Personal Confessions

Sorry I haven't updated in a week...life is busy!

Thanks to all of you who attended the meeting last week; we had a good turnout (including some new faces) and a lively discussion. Congrats to you all who accomplished your three goals. We had some who had completed great tasks...getting entire rooms cleaned out. And, we had some, like myself, who had more modest successes to share but the fact that we are hanging-in is a great success in itself.

Now, as to my confession... I went away for the holiday weekend and when I returned, I was so motivated by having been away (and frankly so disappointed by the clutter that was all around) that I did a gathering up of a lot of stuff (mail, magazines, etc.) and did a good sort and purge using Jamie Novak's file folder sorting system and a large garbage bag. However, that is where it ended. Two of the piles that I left were 1) stuff to go through and act on immediately and 2) stuff to go through and pitch. I was careful not to put the piles into folders, because for me, out of sight is out of mind. The piles are still sitting where I left them on the living room floor very much in sight and still out of mind!

And yesterday, as I was working at my computer, I would periodically look around and attempt to attack a pile, bag or box with the goal of complete elimination of that bit of clutter, and I got completely overwhelmed!! I should take a picture of my home office and share it with you but I wouldn't want to be responsible for any one of you fainting! One of my goals for this month has to be finding a way to break this stuff down into managable bites so that I don't get so bogged down with the magnatude of clutter that one can accumulate in 50 years!! (I have been a pack-rat all my life and so has my husband...after all, you never know when you might need or want something again!) I am going to start using the 18 minute rule - to break the task down into little 18 minute sessions and set an alarm and then decide to quit or continue for another 18 minutes when the time is up - I am hoping that will work!

I actually find it amusing that I am writing this blog when I don’t really have a history of success at de-cluttering. I usually console myself that at least my clutter is “neat” and “organized” in my mind, but the reality is that no matter how neat and organized I think I am, I still spend way to much time looking for things that I need. Clearly my expertise lies in encouragement to get motivated, since I have been doing that to myself for years and at giving support if goals are not met since I have also had a lot of practice at that as well!!

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Share your strategies to get motivated with the group by commenting on this blog.