Are you an unclutterer?
An unclutterer is someone who chooses to get rid of the distractions that get in the way of a remarkable life.
These distractions, also known as clutter, can be:
- Physical. You have things you don’t have use for, things you have too much of, things that are out of place, things that don’t inspire you, things that you don’t want. The things you do want are disorganized. You’re overwhelmed by stuff.
- Mental. Worries, stress, and anxiety about things you can’t control or things that could be solved if you were better organized.
- Time. You have too much to do and not enough time or desire to do it. Or, you’re not managing the time that you do have well. Things that matter to you are pushed aside by busy-ness.
- Processes. You’re not working to the best of your ability or don’t have processes in place to handle routine actions. You’re spinning your wheels.
What is the clutter in your life? How would your life be different if you chose to get rid of the distractions? Are you an unclutterer?
Posted by Erin on May 21, 2009 |
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25 comments posted
Posted by Tabitha (From Single to Married) - 05/21/2009
oh, where do I start? I was actually thinking of this recently when I realized my home office has become cluttered as of late. So I started go through the stacks of papers and organizing the desk space. I feel like it makes such a huge difference in my overall well being to have a clutter-free space. So that begs the question – why do I let it get cluttered?
Posted by Elsinne - 05/21/2009
I have had problems with organization and clutter my entire life. I realized recently (by observing one of my neighbors) how to solve this problem.
I deal with every situation as it happens, no matter how big or small. On every level.
If I finish eating, I wash my used dishes immediately. They will not be there later. If a bill comes in the mail, I pay it immediately. I won’t have to remember later. If I wake up, make the bed immediately. The room won’t look trashy later. If I am on my way to work and am on 1/4 tank of gas, I fill up then and there.
I am still working on my system. It’s not easy since I am not an organized person by nature. This doesn’t require organizational skills so much as it does discipline.
Posted by Sheena - 05/21/2009
I am organized but I keep a lot of stuff. And recently, I have taken measures to stop that! Whenever something was on sale…say 3 for the price of 2..I’d buy 3 even though I really only need 1 shampoo. And its not like I need to buy in bulk..I’m single, live alone…there will be another sale. So I purges..just my toiletries and had enough to give three friends each a bag FULL of lotions, body butters, shaving creams, perfumes…it was crazy!
I also NEVER like to get rid of books. That’s one thing I’ve never done. But since I’m in the process of moving..I just don’t want any extra stuff. So for the first time in my life, I have a pile of books I will be donating or giving away.
Yesterday I also finally through away notebooks from courses taken in college. I graduated 5 years ago…not sure why I still needed my geology notebook. The stuff I wanted to keep..I made a stack to scan!
So I’m slowly making my way. Even though I’ve prided myself on being organized…I still had clutter.
“Clearing the Clutter with Feng Shui” has been really helpful!
Posted by RML - 05/21/2009
Yes, I am an unclutterer! I started my blog last year with the focus on decluttering my house, however as I make progress (not finished yet), I have been inspired to write about other things as well.
I am trying to rid my life of anything that drags me down, particularly possessions. I am chronically disorganised ONLY because of years of overspending and accumulation. I am taking my time and will get there one day…
Posted by green LA girl - 05/21/2009
I’m pretty good at getting rid of stuff I don’t need, but my mental life tends to be cluttered. Lately I’ve been keeping a “for worry time” list — where I write down whatever negativities / worries come up thru the day. Once written down, I’m not “allowed” to spend time ruminating about them — until worry time comes around.
Yes, I have scheduled worry time — which seems a bit weird — but it’s better than the alternative, which is being in a slightly worried state all day….
Posted by Jesse - 05/21/2009
Oh yes indeed I am…
Been working through my basement space for about 6 months now (yeah, I’m moving slowly, so?)…an even dozen dump/give away runs later I’ve got it down to a livable level.
And then there’s the move. I’m moving(like continental) this summer so I’m going to have to get my STUFF down to the minimun shipment size of 200 cu ft, come to think of it, I may be below that already…woohoo!
