Anti-cluttering Projects
Oct. 20th, 2006 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebIt's very easy when I'm at work to imagine purging all sorts of unused possessions and making all sorts of room.
But then when I get home and am faced with the actual, specific possessions, suddenly it's not so easy. I would give you some details, but it's way too embarrassing. Maybe I should go back in there and pretend I have to tell you all about every one of my decisions and see what happens.
**
Well, one thing that happens is that I suddenly feel the need to do another load of laundry and to put away the dishes. And then I get very sleepy.
Let's just say that I have a lot of things that I think are pretty but that I don't use, like greeting cards. (I put some in a folder called "decorations.") And like storage containers. (I just figured out I could use one of the storage containers to hold buttons! Except for the ones that don't fit. And it looks pretty on my dresser! Right next to my container of safety pins. But what about the other four? How many tiny things do I need to store in large quantities that do not need to be in air-tight containers? I mostly just store books, papers, and clothes.)
And I have a lot of supplies for things I could be doing if I had more time. I have a lot of hobbies and although at any given time I am doing only a reasonable number of them, over long periods of time I do unreasonable numbers of them. So I still need the red silk fabric that I'm going to make something out of, for example. At the very least, a tissue box cover. Because dark red silk is the most awesome looking fabric of all time.
And I have things that are a pain to deal with, which is why I haven't dealt with them, like new covers in the shape of red peppers for my Christmas tree lights that are hanging in the big living room. (The old covers are faded.)
And I have things like books that I might want, but I won't know if I want them until I read them.
Thus, many of these items represent projects to do, and that's why it takes me so long to deal with them.
At the very least, I should start doing anti-cluttering projects on a regular basis.
But certainly there are many projects I should just decide not to do. For example, I have a few nice gift bags that people have given me presents in. One of them I liked so much that I cut out as large a portion as I could and had it framed and it is now hanging in the bedroom. Most of them should just be re-used as gift bags. I am not going to be thinking up ways to use them into beautiful pencil holders or whatever, am I?
But nowadays I wrap gifts in brown paper, ribbon, and flowers. So I never use these bags. Except now I'm realizing they could be used to give things to people which I would not normally wrap, like the towels I just gave my new nephew wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. In conclusion, I need to either give these bags away or start remembering that I have them.
Okay, so that wasn't the best example, but I'm sure there are some projects where I keep thinking I don't feel like doing them, and that's a good sign that I should decide not to do them. I did get rid of my notes for the astronomy class I took on life in the universe, even though I still think I would like to write a novel using some of that information, because I really don't feel like looking through it all to find the relevant information. (The most relevant information is that it appears that the independent development of life elsewhere appears to be rather unlikely and thus rare at best. Not exciting for my novel. But then we are exceedingly ignorant about this field anyway.)
Apartment Therapy recommends asking yourself three questions about items you are thinking about letting go of (p. 79):
* Do I use it?
* Do I love it?
* Does my apartment need it?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, you should think about getting rid of it. By which I mean put it in the outbox.
I thought I'd written about the outbox before, but I can't find it. Most de-cluttering advice says to divide all your stuff into stuff you're keeping, stuff you're getting rid of, and stuff you're thinking about. And then they have various methods of dealing with the stuff you're not sure about ranging from "when in doubt, throw it out," to sealing it up in a box and putting a date on it and then throwing out the box one year later without looking into it. The theory is that if you haven't missed it in a year, you must not need it. And even if you're wrong about some things, it's probably cheaper to replace those things you were mistaken about than it is to hang on to everything hoping you'll be able to find it when you want to.
I've taken some clothes out into the garage before for this sort of purgatory period, and then run out there looking for a shirt, finding it, and wondering how I could ever have put that shirt in that bag. But I did get rid of everything else. I like the idea of a test drive.
This book has a good take on this subject, too. While you are working on a room, you take out everything that's not "fitting in, working, or adding to the room." It's not about the stuff, it's about the functioning of the room. You get all this stuff out of the way while you are reorganizing your room. Later you can add some things back, move some things to other rooms where they fit better or get rid of some things.
On the website, it looks like people doing the cure are designating one corner of one room as the outbox and then getting rid of most everything in it. I could imagine needing an entire room for everything that I am not absolutely sure is contributing to the purposes of a room. I'll have to think more about how to implement this strategy. But for now, it's tomorrow already, and I'm going to bed.
But then when I get home and am faced with the actual, specific possessions, suddenly it's not so easy. I would give you some details, but it's way too embarrassing. Maybe I should go back in there and pretend I have to tell you all about every one of my decisions and see what happens.
**
Well, one thing that happens is that I suddenly feel the need to do another load of laundry and to put away the dishes. And then I get very sleepy.
