RomanceClass.com Forums Romance Organizing and Cleaning Organizing and Stress Reduction?

Ditto!
I know just how you feel!

I should spend less time on here and more on cleaning and tidying, really, I suppose ~ but the forum is so addictive!!

Ditto! and Ditto! lol - I mean, ditto to both posts above. My "mantra" lately is simplify, in the sense of "get organized and in so doing, simplify a room/process/routine/task..."

Is it just me, or does it seem as though the more complicated life gets, the more simple, light, airy, & streamlined you want your environment to be? Not just remove clutter but even remove doo-dads, knick-knacks, and even art that I used to like but now feel like "just too much"...

Yeah, I really like things uncluttered any more! I used to have my place decorated in Victorian, with every surface covered with knick knacks, and now I only want a lamp on the end tables. I want a place for everything and have everything in it's place.

What I want is to have a clean house where I can sit down in the middle of the day and enjoy a good cup of coffee and look around at my organized home.

If you figure out how to do that, will you let me know?

My big problem is that I have NO storage in my home. Not one closet other than the clothes closets in each bedroom. The basement gets wet (very normal for my local) so not much storage going on there.

And me!
Please!

I used to live in a small apartment with 4 children and all of there toys. I used to be able to have a place for everything and have everything in it's place. I really, really enjoyed it very much.

I also only had clothes closets, which were small to store things in. I was able to then, put things into boxes which were named and catagorized and put them in the tops of all of the closets.

So, I that is why I wonder now, how can I get my house organized? I think it's partly to do with time. I used to have so very much time on my hands, being divorced. Now that I'm married, I find I would rather spend evenings with my husband instead of decluttering, lol.

I no longer have enough time in the day! Where has all the time gone? I need more time in each day!!

Birdie Menagerie ~ that is really interesting.
It's given me food for thought!

I can tackle a small area and organize just fine but to look at the whole kitchen and I just freeze. I did clean out one drawer today though!!

I live in a Class A motorhome, so it is CRUCIAL for me to not have too much stuff. I so quickly get buried, and I have a natural tendancy to hoard things. I am liking more and more the idea of taking EVERYTHING OUT and seeing only what I really want to have in here. And the rest - sell or donate.

Jilly, you are truly amazing. I cannot even imagine reducing my contents into a motorhome. I'm having trouble just reducing it into a well organized home. You deserve a lot of credidt for what you've achieved!

I find a one-part-of-the-room approaches well for me. I focus on one area and get IT clean. I am finally making some progress on the living room!

Thank you for the support, Lisa! I will get it all under control. I even have a master plan now. I am working out the details but I look forward to sharing it with people soon.

That is great about the living room! You have more space - try to protect it. Nature hates a vacuum.

My mother actually just begged me to give most of the excess of my storage things to goodwill, rather than trying to sell them, for my sanity. She offered to send me the money I might have earned on them instead. It is a very appealing offer, but I do not know if I can do that.

LOL I know Jilly, I was even thinking that, that I wondered what would "drift" into this open space. Things have a way of doing that!

That's a very interesting idea about Goodwill. That would be a donation of a lifetime.

I am slowly trying to work on my mother's offer. At this point my car is full of things to donate that I was thinking I could sell. I really need to buck up and take them to Goodwill.

My car is also full of recyclables, since this park does not have a bin at all.

So my little station wagon is crammed with stuff and looks terrible. lol. When I am done with my coffee (i just woke up), I will make myself go take care of things. Then I will work on the next batch of things to 'not sell.'

It is so hard for me. It's as if I have this terrible Depression-era mentality that I might need something, or be able to wring a dollar out of something, so it is wrong to not hold onto things.

Jilly - you must set things free into the universe so that the universe can then send things back to you.

Trust in your friends and family. Let go of the little things, so that big rewards can flow back to you. You have plenty of other things that you can sell, you don't need what's in that car.

Update - I brought my carload of stuff to Goodwill and I found a place to drop off my recyclables. So that all worked out.

I even found out that the Goodwill items that don't sell end up at shelters for abused women, and then the leftovers from that are sent overseas to countries in need. So that makes me feel better in many ways - I am not just giving things to Goodwill to make money from, but I am helping other charities at the same dropoff point.

Lisa, it makes a ton of sense to release things and trust in the universe/friends/family. But not so easy to actually do it. I will keep chipping away at this and remind myself to trust, trust, trust.

I am a terrible hoarder.
Some things are worth keeping for their sentimental value, others because they are useful, but too much hoarding can be depressing.
I must sort my stuff out.
Trouble is, I often miss something, or find a use for something, as soon as I have got rid of it.