Posted by Matt - 05/21/2009
After reading this, I’d say I’m a depressed wannabe unclutterer!
Posted by whyioughtta - 05/21/2009
“I am trying to rid my life of anything that drags me down, particularly possessions. I am chronically disorganised ONLY because of years of overspending and accumulation.” – RML’s comment
I LOVE this sentiment and couldn’t agree more. I have finally come to realize that I’m an unclutterer by nature, but a clutterer by nurture and it takes YEARS to undo the accumulation habit. All that stuff really does literally drag me down.
My big clutter areas: magazines (just feeding my need to accumulate), laundry (detest doing it), clothes and shoes (adore them), books (up there with clothes and shoes). Come to think of it, writing this down has actually given me some decluttering priorities.
I have to say that discovering Unclutterer has been one of the best things to happen to me this year! Sorry to gush, but it’s true. Unlike 99% of magazines, etc., you actually give USEFUL info and the comments multiply the value exponentially!
Posted by Jennifer - 05/21/2009
I consider myself an unclutterer, and more importantly, a simplifier. When I want to do something I find the quickest, most efficient way to do it. I want one tool and if I find a better one I get rid of the old one.
Unfortunately, my husband is a complicator. He wants to consider all possibilities and all the extenuating circumstances. Strangely enough, he’s also a clutterer. Do you think there’s a connection?
Posted by jessa - 05/21/2009
I love this! I’ve been thinking about ways to simplify (would that be the uncluttered word for “unclutter”?) in various, especially nonphysical ways. Making a simple “uniform” wardrobe, so I don’t have to deal with shopping and the decision making that goes with it. Having default meals so that if I’m on my own for dinner (I’m 24, but I live with my family, and they like to feed me), I don’t have to think about it. I’ve been doing physical uncluttering, too. I’m trying to stop holding on to information. I crave information, I love learning, but it clutters my mind, stresses me out, and gets in the way.
I heard about a man who had a brain injury that caused him to lose all emotion. The doctors initially thought this would make decision making very easy for him, since common wisdom tells us that it is emotions that make decisions so hard to make. It turned out, though, that it made this man problematically indecisive. It would take him hours to choose a pen. Black or blue? Thick or fine line? What color plastic? Fountain or ball-point? With no emotional attachment, there was nothing to pull him one way or another to make the decision. But it also didn’t frustrate him that he couldn’t make a decision, but it definitely frustrated his wife. Sometimes I feel just as indecisive as that man.
Posted by Tania - 05/21/2009
I am good at the mental and process clutter… I have a very organized mind, I retain a lot of information well, not forgetful, etc. My main downfall is physical organization for sure, and that can negatively effect my Time Management. So yeah, I’m trying to be a full-stop Unclutterer. I just did a LOT of work in this past week towards rectifying my physical clutter issue. It’s not easy for me, but I’m getting there!
Posted by Laura - 05/21/2009
I could cry right now. My home is cluttered, my home office is cluttered, my brain is cluttered, and the stress level is out of this world!
I have one daughter at college … am using her room to spread out business receipts, etc. that I have to account for. My son is finishing up his junior year in hs and his room is so disgusting I can hardly look at it. My 11-year-old does nothing to help, is so spoiled (really by my husband mostly) and we have two big labs, one yellow and one chocolate, so no matter what color something is, you can find either whitish hair or dark hair on it.
In my heart I want a simple, easy life. In my dreams I have a simple, easy life. But looking at all that has to be done sucks the energy right out of me and I hide in my computer. : ( Right now, though, I think I’ll go put a load of laundry on. A kick-start, perhaps.
