Our last two reveals towards a 2020 life clutter-free!
Get to know your clutter “why” – why are you unorganized? What is the origin of your clutter? This understanding and addressing if will accelerate your ability to get to a life in order in 2020.
Transitional
For some, organizing is a momentary issue, and that’s the why. A new baby, a move or relocation, a new job that has you traveling a bunch or an illness of some kind are life events that can result in being unorganized. If you have generally been super organized, then you likely have a low tolerance for this disorganized state. It won’t take long to get yourself back to order. You will need to invest the time, get help from a friend (or a pro like me!), put it on the calendar and get the work done. If the transition is long-term – a new significant other or an intense new job – you may have to consider life alterations to stay in the organized state you desire. Getting a housekeeper or defining roles, for example, will make a difference. And the tips in my blog can help too!
Technical
For others, clutter is technical – like living in a small space. Again, this is a relatively easy clutter challenge. There are many resources to help use a space better. Hooks and shelves on walls. Clever cabinet storage solutions. more here, of course!
Chronic
For most of the members of my tribe, however, organizing has been a life long challenge. Your “why” may take a little more time to uncover and will definitely take a lot more effort to address. Here are some of the reasons for chronic disorganization:
- A learning, behavioral or mental disorder, even if it’s not severe enough to be diagnosed, can result in clutter challenges. Those include ADD/ADHD, OCD, dyslexia or depression. These are all afflictions that will or may cause clutter. You will want to understand and manage these issues.
- If you lived in a cluttered household or in one where all the work was done for you, you may never have learned or come to appreciate the skills required to live an organized life. Unless you learned behaviors in your younger years that provided you organizing skills, you may have challenges. I am fortunate to have had two organized parents. Further, when I was young, as part of a large family, we were all required to do household chores regularly which enabled my strong organizing skills. As we all know, learning anything as an adult takes time and effort.
- The strong love of, or addiction to shopping is a big clutter trap for many. I have a deep animosity towards Amazon for that reason, an operation that makes it way too easy for people to bring stuff into a household. Paying some attention to your shopping habit and modifying this behavior as much as possible will make a difference. Remember, with a coupon you may get 50% off but if you don’t buy it, you get 100% off!
- Guilt. Many of us Boomers were raised by parents who lived through times of deep scarcity. That resulted in the attitude of waste not, want not. It requires an attitude adjustment to believe that holding on to your stuff not only hurts you and as applicable, other members of your household, but is bad for the planet and for someone else who would love to take advantage of a those used possessions. Create a win win win by letting go and adjusting these attitudes from scarcity (I may need it someday) to abundance (the universe will provide)
- Often issues around clutter are about being overly attached to possessions. Attachments are often about lack of self-esteem or lack of personal boundaries. Transitioning to be less attached means not only working on gaining organizing skills, but takes self-love work as well. There are many resources for building up your sense of self-worth and understanding your unique and powerful gifts. The more you understand what makes you special, the easier it will be to let go of clutter and collections that don’t serve you.
- Extreme cases of clutter now can be diagnosed as a Hoarding disorder. Hoarding is serious and not only do you likely need a Professional Organizer in your life, you also more importantly need a Therapist or Psychologist to address your hoarding issues. Hoarding behavior is often co-morbid; there are more than one psychological or behavioral issues at play. Give yourself time to gather a village of support and address these issues. My associate and peer, Dorothy Breininger, whom I met when I crewed on an episode of the show Hoarders, has an excellent collection of resources for Hoarders.
The good news: by reading this article to this point, you are already ahead of the game. You are doing the work. Well done my friend.
BONUS READING: You have heard this before and it applies here – Acceptance is the First Step Towards Change.