Current Clutter Status

Well folks, the situation is not good around here.

I happen to have a lot of experience decluttering. (Mostly because I also have a lot of experience re-cluttering.)

And yet, as per usual, I am overwhelmed by clutter on all sides.

There’s a lot of shame surrounding clutter.

And as much as I would tell a friend that it’s nothing to be ashamed of…I still feel the shame.

I feel it when the plumber comes and I have to move piles away from the water shut off in the basement so he has space to work.

I feel it when my kids have friends over, and I overhear, “Wow, my mom would never let our house look like that.” (Yes, that happened.)

I feel it when we’re out of town and ask the neighbors to put any packages inside the front door.

Have you heard the joke about the guy who broke into someone’s house and then left because the mess was so much that he assumed someone else had broken in first?

Welcome to my life.

I’m drowning in stuff.

For many reasons, I think including -

1. We’re crap about putting stuff away.

2. I’m an outstanding - and prolific - online shopper (more about that in another post), and sometimes the input is just plain greater than the output. Things come in faster than they go out, and we’re not good about putting the new stuff away….

3. I am completely clutter blind - I don’t notice it starting to build up until it’s “suddenly” unmanageable.

I could go on.

And there’s a huge cost to clutter.

Including -

1. Mental health (overwhelm, stress….)

2. Lost time (that extra minute to find my purse every time I leave the house adds up fast! Assuming I leave the house 3x a day, that’s 18 hours a year. Aka, almost a full day of waking hours.)

3. Lost money (replacing something I’m pretty sure we already have, but cannot find)

Since I know all of this, why can’t I just get the place uncluttered already?

(Ask anyone with chronic clutter. It’s not logical. It can be a skill deficit or lack of awareness of the problem. But in my case, it is not.

I just don’t remember to do it. Or prioritize it.

If I used the time I spend on social media every day to declutter until it became a habit….

Wait….

That’s an idea.

Duh.

First declutter, then social media.

Why are some things just so much more obvious when you write them down?

Also, I need to work on decluttering social media, but that seems like its own huge topic.

Here’s to prioritizing!

(Have I mentioned that I have ADHD and one of the ways it affects me is in a complete inability to prioritize?)