14 Years Later: Reaching Critical Mass

 

It's been a long time. I have so many things to say but a storm is approaching so I will have to keep this short. 

Where have I been? I feel like I have been in some sort of weird limbo. My job is going great. I survived the pandemic (fingers crossed). I have finally gotten back to writing in my physical journal so after some thought, I decided to go back to blogging too. 

Am I still dealing with clutter? Yes. I have reached, as the title suggests, critical mass. I am not yet in to Hoarders territory but I am walking along the edge of that precipice. Right now, I am working on a game plan. I have a break from working coming up thanks to construction at the library and I plan on taking time off to work on my mess. 

Good news: My niece was able to help me organize my game closet this weekend and clear some paths around the house. 

Bad news: The clutter has moved downstairs into the foyer. Between the pandemic and supply chain issues, I have been ordering a lot from Amazon and we are behind in unpacking and finding a place for some things. So many things have happened the past two years and I feel like I have just been treading water. 

So where do I go from here? I am hoping this blog will help me organize my thoughts. Journaling and blogging has always been therapeutic for me. I am also looking into getting actual therapy. I am trying to move forward and I hope you come along for the ride. 

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments. More later!

2 Months Later and 10 Years of Attempted Blogging

Two months later and....no progress. Real life has been kicking me in the ass so I usually come home from work tired and then deal with whatever crisis has arisen while I was at work. At work, the Powers That Be decided to give us new flooring (Hooray!) but that meant moving about 80,000 books and other materials in addition to our offices and then putting them all back together. At home, my 88 year old father got the flu but thanks to Tamiflu, threw if off like a pro.

After my last post, I realized that I started this blog ten years ago. My battle with clutter has lasted more than 10 years but I have reached a tipping point. I have to figure out how to pull my life together. In the next few blogs, I will try to tackle how I got here, books I have read about the issues of clutter and hoarding, and what I need to do. Right now, I need to get some sleep.

Two Years Later

It has been two years since I posted in this blog. A lot of things have changed over the past two years. I completed my Masters in Library and Information Science in August 2016. In October of 2016, I was promoted and became the first Young Adult Services Librarian at my branch, a job that I had been doing as an untitled paraprofessional for 11 years. I went from Circulation Assistant to full blown librarian and it has been wonderful.

Personally, I have embraced Kpop fandom and found several new friends through it. I am still friends with all my Buffy friends but that fandom has been less active as the years pass.

What hasn't changed in two years has been my battle with clutter. It gets worse and then gets better. My energy for cleaning and organizing waxes and wanes. I am not getting any younger and I realize that I have to make a change. My parents are getting older and I spend more time attending to their needs which means less time for myself. I reached a tipping point and I have to make myself do something. So I am reviving this blog and maybe it will keep me accountable. I have thought about doing some YouTube videos but first, I have to make some progress.

I cleaned out a purse today that has been sitting dormant in a corner since 2015 when I changed purses to go to TLA in Austin (where I promptly broke my ankle on the first day of the conference). I found this fortune in the purse along with .11 cents and the keys to my two storage units. It says "Delay is the deadliest form of denial." Maybe the universe is telling me something...

The Desk is Clear!

So, it took a week full of procrastination, two bags of garbage, and two cans of recycling, but my desk is finally clear for the first time in a year. I can write and work on my schedule! I don't have to close my laptop to have a bare surface.

The oldest thing I found in my piles of stuff was a coupon from 2013. I also found some old  2014 Christmas cards, more expired coupons, catalogs galore, and lots of actionable items. I have a small box with a handful of things to file and a shopping basket from my old store (pictured below) with actionable items.

Sorting out the actionable items is my next job. I am thinking about using the Sunday Basket method espoused by Lisa Woodruff. I need to read more about it but it seems workable. Any suggestions, great brain? 

Tackling the Desk

I am not a New Year's person. I don't make resolutions. I don't do the "New Year, New You" thing. I have goals and I reevaluate them every so often but I always look at the January 1st like an odometer turning over. It's amusing but really doesn't have that much of an impact on my life. That is why I hesitated to post this the first few weeks of the year. I was motivated more by time off than the odometer turning over to 2016.