Posted by Lori Paximadis - 05/21/2009
My clutter is mostly about the mental and the time now. The time thing came to a head last fall, so I sat down and listed all of my obligations, did a lot of soul-searching, then set some priorities. Over the past several months I’ve been slowly relinquishing those that don’t mean as much to me as they once did, those that had become a pain, those that don’t serve my current needs. I’m learning to delegate more and to be ruthless about saying no. It’s hard. But it is so very worth it to now have time to explore new opportunities and have some slack time built into my week to deal with the unexpected, to take advantage of nice weather and go off to do something fun, or to just do nothing at all.
I’ve done lots of work on the physical and processes over the past few years, and it’s really paid off. (Except I still have boxes and boxes and boxes of old paper to deal with. Someday.) The hardest part for me was dealing with sentimental accumulation — mementos, things given to me by my grandparents… I still have more of that kind of thing than I want, but I’ve gotten it down to a couple of boxes that fit in the back of a closet. It’s hard to let go, even of things that don’t fit with my current lifestyle or decor.
Posted by knitwych - 05/21/2009
I am trying desperately to be an Unclutterer, and I’m happy to report that I’ve taken some successful baby steps. I have to say, the inspiration and ideas I’ve pulled from this blog have really helped!
Last week, I:
Cleaned out the two kitchen junk drawers
Jettisoned a lot of flotsam (Do not ask me why one part of the broken pasture gate latch was in the kitchen! I don’t know. I’m just happy that it’s gone out to the barn where it belongs, and “Fix gate” is on DBF’s Honey Do list.)
Created a Needed Stuff drawer (I refuse to call it “junk drawer” now!) where the all-purpose scissors live with useful things like the mower keys, garage door remote, a pair of needle-nose pliers, tacks, pens/notepad, etc.
Cleaned out the dry goods pantry (the Bisquick was dated “Best by Nov 2006″ *blush*), repurposed some existing storage containers and bought see-through storage for pasta, flour, etc.
LABELED the storage containers so that we can tell the difference between the bread flour and AP flour, the regular pasta and DBF’s whole wheat.
Got rid of about 20 unused sports bottles and insulated mugs (culled our collection down to the ones we really love and use).
And — drum roll please — I found a home for the casserole and the Dutch oven that had been living on the back stove burners since Christmas!!! Yes, they have homes out of sight and in the cabinet!
Repositioned the measuring cup hooks inside the cabinet so they don’t fall off every time you open the door.
Repurposed an old desktop file sorter to hold pot lids and cookie sheets inside a skinny cabinet that had previously been dangerous to open (thanks to all the stuff that tried to leap out every time you opened the door).
Replaced the paper towel holder (or as DBF called it, the “#$#%#$#@!! paper towel holder).
I still have a few more cabinets to tackle, and some more shelf liner to put down, but just having an uncluttered kitchen has been very inspiring – not only in the sense that it really feels nice to walk into an uncluttered kitchen, but in the sense that I’m eager to get to work on other parts of the house. The closets in the office and bedrooms are still Very Scary Places, but I’m confident that I can get them taken care of.
Posted by catmom - 05/21/2009
Hello all you unclutterers, I am one of you! To get rid of physical clutter is great, at least you see results. I love to shred, goofy as that sounds to some, but it’s part of the decluttering process, right?
It’s been almost a year ago that I discovered this wonderful website, I have gotten so many ideas from both Erin and those of you who post comments.
To knitwych, congratulations on your projects, don’t give up!
Have a safe and happy upcoming three day weekend!
Posted by Anamicah - 05/22/2009
I never realised I was a clutter bug until i got married and had to sort through the things i needed to take with me to my new home. Helping my parents move last year showed me why i was one, they are hoarders, not in the extreme but like most people are snetimentally attached to a lifetime of posessions.
Today i think we have a hold on the physical clutter – an ongoing process but the time and process clutter is where I needto focus my energies. I look to this site and others like zen habits for inspiration to help me through it.
BTW I have been lurking here for over a year and its my first comment
Posted by Ogrim - 05/22/2009
I am an unclutterer because I unclutter Unclutterer’s RSS feed with Yahoo Pipes.
