Don't Let Your Clutter Control You

Throwing out excess clutter is the most important part of getting organized. It is the backbone of being organized. It is not really possible to be a well-organized person and to have a lot of stuff. The two do not go together. I throw and throw and throw some more. The more I throw out the better I feel and the more organized I become.

I make it a point to look for things to throw out. I throw out clothes, books, papers, containers, furniture, kitchen stuff and anything that doesn't work, doesn't fit, things that I'm tired of and anything else that looks like clutter. At the end of the day at my civil engineering job the paper garbage can is usually full.

In spite of all this throwing I still have plenty of stuff. The point is that you do not have to be afraid that you will have nothing; you'll just have a lot less. The stuff you have left will be the things you want, love and are useful to you. I keep the books I want to reread or that are a good reference. I throw out the rest. I keep the hobby equipment I want to pursue; I just throw out the equipment from hobbies that no longer interest me. I keep my Monthly calendar because it is important to me and has a lot of good information.

I throw out all the other calendars that I have for seeing the day and month. I only write on my one main calendar that I carry around with me. Those other calendars, even though they have nice pictures on them, get tossed at the end of the year. If you really love a picture from a calendar, then just cut out the picture to save, rather than keep the whole calendar.

I know what is important to me and do not feel guilty for throwing things out.

I think a lot of people do not know what is important to them. They don't know what is easily obtainable again. They don't spend any time thinking of how they could be more organized by having less clutter. So they just keep everything. They buy new clothes and keep the old clothes. They buy new books but keep the old books they will never read again. They keep every paper they receive in the mail or print off from the computer. They just can't seem to get rid of any of it. Don't do that, your life and free time is more important than stuff.

One way to keep your stuff under control is to use the one in and two out rule. I do see a lot of people who tend to have huge amounts of stuff and clutter to deal with. My boss at work has a desk piled high with papers. He cannot seem to do anything about it. A number of the other people in the office are the same way. But a number of others doing similar types of things have very neat, orderly, uncluttered desks and office areas. I think it is the way a person sees the world. I want my world to be uncluttered and free. Don't you?

My ex-wife is a cluttered person. She has huge amounts of everything. It seems that anything she had any interest in she collected. Then after she moved on to something else, she still keeps the older items. She just can't bring herself to throw anything away even if she has no interest in it.

I encouraged her to discard things from years ago that she wasn't using. She ignored my ideas. I guess she is happy that way. I know that her stuff was a big problem for me. I found it hard to get past. I am just so into having less clutter that it did affect our marriage, although it wasn't the reason we broke up (maybe a little).

She just would not part with anything. She was always buying more and more bins, containers, shelving and storage units to contain it all. I don't mind having good things to hold the good stuff. What I didn't like was the huge expense of buying more and more containers to hold more and more stuff that wasn't being used. I hate spending money on stuff to hold clutter. I hate spending time storing stuff away and re-organizing it multiple times. She would spend hours and days working on her stuff. Then she would insist that I help and be mad at me if I didn't want to. She would be furious if she ever caught me throwing anything of hers out. I found out early in our marriage not to do that.

One Sunday I took my kids to my brother's rental trailer. He bought it as an investment and for a place for his ex-wife, their daughter and his ex-wife's new son to live. He and my parents were going to be there to work on a project. I wanted to visit and have the kids see their grandparents, uncle and cousin.

We had a nice picnic lunch, visited for a while and then it was time for work. The trailer had a leaky roof and it needed repair before winter. But before we could work on the roof, my brother said that we needed to organize the stuff in the storage shed. My brother's ex-wife is quite a collector and she had the shed jammed with stuff. My brother decided to work on the shed first because he knew that his ex would insist that their daughter do it. Since he knew how big of a job that would be, he decided to do it for his daughter. He is really a good dad and protective of her.

My mom, dad and I all helped so it went fairly well. My dad and I think the same about clutter. If it was up to us it would all have been thrown away. We would have had a huge pile for the garbage man but it would be the last time anyone would have to deal with it.

I didn't mind the work. It was a nice day and I was with family. It was good exercise for me and the kids had a good time with their cousin. I probably won't have to deal with that stuff again. My brother will. He has been moving that same stuff around for years. From house to house. From garage to shed.

Do you see the main problem with the stuff? It came before the real problem of the leaky roof. The roof should have been fixed. A leak in your roof will cause major damage to the building. Expensive damage. But the stuff came first. If the stuff would have been thrown out years before, then the roof could have been fixed first. But that is what stuff does. It puts itself first. The more important things come second when you let the stuff come first.

Don't be that way. Let the important things be first. Let the stuff come last. Keep it in its place by always throwing it away. When your stuff knows you are a thrower, it will be more respectful of you and not try to push its way to the front. It will know its place in your life. The clutter you allow in your life will know it's usefulness to you. It will know that you are in control.

Finally, and most important, remember that you are not so much getting rid of stuff as making room to live.

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