That is *awesome* news Jilly! I am sure you feel more free after that! Congratulations

PDM - I imagine you strongly remember the few times you do need something - but don't remember the 99% of the time that you don't need the item again. If you really do need something that 1% of the time, then you can get a new one and still come out ahead

For sentimental things, take a photo! Make it your desktop background. Then you can always see it The actual item can go on to a fresh start!

I actually do that, sometimes, but a photo is not always the same ~ by any means.

Thanks Lisa. My car is now full again b/c I am once again in transition...but these are things I am keeping. Just waiting until the first so I can move into the place Dan and I will be living in. My car seems to be a mobile closet right now.

PDM, it has been a problem for me my whole life - the hoarding. My mother and sister have this problem as well, but you'd think "mobile me" would not fall prey to this.

I honestly think I need therapy for this. I don't think it's even about the actual "things" at all. What do you think is underlying our issue, here?

The underlying issue?
Good question!
I don't know. I'll have to think about that.

I know what I always say, when people ask why I don't just get rid of stuff.

I tend to buy / obtain things that I want ~ and what I like and am interested in hasn't changed over the years, so why should I want to get rid of it?!

I love my books; my photography; my genealogy, etc. I want to keep all that. They are 'me'!

There are projects that I have spent much time, energy and money on, and that I may use again,in future work, so I would find it annoying to get rid of all that.

I have lots of things that belonged to the children when they were little; and also my own things from the past. Time seems to pass so quickly and when I hold their things, I can re-live the past. I find this important, because my memories of that time need help, since I was very ill after having my boys ~ depression with the one; ulcerative colitis with the other ~ and still quite unwell when my daughter was born. (I really should spend less time on here, and more time with them, while they and I are still young enough to do things together!)

I also think that I have inherited the 'hoarding' gene from my parents & grandparents. It was a thing, in their day, never to get rid of anything that might come in useful.

I am pleased to report my car is now emptied! Everything is in the house or the shed on this property. I next need to get everything out of the shed, and to also get everything out of the shed of my family friend. Neither of these is costing us money, but I do want to get a jump on getting rid of things, instead of just accumulating, once again. No more accumulating!

I totally get that, even in my younger Gen X age. As someone who has been poor her whole adult life, I have a very hard time letting useful things go. I keep thinking I could use something, or sell something for money, or barter/trade something...it's a very stressful way to live, actually. Tons of stress and worry over 'things.'



I agree with keeping one's hobbies. It is a source of joy.



This is a tough one. Annoyance aside, it is usually best to take a deep breath and let these things be passed on to others who might want them. It's also bad Feng Shui to keep the energy of unfinished projects in your life. You can never find peace if there is a niggling bother in something you keep around.

It's very hard, though. I am always dealing with learning to let such things go.



These things seem to bring you peace and good memories, so they are not really clutter. If maybe you could do a little weeding from time to time, it might be a good thing. Are there other family members who might cherish some of these mementos?

I think I just need to spend some time sorting out what brings positivity and what doesn't.

I read, somewhere, that you should keep things that you actively need and things that bring you joy ~ and get rid of the rest.

Jilly. I like your avatar pic ~ the designs behind you look ancient. Are they?

PDM, those are ancient Anasazi petroglyphs in northern Arizona. I backpacked in a day to get to those. Very few people see them, as it is on a strict permit schedule.

Thanks for the info Jilly.
Sounds fascinating. Beautiful designs. Looks almost Celtic.
I think I've read about the Anasazi ~ and watched a documentary about them. Very interesting.
Arizona is a place I would like to see.

Thanks for the info Jilly.
Sounds fascinating. Beautiful designs. Looks almost Celtic.
I think I've read about the Anasazi ~ and watched a documentary about them. Very interesting.
Arizona is a place I would like to see.

Arizona is an amazing state. I can never get enough of it. So much geographical diversity and beauty, amazing native cultures, large open spaces and endless horizons.

and snakes, scorpions and skunks

Hhmmm...
Maybe I'll stay right here !

Snakes are your friends! Plus I bet they have snakes in England too It was just Ireland which drove out the snakes

I've had lots of encounters with rattlers and they really keep to their own business. People who get bitten are generally those who are interfering with the snakes, or hiking along not paying attention to where they put their hands and feet.

I like that the snakes eat vermin. That is their job.

I even have a few spiders in the ceiling corners of my home that I simply leave alone. I make a deal with them. I say to them, "stay up there and eat pesky insects, and you are welcome to stay."

It seems to work just fine. I like the idea of having a small ecosystem in my abode.

I quess the cats under my house are also part of my ecosystem. I bet they do a fantastic job of keeping vermin from setting up house.

This home was abandoned since April - you'd think there would have been rodent droppings or evidence of small critters inside. but nothing.

So it's neat, i have my spiders eating the insects and the cats keeping out mice and rats.

I should think about how else to make my home like an ecosystem.