Clutter Never Ends
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I found a nifty new blog today called Less is More. Shannon is busy with her life and an ill family member so her posts are infrequent, but they are interesting and thought provoking.
Her latest post really made me think. In my rush headlong into clutter reduction, I often forget to stop and think about the future - my “post clutter” future.
I long for a future where I don’t misplace something in the pile of papers right on top of my desk, a future where my home is neat and clean and inviting at any time when I want to have someone over, a future where I don’t have to spend so much time dealing with clutter!
As Shannon points out, however, it will never end.
Now, don’t be discouraged!
I liked her analogy:
Eventually it isn’t so much climbing a mountain as just maintaining your campsite up at the top.
I’m still climbing the mountain, so while I can’t say I have any firsthand experience with this, but it makes sense. Once you only have a small amount of clutter to deal with, it’ll be far easier to stay on top of it. It’ll keep coming back, but you’ll b ready to take care of it in only a few minutes.
I suspect that people who are already “maintaining the campsite at the top” are the ones that most decluttering advice is written for. You know, the “grab a small bin and in 10 minutes your room is spotless again!” type of advice. The rest of us are left to struggle on as best we can. But we’ll get there eventually, I have no doubt!
It is important to remember, though, that it will never end. If you attempt to declutter and forget about this fact, you could get easily discouraged, or even give up, when you see clutter returning! By remembering that it will always be a part of life (anyone’s life, not just us clutterbugs!), you’re less likely to get frustrated when it creeps back in. You’ll be prepared to shoo it back out!
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“I suspect that people who are already “maintaining the campsite at the top” are the ones that most decluttering advice is written for. You know, the “grab a small bin and in 10 minutes your room is spotless again!” type of advice.”
How true! I am looking forward to the day when a small bin will take care of all my clutter woes.
@ Molly - Me too! Someday I’ll get there!
I think there’s a strong similarity here with weight loss, at least for people like me who need to work hard at it.
I’ve adopted The Hacker’s Diet in an attempt to “declutter” my body, and the author makes it very clear that this is a diet you have to follow for the rest of your life. The maintenance phase is easier than the reduction phase, but there simply is no such thing as a “post-diet future”.
It is depressing to think about, but refreshingly honest.
When you get to the top of the mountain, two things happen. (1) You have much less work to do, (2) you’re much better at doing it because you’ve developed the right habits. As with most things, the hard part is in the beginning.
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Thanks for the comment
Yeah, it’s something I sometimes forget. I gotta keep up on that regular maintenance. The post was inspired by me being sick last week and doing pretty much nothing and wow, you’d be surprised how fast it builds up again, LOL!
So now I have your new (to me) clutter blog to explore ;-D