He spent most of his day organizing records so they’d look neat. Never did a lick of work!

Of course, the whole point of getting our lives in order is simply to have the SPACE in which we can live those lives, so if you’ve reached a comfortably organized place, maybe now it’s time to dust off a project or two that used to be buried under the clutter.

Often people like this had very chaotic childhoods where there was little they could control, other than their immediate physical environment. It’s actually frightening to them for the small things they can control to be disrupted, and this doesn’t go away just because someone is an adult.

If organizing goes to such an extreme that it interferes with the comfort of others this compulsion has gone too far, and it’s time to get a mental health professional to help you explore what it is in your background that pushes you to such an extreme. If this sounds like you, you could try leaving just one little thing sitting out, and force yourself to leave it there. Realizing that the world won’t cave in can start giving you a little relief.

I, on the other hand, could use some help figuring out why I’m so…well, not organized. But that’s for another post.

I love your post and the comparison between de-cluttering and Sisyphus.

I’d like to argue that if you are already organized – that is, if you have established *systems* in your home so that everything has a place where it “belongs” – you will not need to spend much time de-cluttering at all.

Think organization as *prevention* for time suck.

There are still some layers of clutter in the attic, shed, garage, closets & cabinets. They don’t impact my everyday life much.

But the truth is, I love the feeling of minimizing & decluttering also! When I’m in a slump it somehow clears my mind & energizes me. So decluttering does serve a purpose for me, even if it isn’t visible to someone else.

And every time I get on a roll with it, I find things that I kept in previous bouts, that I can now do without. I guess if I got rid of it all at once I would be DONE, but it just doesn’t work that way.

I’ve been in a real slump for a couple of months, and last week started a new round of decluttering that brightened my mood considerably. I’m still at it…

However, when I was on leave from that job for several months I took the opportunity to really clean up and organize our storage room for the very first time. I took everything out, looked at everything, filled up the trash bin several times, collected tons of stuff to donate to the Salvation Army and put the rest into brand new boxes. It gave me a real feeling of accomplishment and helped us cut down on the sheer amount of junk we’d been keeping around for decades. It kept my mind occupied during what would otherwise have been extremely stressful times.

I had to learn to come to the saying when I first learned about making eco-friendly choices. Everything fell under scrutiny, and I was so overwhelmed with where I should start that I almost gave up and did nothing. Sheesh!