Clutterbugs Anonymous
I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a clutterbug. I tend to worry that if I get rid of something, I might decide I needed it after all. Not that I’d ever be able to find it if I did need it!!! Combine that with a natural penchant to procrastinate on tasks I don’t enjoy (such as decluttering) and you can have one big recipe for disaster.
A number of years ago, I stumbled upon Flylady and that system worked for me for a while. Then I got pregnant which left me tired, sick (I get sick all the way through my pregnancies) and ended up with post natal depression (which I actually think started during my pregnancy) and 3 kids.
Moving house helped me deal with a fair amount of clutter but we’ve been here for 4 years now and with everything else that has happened in my life, dealing with clutter has gone to the bottom of the priority list.
My goal last term was to go through and declutter the entire house. Ha!!!! I’m so good at setting myself unachievable goals!!! :( Sure, we got rid of quite a bit of stuff. Just NOT. ENOUGH.
On Sunday my frustration with clutter reached it’s peak. We had a busy school holidays and the house was a disaster zone! Staring down the barrel of Term 2 starting and realising that half my plans for term 1 just hadn’t happened and that I only have this term left to get the house to the point where I’m happy for someone else to stay in it in my absence.
*sigh*
Of course, there’s nothing like a deadline to help a procrastinator get their butt into gear. 
I’ve decided that for every week this term (what’s left of it given we leave before it actually finishes - eeek!!!), I’m going to set myself a focus/goal.
This week’s is bedrooms.
They get tidied every week but there’s tidy and there’s “tidy” if you know what I mean.
In a marked act of bravery yesterday, I actually ventured UNDER the boys beds!!!! I found some interesting science experiments and the dust bunnies were multiplying happily!!!!
I think the hardest thing about being a “clutterbug” myself is that I can hardly expect my children to be any different. And they’re not. They’re hopeless at getting rid of stuff. And then when they do decided to get rid of something, it’s something I don’t want to get rid of. LOL.
Is it any wonder we’re struggling to conquer the clutter monster???? 
The good news is, we don’t have a very large house so we HAVE to get rid of stuff from time to time.
More stuff has been leaving this house than has been entering it of late so SURELY we have to start seeing the difference soon!!!!
If we don’t, I might just sit down and cry. LOL.
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I’m hearing you.
When we moved here we had 120 boxes of stuff. Apparently the average family has 60 boxes when they move house.
So that’s my goal. To “lose” 60 boxes of stuff so when we move next time I only have 60 boxes. Ok, maybe 80, we’ll see how I go. I still have about 40 boxes to unpack though. By Christmas is my goal!
Sounds like you need Sharon the clutter Nazi to pay a visit!
I detest clutter. I have many times thrown out something that I have wanted back at some stage, but you know what? The sky didn’t fall. The world didn’t end. I either went without it, or even better, bought a new one.
When we moved to WA there were three boxes of I don’t know what that sat out in the shed and were never unpacked. When we moved back here I threw them out without even looking inside. I figured if I hadn’t needed them in the 5 years we lived in WA they didn’t need to come back here with us.
Getting cleaned out is so exhilerating. You can do it!
Clutter? Don’t get me started……..
Kin - who knew they had an average for moving boxes? I’d have no idea how many we’d have. I hate moving.
Sharon - LOL. I think I’d be too scared. You might make me throw stuff away.
River - okay…
A while back I instigated a new rule = nothing new can come into a house unless something of an equal size leaves. [except food!] However, like most new things I have fallen by the way side.
These days it’s more of a cursory tidy and one teeny tiny job per day or per week if things aren’t going well e.g. smallest kitchen drawer. It’s a slow process but I like to feel a tiny sense of achievement.
Cheers
My mother-in-law is the worst clutterbug I’ve seen. She has files, books etc going back decades.
Maddy - it’s an excellent idea. I’m just very bad at sticking to it!!!
Ian - mine could probably beat that. She has 3 houses and a shack with stuff in it. *sigh* Thing is, she can lay her hands on nearly anything. How she keeps track of it all is beyond me!!!