Let's just say that I have a lot of things that I think are pretty but that I don't use, like greeting cards. (I put some in a folder called "decorations.") And like storage containers. (I just figured out I could use one of the storage containers to hold buttons! Except for the ones that don't fit. And it looks pretty on my dresser! Right next to my container of safety pins. But what about the other four? How many tiny things do I need to store in large quantities that do not need to be in air-tight containers? I mostly just store books, papers, and clothes.)
And I have a lot of supplies for things I could be doing if I had more time. I have a lot of hobbies and although at any given time I am doing only a reasonable number of them, over long periods of time I do unreasonable numbers of them. So I still need the red silk fabric that I'm going to make something out of, for example. At the very least, a tissue box cover. Because dark red silk is the most awesome looking fabric of all time.
And I have things that are a pain to deal with, which is why I haven't dealt with them, like new covers in the shape of red peppers for my Christmas tree lights that are hanging in the big living room. (The old covers are faded.)
And I have things like books that I might want, but I won't know if I want them until I read them.
Thus, many of these items represent projects to do, and that's why it takes me so long to deal with them.
At the very least, I should start doing anti-cluttering projects on a regular basis.
But certainly there are many projects I should just decide not to do. For example, I have a few nice gift bags that people have given me presents in. One of them I liked so much that I cut out as large a portion as I could and had it framed and it is now hanging in the bedroom. Most of them should just be re-used as gift bags. I am not going to be thinking up ways to use them into beautiful pencil holders or whatever, am I?
But nowadays I wrap gifts in brown paper, ribbon, and flowers. So I never use these bags. Except now I'm realizing they could be used to give things to people which I would not normally wrap, like the towels I just gave my new nephew wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. In conclusion, I need to either give these bags away or start remembering that I have them.
Okay, so that wasn't the best example, but I'm sure there are some projects where I keep thinking I don't feel like doing them, and that's a good sign that I should decide not to do them. I did get rid of my notes for the astronomy class I took on life in the universe, even though I still think I would like to write a novel using some of that information, because I really don't feel like looking through it all to find the relevant information. (The most relevant information is that it appears that the independent development of life elsewhere appears to be rather unlikely and thus rare at best. Not exciting for my novel. But then we are exceedingly ignorant about this field anyway.)
Apartment Therapy recommends asking yourself three questions about items you are thinking about letting go of (p. 79):
* Do I use it?
* Do I love it?
* Does my apartment need it?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, you should think about getting rid of it. By which I mean put it in the outbox.
I thought I'd written about the outbox before, but I can't find it. Most de-cluttering advice says to divide all your stuff into stuff you're keeping, stuff you're getting rid of, and stuff you're thinking about. And then they have various methods of dealing with the stuff you're not sure about ranging from "when in doubt, throw it out," to sealing it up in a box and putting a date on it and then throwing out the box one year later without looking into it. The theory is that if you haven't missed it in a year, you must not need it. And even if you're wrong about some things, it's probably cheaper to replace those things you were mistaken about than it is to hang on to everything hoping you'll be able to find it when you want to.
I've taken some clothes out into the garage before for this sort of purgatory period, and then run out there looking for a shirt, finding it, and wondering how I could ever have put that shirt in that bag. But I did get rid of everything else. I like the idea of a test drive.
This book has a good take on this subject, too. While you are working on a room, you take out everything that's not "fitting in, working, or adding to the room." It's not about the stuff, it's about the functioning of the room. You get all this stuff out of the way while you are reorganizing your room. Later you can add some things back, move some things to other rooms where they fit better or get rid of some things.
On the website, it looks like people doing the cure are designating one corner of one room as the outbox and then getting rid of most everything in it. I could imagine needing an entire room for everything that I am not absolutely sure is contributing to the purposes of a room. I'll have to think more about how to implement this strategy. But for now, it's tomorrow already, and I'm going to bed.
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Questions three
on 2006-10-22 02:19 am (UTC)* Do I use it?
* Do I love it?
* Does my apartment need it?
I did just move, and got rid of a few things beforehand, but the move *was* quite sudden, so a lot of the purging which normally accompanies moving is happening now. Anyone want a lap desk (pillow type thing with a flat writing area with an Impressionist scene on it)? I thought I was 'attached' to it because my grandmother gave it to me, about 11 years ago, but I have never used it (may have forced myself to use it once but didn't really like it). I don't love it. And I have - and like using - my table as a desk. If I can't sit there, I don't write; I don't write letters sitting on the couch. I think I need to sit upright to write. Anyway, it's up for grabs :)
Attachment to Things
on 2006-10-23 01:17 am (UTC)Re: Attachment to Things
on 2006-10-27 04:03 am (UTC)I have a moderately sized pile of stuff to give to Goodwill, and I intend on making another passat it. As Tam says, it *is* hard to get rid of a lot of stuff in one go.