Fun and Play in every day. Stay a Growing, Learning, Developing person by choosing something you are interested in and increase your knowledge or skill in it. Devote a predetermined period of time every day to resolving or avoiding a buildup of clutter which will increase the likelihood of it developing into a hoarded environment.
3. Make conscious acquiring decisions. Review the online shopping strategies in our recent post.
- It is times like these when we are vulnerable to desperately needing solutions, those little “jolts of joy” and items that promise solutions, especially online. They become like mirages that promise progress and relief from feelings of vulnerability, loss, and powerlessness. Remember, this too shall pass; there is no object that is the answer. The answers are in each of us: good self-care; staying connected, even by remote means to those we love and who love us back; social responsibility; reaching out for the support we need when we need it. If you need more support, please join Elaine for a free, “Ask Me Anything” Q&A participatory podcast that Birchall Consulting is running during this coronavirus stay-at-home period. This is a Zoom meeting held on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Eastern Daylight Savings time. Please join us! It will give you the extra help you need and make you part of a worldwide community accessing the two essentials for success:
1. Getting help for the underlying reason(s) you hoard/clutter
2. Helping you clean up and declutter your environment so that you can have the peace and space you need for the life you want
Better days ahead! Stay safe! Be well! You are not alone! We are one!
