September, 2023 Clutter Control - Study What's Next

[Harriet]

Stepping back to take a VIEW, to reassess and plan - is there any more important part of our decluttering progress that that?

September, the month of back-to-school, agendas and new scheduling, is a great time to step back and STUDY our lovely homes again, in relation to clutter and in relation to the calendar, too. We're still months away from holidays, so we can prioritize our declutter appointments now to make our lives easier when it's time to welcome and celebrate.

In last month's thread, Harmony was kind enough to suggest decluttering youtube viewing that motivates her.

We've complained here about television programming, which changed to go so deeply into mental health aspects of families who struggle with hoarding, and left behind the idea of inspiring the whole audience dealing with (universal) problems of clutter, or perhaps cleaning/declutter.

What if you were the director (very well paid, of course) of a new tv series. Because of your vast experience with the problems of clutter, you have been asked to come up with the ideal films to help with the problem. Would you take your crew to visit homes, or concentrate on products, methods, or stay in one studio to give drawer-by-drawer ideas?

[Nancy]

CI/ I have been decluttering paper work.
Surfaces is my focus currently.
A waste bin is a must by each workstation.

I found paperwork for the last year furnace re-lite that needs filed.
Containers and paper work after the trash is out would be my thoughts on decluttering and paying attn. to the weather
outside stuff like shop and shed in the summer, indoors house and basement in the winter.
Plus rethinking hobbies as they change over time.

I hear a on yt that clutter root prob. in extreme cases is from trauma.

[Harmony]

I think it would be good to see a family or a homemaker who's successfully managed to resist the constant influx of marketing to us, the advertising we get from every source and the ever changing of styles and housewares and cars and fashions. We need new clothes to keep up with styles, new houses and things inside them etc. I'm feeling the absence of shopping therapy as I try to resist all those things. I used to go just to look at all the new things and I really enjoyed doing that, walking around in stores, though I resisted more than most people do buying stuff. I do miss that, so I am susceptible to the marketing they do also.

But I've learned the hard way, that important thing: we can't organized clutter. Too much of something can't be made neat and easier to live with by buying more bins or files, clogged spaces are just clogged spaces and make putting stuff away harder to do and easier to resist doing. I've pared down what I have in the kitchen and it's so much easier to tidy up every evening. And since I've done that I tend to want to do that more often and miss it when I don't.

Thing is, it's not a popular subject with advertisers who are pushing their products and without their support these types of programs don't get made. I wish they'd bring back Peter Walsh. He had the perfect kind of program, delving into the why a person or couple has let their house get out of control. What is wrong in their life or their thinking that helped this to happen. If that isn't figured out, lasting change won't happen. But his program - remember Clean Sweep? - wasn't popular with the producers which is why it wasn't on that long, because they wanted extreme problems and I think they rarely got to the root cause of the hoards and I wonder how much lasting change they made. That's what I wish we'd have to watch. I find this kind of programing much more on videos than on TV.

But I'm certainly not an expert, and there are areas where I struggle too, and it's an ongoing work. I wish they'd have some aimed more at men because it's hard for some of them too. What do you all think?

[Harriet]

Nancy, that's interesting to plan in terms of what season is best for which decluttering. Also, when we plan a week, looking at the weather. We'd better be smart about when to move stuff outside to charity, or pickup, or it will get ruined. Indiana warned us we can't do a bunch of decluttering right on top of the season we want to have family in for get-togethers - we've got to plan to do that in the previous season and pare down to maintenance near special dates.

I started thinking of Peter Walsh, too, Harmony. He was straightforward and no-nonsense, but he was also an interesting host who seemed to listen to people. About men - sadly, men are more likely to be marketed the "Pickers" type of shows that sort of glorify men having big collections of big stuff taking up lots of room and getting sold slowly or not at all. I think if Matt Paxton (the Hoarders personality) could do a show about just plain clean-out and meeting a deadline - a "how-to" of the sequence to get it DONE - men would eat that up.

What I would want to make would be inspiring "Before and After" shows. I like a clear through-line from the express problems to seeing solutions (same camera angles, even, to prove it can be done). I think there's a place for speeded-up filming, especially if the cleaning is repetitious. BUT why would we leave the cleaning off? To me, it's desirable for decluttering to naturally lead to surfaces to clean, and it's a disservice to pretend to viewers, "well, then elves came in", as though being the cleaner of a formerly cluttered space isn't valuable and worthwhile work. I would like the cleaning to be an expected part of the show, with cheerful music!

