Sunday, November 27,2011

It may not look like it yet, but I am finally making some significant headway! I have finally realized that it is just not about the clutter. It is much deeper than that.  It is about my procrastination and why I cannot come to terms with why I feel the need to have so much stuff.  I have had two big cloth bags of stuff for 2 years that I finally tackled. Whenever company comes and I have to clear the kitchen counter as well as the stuff in this room, I dump it all into bags.  I finally sat down and went through them and I had stuff from 2009! Fortunately, it was nothing that would get me into trouble but it was very disturbing to face the fact that I should have either dealt with the stuff or thrown it away! I also overbuy all of the time.  I have too many greeting cards, too much wrapping paper, too much scrapbooking material, etc.  There have been times when I have just bought compulsively! 

I took a big leap yesterday and finally donated all of my video VCR tapes. I finally admitted to myself that because I have a DVD player, the likelihood of my hooking up my old VCR and watching any of these tapes is nil.  I feel so ashamed and embarrased at the number of movies I had that weren't even taken out of the plastic wrap. I don't know why I felt the need to have these movies, even though most were classics, because I am not one to watch a movie twice and I can't even keep up with what is currently on tv!  That was a big step for me to admit this and actually donate them to Goodwill.

I still have clutter but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is still taking me a long time to find a home for everything. Things are going slowly because I look at every piece of paper and ponder what to do with it! I would drive Peter Walsh crazy!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

For the past two days I have been going through a huge stack of catalogs that have been accumulating for months.  Most had dog-eared pages where I had indicated things I wanted to order. I am now trying to whittle that down to things I definitely plan to order for Christmas. It has been quite a task but I am almost through.  This is another part of the purging process that is necessary to get this room in order. I am trying to promise myself now to let that get so out of hand. I need to curtail my spending so why do I save all of these catalogs?  I think in most cases it was just a way to get the catalogs off of the kitchen counter. In going through this process, I found so many duplicates. If I had routinely purged, just once a month, this would not have happened. I am finallly beginning to face my faults. The next step is to change my patterns.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I have not done much these past few days to reduce the clutter. I have been spending time organizing my pictures on the computer and getting them printed.

I have realized that my room has been such a mess that it has rendered me frozen as far as getting any real scrapbooking done. The room is not conducive for working on my projects because the mess is so distracting and upsetting. I now realize that I can no longer work in such disarrary. There was a time when I could do so.  This is a breakthrough for me, because once the room is in order, I think I will be able  to keep it that way. I just wish that I truly had a good place for everything.  I am constantly looking around for a place to store things as I sort through my mess. I have done quite a lot of purging but I obviously have to do a lot more.

I bought new drapes for the room which are lighter and brighter in color. I hope that it makes it a little cheerier.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The past few weekends I have beeen totally busy and didn't have time to spend hours on decluttering.  However, I did make some progress the past two days.  I am a great one for tearing out articles from magazines and then not doing anything with them.  Yesterday I spent hours going through a lot of scraps of paper trying to figure out why I saved them.  I made a lot of headway.  If they concerned books to read, I logged the titles into goodreads.com.  If they were recipes, they went in the kitchen recipe drawer.  If they were websites, I checked them out and bookmarked the important ones.  If they were travel ariticles, I put them in the necessary folders.   I still am having a problem of finding a logical place for everything, but I am working on it!

I am almost at the point where my scrapbooking supplies are put away in the right place.  I haven't spent much time on scrapbooking at home because my work space has been in total disarray and a real dumping ground.  I am getting close to getting that work area cleaned up so I can start working again.  Once I start that, I can reduce a lot of scrapbooking projects waiting to be done.

I know now I am not going to reach my goal of being done before Thanksgiving but it should not be much longer!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted yesterday so this morning I worked for a couple of hours before I went to my pilates class.  I was amazed as to how efficiently I worked!  Normally, I am not a morning person and I would get a lot more done in the evening, but that was not the case today.  I have noticed that in the evening I slow down and turn on the television while I am sorting.  That has caused me to become very distracted.  This morning I just put on the radio and listened to NPR while I worked.  It went so much better.  Unfortunately because I work out in the mornings most days, I have work on my clutter in the afternoon or evening.  I just have to work on staying focused.

Anyway, between yesterday and today I did a lot of sorting and I think I have a handle on my scrapbooking materials. I believe I know now what I have and where it is.  That is a huge accomplilshment.  However, I still have a lot of extraneous paper floating all over the room.  If you were to look at it now, you would wonder if I have accomplished anything at all. But my files are straightened out and my containers are sorted. I am getting there!

Our new dresser is due to arrive next week so I will have to return to sorting out some stuff that was in the bedroom.  I have pictures and things that are in limbo because I am not sure what to put on the dresser and what to put on the walls around the dresser.  I will be so glad when that is done.  Right now there is a lot of junk in the living room which is normally very clean and organized.  I seem to be going back and forth between the living room and the spare room. I think all will be done by the end of the month. Yeah!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Yesterday I skipped my pilates class and walking so I could spend all day cleaning off the kitchen counters and, believe me, it took all day! I am the type that examines each and every bit of paper and then decides where it has to go! I also had a stack of newspapers that I read through before I could throw them away. I felt good that the counters were finally all clean and shiny but bummed that I missed my exericise.

Today I went to pilates and then spent the rest of the day in my spare room.  If someone were to look at it now, he/she would think I had not made any progress at all,  but I have! I spent the whole day purging scrapbooking supplies.  I just can't believe how much stuff I have. There is no way I could possibly use it all. I managed to get rid of a lot of stuff today.

I also took time out to watch a 20 minute video by Peter Walsh, my clutter guru. Once again, he asked us to visualize a room that is cluttered and imagine the vision for the room.  He asked everyone to say what words they would use to describe what they wanted for the room.  I finally came up with my word - FUNCTIONAL! That is what I want this room to be! I want to be able to come in and do my scrapbooking and know where everything is.  That is a breakthrough for me.  I am continuing to work towards that goal.

I found a really neat six-drawer cabinet that I may want to purchase for the room, but I am going to wait until I have everything sorted to see if I really need it. I am very guilty of constantly buying organizational materials and furniture only to realize later that it is not working.