So this is my desk after several hours worth of work and one trip downstairs with a trash can full of recycling. After I post this, I will make another trip downstairs for the same reason. I wish I had taken a picture because it had reached critical mass. The pile to the left of my laptop was almost level with the top of the laptop and the pile on the other side above the printer which is still buried in stuff. I have a few more hours worth of work but I want to get it cleared off tonight. I will still have filing to do and I need to set up my actionable file but I will at least have a work surface by the end of the night.

Why I am doing this? I just can't take it any more. I am tired of being buried in stuff. I am taking three classes next semester in graduate school and I need to be organized. This past semester was a constant struggle since I was always digging stuff out of the pile on my desk. Of course, the desk is just the beginning but you have to start somewhere and this is where I need to start. Now back to work!

Take the Challenge With Me!

After reading this article, I've decided to take the 30-Day Declutter challenge. I start graduate school in  few weeks and I need to complete the job that the wonderful Mina Pahel from Cloudburst Creative Consulting started back in February (more about that later).

So the decluttering starts tomorrow. Who will join me?

New Year, New Progress

Yes, it's an actual post. I have new photos to share here! I spent the weekend of January 10th working with my niece, Hillary. We managed to get my bedroom completely clear. I can see the floor! I still have some work to do on the bedroom closet and I'm tackling it this weekend.

Lots of books mention having a "clutter buddy" to help you clean and sort. Hillary is the perfect clutter buddy. She is not judgmental. She is patient. She helps me think through sorting projects when I get stuck. She is also a great motivator. When I get too tired to tackle one more box, she manages to come up with a fun way to finish my project.

I have a little bit more to complete before I can check off "bedroom" on my list of completed rooms but I am moving forward, not backward. 

Your Brain on Clutter

How Clutter Affects Your Brain here.

I'm back on track with my declutter project and this article is very inspiring.

Need a Coupon from 2007?

If you do, you have until the garbage truck comes tomorrow to call dibs. I didn't make any photo-worthy progress yesterday but I did clean out a large bill full of paper. Old bills, coupons, junk mail, etc. The top layer was dated 2009 and when I worked my way to the bottom, I found something from 2007. That's the danger of plastic tubs and boxes. You think, I'll just shift some of my paperwork from my desk to the box and take care of it when I have time. Then "out of sight/out of mind-ism" strikes. You can't see it so you don't worry about it. In fact, you find yourself complete blind to the box of papers next to you. It becomes part of the scenery. Now I have another empty box! One down, ? to go!

Panic and Progress

On every episode of one of the hoarders television shows, the hoarder flips out because someone moves something important to them. Well that just happened to me. Last night, my niece came over to help me and we made some major progress (see photo left). Today, I went into the craft room where we we working and I couldn't find my box of Christmas/Hanukkah cards. I looked everywhere. I started to panic because I need to work on addressing them this week. I  starting having a panic attack. I felt completely out of control. I felt angry. I felt helpless. I don't like feeling out of control.

When she dropped by the house, she was able to find them for me but for the life of me, I couldn't find them. Please remember, if you are helping someone declutter and you need to move something they might need, let them know where you put it. I'm finally starting to calm down but this really derailed my plans for the day.

It has been almost three years since I started this blog. I haven't used it but since things have reached critical mass at home, I am going to start using it. My clutter issue is hovering between Clean House and Hoarders. I have to do something. And now. It is possible that my best friends and godson will be moving back to Houston and I want to be able to have them come upstairs and visit. I want to have a party. I want to host a craft night at my studio. I don't just need to do this, I have to do this. I will do this.

Motivational Photo

see more pwn and owned pictures

The Long Overdue First Post

Clutter 028, originally uploaded by eccentrici.

I am a procrastinator. I also have a problem with clutter. A major clutter problem. When I took these photos and set up this blog, I fully intended to start to decluttering process. Now it's almost November and I've made very little progress.

Why did I start this project? A close friend called to tell me that she was going to bring over the air mattress that I loaned her and I panicked. She had never been to my house. She had never seen my clutter. I made up a ridiculous excuse as to why she couldn't come by the house. I was ashamed to lie to her but I was far more ashamed of my house. I vowed then to do something about it.

Flash forward to this week, I took 6 days off from work so I can make a dent in this mess. I have been taking vacation days for this same reason since we moved exactly two years ago today. I don't want to do this anymore. The next time I take vacation days, I want to do something fun, not spend hours clearing up clutter.

So here I go. In this blog, I will talk about my progress (or lack of it), books that I find helpful, and the whole process of getting my life back in order.