I'd really concentrate on having big sorting surfaces ready - optimistic planning to get a lot done. Like, clearing a set of shelves first, then fast-action filming of transporting all items to a sorting area, even if some had to go to a sink to be washed. Then care of the shelves like polishing, etc. Then slowing down for thoughtful decisions about what deserves to go back there, and how to make it attractive.

Maybe junk hauling companies would be the sponsors for my program! Trash bag makers?

[Harmony]

Harriet, do you remember that show, "Who Wants a Clean House"? I used to watch that and it was an interesting mix. They had their host (can't remember her name) and a designer who figured out how to fix the spaces, and a cleaning crew who came in after the clean out. While they were getting rid of all the junk, after some psychological conversations with the people which were pretty good, they'd keep good pieces for reuse, and after a cleaning crew came in and cleaned (which they didn't show in detail) they'd set up the pieces they kept for reuse and make the space look as homey as they could. I think that was a pretty good show. The people they helped didn't seem to have really bad serious mental problems. The shows that bother me the most are the ones where homes are filled with pets (the poor things) and bugs of all sorts. Those don't seem helpful for the viewer, they're just filmed for shock value I think.

Anyway, I have a report. DH's canoe is now cut up into 6' long pieces and is in the garbage bin for pickup and the metal trim is cut into manageable lengths, ready for the reuse place. This is a big huge progress. He had to come to this decision on his own. He'd have had to fix the back end of this thing, get a trolling motor of some sort, etc. and he decided it was all too much work.

And, because I am trying to live for this life I now have and not a fantasy one, I got rid of that embroidery project which is about 40 years in the making. I was thinking about it a lot and came up with a small solution. It was a row of Victorian houses and I had 2 1/2 of them done. There were 2 1/2 to go and finish the trees behind the unfinished ones and the sidewalk down in front. I compromised...by cutting the ones I didn't sew off and the sidewalk and cut just above the top of the 2 trees I did finish. So what's left are 2 side by side very pretty Victorian houses with trees behind, their porches and steps down. If I get ambitious I might try to do the outlining, but even if I don't, they are pretty and I'll look for a mat and a frame and I'll have a picture to hang up about 5 x 7. Looking at it again, it makes me smile and I'm glad to have the unfinished part gone. I no longer have clear enough eyesight to finish. 40 years ago I started this. It's time to let go.

[CathyS]

I can't remember ever seeing this topic before. I have numerous books on decluttering, organizing, etc. Matt Paxton has a book that came out in the last year or so about keeping the memories and getting rid of the stuff. I can't remember the exact title right now.

I'm going to keep reading backwards in this forum while I sit here with too much on my mind and I can't sleep.

[Nancy]

I have tossed old ratty clothes.
A bag or two of papers went out to the curb this week yea for that progress.
This is a process but I am making head way luv the concept of doing zones &
the N. S. E. W. wall while doing the decluttering.
With the trash bag handy to toss items going in it, a container for goes in another room,
donate box, seems there is one other and I need help on what that one was is.

[Harmony]

Glad you found us here, cathy. Let's see: Matt Paxton has 2 books: Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff and It's all Just Stuff. He used to have his own program on a Public Broadcasting Channel but I don't know if it's still going. He dealt with people's heirloom memory stuff in attics etc. Pretty interesting. Speaking of books, my reading planner is in bad shape. It has a leather cover but the leather is shredding off in little pieces because I've been using it since mid 2017. Tonight I covered it in a self-adhesive vinyl shelf paper and it looks ok again. I have a lot of lists inside of stuff I want to read, authors to check, etc. and short synopsis of the ones I've read. I have a list of decluttering / organizing books I want to read but this little library only had the Joshua Becker one I mentioned in pwyc and 1 Marie Condo book. I've read all of hers. They all help with motivation.

[CathyS]

It's the "Keep the memories, lose the stuff" book.

[Harmony]

Cathy, I think I've read one of his books so it must have been the older one.

I still have to get those 2 big bags out of here. I must be ready to declutter another layer of the onion as I feel stalled right now.