Personal clutter demons (long)

[Geonz]

++++1 on the "stuff in organizing books is for people who are organized."


Flylady was way too much for me.

I've had people say they were going to try to help me get organized, but they always forgot. If I were organized, I would have reminded them, but that's the point. HOnestly, it wasn't self-sabotage. I can't tell you how many times I've found the evidence of a sorting system or memory system that I forgot I'd started. I do remember to clean out my dryer lint and pencil sharpeners... I think because they scream "fire hazard!" at me. (Or maybe because I'm a closet pyro and really want to collect it all and burn off all that clutter )

So, given that, For *me* craigslist or ebay would be too taxing on my lack of organizational skills. Keep track of pictures of the stuff? Ack!

However, if you don't like the clutter because it keeps you from getting organized... then organize the sale, get rid of the stuff, and keep your simplified life more organized. Simplicity has its value

So... I *do* somehow find a way to blog. So I started a "clutterblog" a.k.a. a "CLOG" after my brother's wedding end of May. It's inspired me to *start* cleaning several times and of course, if somebody wnated to join forces and mandate "No, you need a picture of the target area every Sunday night," hey, I'd be game because yea, abotu now (last posting was 7/5) it may die off... http://clog-theclutterblog.blogspot.com/

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

If you can hide your clutter in the closets or in the attic, you don't really have a clutter problem.
If you can put all your disorganized papers into a big box or a filing cabinet, you don't have real clutter problem.
If you can get rid of your clutter by putting it on Ebay or carting it off in the trunk of your car, you don't have a real problem.
I grew up where there were only 1 foot wide trails that you could pick your way through the rooms on...everything besides that was piled halfway up to the ceiling. God help you if those 6 foot tall stacks of NY Times fell over on you. Clean clothes?...what a joke- go pick the least dirty thing from that five foot tall mound of dirty clothes in the middle of the room and wear it. Where's that big spaghetti pot? Oh yeah, it's still got last year's thanksgiving turkey stew in it and it's somewhere under that shapeless mound in the corner over there where I 'think' the radiator is...and I think I remember the old green recliner chair is under there somewhere too. Want to pull up the shade and open the window for a little daylight and fresh air?...sorry, can't get anywhere near it. Plus, you're not allowed to touch the window shade because it will disintegrate if you move it, like the one in the bedroom did a few years ago. Only we can't get into the bedroom anymore so we stopped worrying about the shade in there letting the daylight in. And don't get me started on what kind of 'food' we kids had to eat.
This is how I grew up, and it was pretty oppressive. My mother, whom I loved very much, had a little issue or two.

The idea of trying to deal with clutter by Ebaying or Craigslisting one's way out of it only works for people who don't have a really serious hoarding/clutter problem. Self help books with 'organization systems' won't work either. They cannot 'get organized', they cannot let go, they cannot face it or solve it no matter how many books they read or pep talks they get from well meaning friends.
It reaches a point where it just becomes beyond self help. At that point only real physical intervention by caring and efficient people can help, best accompanied by therapy and support. Not support to make the hoarder 'better organized'...but merely to reassure and comfort them while the traumatic intervention is happening...while they are losing so much of what they feel they simply cannot live without.
There are many levels of having a 'clutter problem'. I'm not really sure what level the original poster is experiencing, but I do know that it can become progressively worse year by year. It can become a real sickness, the seriousness and hopelessness of which many of us more normal people simply cannot comprehend.

[Tuckervill]

Oh Lisa, that's just terrible.

Yesterday, I decided to "declutter" some stuff I had put in the garage for the garage sale that never happened. I was fed up, and it requires a permit to hold a garage sale and of course on Saturday city offices are closed. I just decided to give it all away.

I made a sign that said "Free! Christmas Shopping" and put it by the main street. Then I spread out two tarps and put everything I could find to part with out on those tarps by the wheelbarrow load. It took a good 2 hours before I got the first customer, and boy was he enthusiastic! He went home and got his wife, and I kept going in and out of the out buildings and finding more stuff that didn't need to be sold.

Eventually, I noticed that several people were sitting in their cars WAITING for me to come out with the next load. I could barely get it through the gate before they were on me. It was incredible. I left the stuff out there all night, and only about 10% of 20 loads was still there (some of the stuff that went early was lots of furniture, most of it broken!).

Two realizations:

• Some of these people had to be hoarders.
• None of them took the home organization books that I had collected in frustration over the years.

I feel so free!

Karen