Posted by Jane - 05/22/2009
Wow, this message really connected for me. I’m trying to get all of those things under control and like the man spinning plates in the air I keep dropping one. I’m new to the site and it is really giving me focus. Thinking about worry and anxiety as mental clutter was eye opening for me. I wasn’t thinking of the mental and processes issues as clutter and know I see the pattern. Not sure if I’m happy or sad about that realization but it’s certainly a new perspective and that can spur change. It’s also so helpful to see I’m not facing the struggle alone. Thanks.
Posted by Jane - 05/22/2009
Hey knitwych, you are an inspiration. Hadn’t read your post when I posted before. I don’t know how you did all that in one week! Cleaning the pantry out is on my list already and you’ve inspired me to get on the stick. I have to say though that last time I found a box of Surejell dated 1993. I have moved 3 times since then–I must have moved that box 3 times!! I’m keeping it on the top shelf of the pantry as a freaky reminder to get it together!
Posted by knitwych - 05/22/2009
Hi Jane,
) The main key was to STAY IN THE KITCHEN! Not dashing down the hall or into the garage or out to the barn to put things away. I grabbed a couple of boxes, one for old food stuff to be dumped into the woods, and one for donations, and I literally blocked off both kitchen exits with these boxes so I couldn’t leave the room. The trash can and the recycling bin were both full by the time I finished, and I found that I really enjoyed the sound of emptying those containers into the outside trash and recycling cans.
Believe it or not, whipping the kitchen into shape didn’t really take that long. I blew through the dry goods pantry and most of the cabinets in a couple hours, with the help of the Sweeney Tood soundtrack blaring away. (Also had help from the kittens, who were convinced that I cleared space in the lower cabinets simply so they’d have kewl new places to play – and who threatened to call PETA to report me for animal cruelty when I evicted them from their newly-found kewl places.
I think I just got so annoyed with the kitchen as it was that I let the annoyance fuel my determination to GSD (in my house, this means Get S**t Done). I did the bulk of this while DBF was *not home*. That was important, because he tends to be a ‘We might need this someday/we can get one more use out of this’ type. Since my kitchen blast-through, he has commented several times on how good it looks, how easy it is to find things, and how easy it is to keep clean — AND I’ve noticed that he is much less likely to leave crumbs on the counter! I did make him take responsibility for the 8.4 billion rubber bands and twist-ties he’d been hoarding in the junk drawer and the drink-lid drawer, and I did consult him when I was cleaning out the cup/glass cabinet. By then, though, he’d seen the benefits of jettisoning junk, and – surprisingly – he didn’t try to cling to as many things as I thought he would.
My office closet and the bedroom closets and the barn are still not organized, and our garage (which, almost five years after moving in, still looks like a U-Haul truck threw up in there) is so scary that just a glimpse of it would probably send a professional organizer running screaming into the night, but I’ve got plans in my head (and a few sketched out on paper) of how I want these spaces to look and function. I know that those spaces won’t be as quick to organize as the kitchen, but I’m determined to get them done.
I laughed when I read about your Surejell. I found a box of baker’s chocolate that had essentially fossilized. I guarantee you that I’d had it for at least 18 years – through five moves.
Posted by knitwych - 05/22/2009
Addendum to previous post: I also had a Doesn’t Live in Here box during the kitchen purge. This was for things that didn’t live in the kitchen. The only time I had to leave the kitchen was to fetch the tool kit from the garage so I could address the cup hooks.
Also, thanks for your comment, catmom.
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Posted by JLSR - 05/26/2009
What a great post for a moment of self-evaluation. I think I am “in-progress” in each of the areas you mentioned. This site is always a tremendously helpful reminder to continue to make progress.
The toughest for me is probably the worry, stress & anxiety over things that I can’t control. For instance, an aging parent who is self-destructive, financially unprepared and in increasingly poor mental & physical health. It’s difficult to overcome the anxiety of how my family’s future will be affected by something that feels very much out of my hands.
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