11 decluttering myths

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Started 6 months ago by maxinemarshall
Latest reply from mili
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maxinemarshall
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I found this set of rules on http://www.happiness-project.com, I found it very interesting.

1. "I need to get organized." No! Don't get organized is your first step.

2. "I need to be hyper-organized." I fully appreciate the pleasure of having a place for everything, and perhaps counter-intuitively, I believe it’s easier to put things away in an exact place, rather than a general place (“the third shelf of the coat closet,” not “a closet.”) However, this impulse can become destructive: if you’re spending a lot of time alphabetizing your spices, organizing your shoes according to heel height, creating eighty categories for your home files, etc., consider whether you need to be quite so precisely organized. I find this particularly true with toys – I’ve spent hours sorting pretend food, Polly Pockets pieces, and tea sets, only to find everything a jumble the next day.

3. "I need some more inventive storage containers." See #1. If you get rid of everything you don’t need, you may not need any fancy containers.

4. "I need to find the perfect recipient for everything I’m getting rid of." It’s easier to get rid of things when you know that you’ll be giving them to someone who can use them, but don’t let this kind intention become a source of clutter, itself. I have a friend who has multiple piles all over her house, each lovingly destined for a particular recipient. This is generous and thoughtful, but it contributes mightily to clutter. Try to find one or two good recipients, or if you really want to move your ex-stuff in multiple directions, create some kind of rigid system for moving it along quickly.

5. "I can’t get rid of anything that I might possibly need one day." How terrible would it be if you needed a glass jar and didn’t have one? Do you have gigantic stores of things like rubber bands or ketchup packets? How many coffee mugs does one family use?

6. "I might get that gizmo fixed." Face it. If you’ve had something for more than six months, and it’s still not repaired, it’s clutter.

7. "I might learn how to use that gizmo." Again, face it. If you’ve had a gizmo on the shelf for a year, and you’ve never used it to make gelato or label a sugar jar, it’s clutter.

8. "I might lose a ton of weight and then I’d fit into these clothes again." If you lose a bunch of weight, you’ll want to buy a new pair of jeans, not a pair you bought seven years ago.

9. "I need to keep this as a memento of a happy time." I’m a huge believer in mementos; remembering happy times in the past gives you a big happiness boost in the present. But ask yourself: do I need to keep all these t-shirts to remind me of college, or can I keep a few? Do I need to keep an enormous desk to remind me of my grandfather, or can I use a photograph? Do I need fifty finger-painted pictures by my toddler, or is one enough to capture this time of life? Mementos work best when they’re carefully chosen – and when they don’t take up much room!

10. "I need to keep this, because the person who gave it to me might visit my house and be hurt when it’s not on display." Is that person really likely to visit? Is that person really likely to remember the gift? Will the person really be upset by the lack of viewing of the gift?

11. "If I have any available space, I should fill it up with something." No! One of my Secrets of Adulthood is Somewhere, keep an empty shelf. I know where my empty shelf is, and I treasure it.

Posted 6 months ago #
chacha1
Member

Just want to point out this is NOT a set of rules. It's a test for "do I have a clutter mentality."

One of Gretchen's things is that being uncluttered makes her happier. So she posts occasionally on ways people stumble over clutter and how clutter relates to happiness.

So ... the eleven statements are to be taken as yes/ no questions. If you agree with a majority, then you probably have a clutter mentality. If you disagree with a majority, then you probably don't.

What might be useful here is to add questions or statements that ALSO would indicate a clutter mentality if the answer were yes, because some of us have clutter issues that are not necessarily related to, or triggered by, these common-denominator statements.

If you want to take these as Rules, take them as Rules of What Not to Think (if you want to be uncluttered).

Posted 6 months ago #
chacha1
Member

p.s. this is related to today's lead post on Happiness Project but is not verbatim. Not sure the provenance of the eleven statements above ... would not characterize as "decluttering myths" because they are not about decluttering. They are more "excuses we use to avoid decluttering."

Sorry, just feeling nitpicky I guess! :-)

Posted 6 months ago #
mili
Member

Okay, but :-) The problem with most of these rules (and similar ones) is that they are at once too specific and not specific enough to help people make headway (and decluttering is a practical skill, so it's all about making headway). I mean, I can think of some fairly obvious exceptions for almost all of these rules, either drawn from my own direct experience or from that of people I'm close to (both people who are into the whole declutter thing and those who aren't, or not particularly). If a rule is going to be useful, you want it to have as few exceptions as possible. Ideally, none at all, but at least few enough of them that it amounts to a statistically negligible sample.

I personally believe in more general guidelines, like the whole 'using it, loving it' thing. These have the added benefit of sticking to your mind better, so you have a chance of remembering in the middle of a decluttering project when your eyes have sort of glazed over from dealing with random crap and you're starting to either keep everything or toss everything :P. And if you're afraid you won't remember it, they're still easier to write down in big letters on a sheet of paper that you will tack up somewhere you can see during the sorting :P. General guidelines can still be expanded upon to explain them, but I like that they sum up so nice and compact :-)

BUT if you're not gonna do that, if you want to go with specific, I think it's better to go all the way and be very, very precise, and as exhaustive as possible re: exceptions or variations. For example, take rule #6: I've had to keep stuff for more than that, because the repair was specialized and it took ages to locate someone who could do it. But it made sense to give these things another chance above the six months, because for a variety of reasons, I could be pretty sure I'd get a lot of use out of them. And, sure enough, once I got them repaired I did use them a lot - still am for some :-) OTOH, there are items for which I think six months is FAR too long to dither over them!

So I don't think it helps much - I think it can be a bit misleading to anybody trying their hand at decluttering for the first time, particularly if they are attempting this in a state of mild panic (eg because there's a deadline such as an unexpected house move or because things have gotten really, really out of control). It may be more useful to old-timers, but I think not directly; more indirectly as a springboard for thoughts/discussion. Maybe this is how it's meant, but then I wish they were clearer about it :-)

Posted 6 months ago #

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