As you walk through your home, are there certain spots where you tend to divert your eyes? You know…a corner here or a corner there that serves as “temporary housing” for the products of your deferred decisions? I think we’ve all got them. I’m talking about the places where we store the leftovers from what started as an organizing project. You probably put them there because you needed a minute to figure out what to do with them or are waiting for the necessary motivation. In the meantime, the clutter bugs you, so you look away. Let’s look at how you can get unstuck and clear those spaces!
Hidden Clutter
Last year around this time, we published a series of blog posts called Out of Sight, Out of Mind that looked at the typical places where people hide their clutter overflow. The visible portion of a person’s home may be tidy, but it’s easy for stuff to accumulate elsewhere. The clutter may be stashed in closets, drawers, attics, garages, storage units, or even the inside of a car. It’s usually stuff you don’t want to deal with.
Visible Clutter
But there are things that people leave in plain view on purpose so that they WILL get dealt with. The problem is that we can get used to looking away. Then, the items become long-term clutter that acts like an alarm clock that never wakes us up. Typical places are:
The hallway
A corner of the kitchen table
An unused shelf
The entryway table
A chair
Making that visible clutter “go away,” can be incredibly freeing! Here’s what we did to help one client with their deferred decision clutter stash. The stuff that was clogging up the hallway was mostly donated or given to friends. Their stalled decisions piled up and it was time to get them unstuck!
Are You “Cooked in the Squat”?
I’m a huge fan of motivational speaker Zig Zigler, so I’m going to use one of his stories to paint a picture for you. I can’t tell it like he can, but I’ll do my best! He shared how one day the biscuits on the dinner table were flat. When he asked what happened, he was told that “they squatted to rise but they just got cooked.” He used this vivid picture to explain how people can also get “Cooked in the Squat” before they rise. Despite good intentions, maybe even a solid start to a project, something or someone can distract us and stop us from meeting our goals. It could even be our own unwillingness to make the hard decisions.
Getting Past the Block
So, how do you tackle the clutter that now has a semi-permanent foothold within your daily view? There are a few different approaches you can take, but each one has the same basic structure.
Determine Your Goal(s) Your objective is to clear the space of anything that does not belong there. Additionally, however, you want to think about whether the goal is to just get rid of it, donate it to others, use it for something, or figure out a more appropriate place to keep it. Maybe you even want to use the space for something else after the path is clear.
Set a Deadline Deadlines are important motivators! You don’t want procrastination to win the game. When setting a deadline, be realistic but not overly generous with how much time you give yourself.
Decide On an Approach Perhaps the most important decision you need to make is how much you want to tackle at once. For some people, they do best with a dedicated chunk of time to just “knock it out.” To avoid getting overwhelmed, however, a more relaxed pace can be beneficial. It’s okay if you decide that addressing one item each day is as much as you can handle. As long as you are moving forward, you’ll get there!
Figure Out What’s Holding You Back There’s a reason why each of the items is where it is. So, each one is going to require some thought. Is it there because you don’t know where to donate it? Maybe it needs to be cleaned first? If it’s hardware, are you not sure what other thing it might be a part of? Is there someone else who needs to be involved in the decision? Do you have tech accessories that may or may not have a matching device somewhere in the house? Are the items too heavy to move without help? Does the item require specialized disposal or recycling? These questions are all part of the reason your project got delayed, and also a reason to consider pacing yourself as you clear the space. Determine the right question for each item, and you’ll know what it’s going to take to make it disappear.
On this step, you may find some useful tips in the post, Liberate Yourself From, "What If?".
Get It Done There is no perfect time to organize. You will find that there is always something else that can get in the way. So, telling yourself that you are going to wait for summer, or school to start, or motivation to strike is probably not the best plan. Those things will come and go, and your pile of stuff may still be there. You could essentially be “Waiting for Godot” who never arrives. So, you simply have to pick a day and start. If there’s an easy task in the mix like donating or recycling something ready to go, do that first so you can make a motivational dent!
There Is Help If You Want It
There may be no way around having to make decisions, but you’re not alone. Tag in your friends to help you think things through and keep you entertained along the way. Or enlist the help of our team of organizers to help get you unstuck, so you are not “cooked in the squat”!
Just book a Complimentary Introduction Call to get started!
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