“Everything in the world must have design or the human mind rejects it. But in addition it must have purpose or the human conscience shies away from it.” John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley
Do you ever start a project just to find that the project itself seems to grow as you work? I’m one of those people who gets really inspired and pulls everything from drawers and closets and puts it all in one big pile. I feel strong and powerful as I set out to organize all that falls into my path. Well, this is true until all the “unpacking” is finished. As it looms, every other task on my to-do list seems more interesting and important. I putter around uselessly, picking up things and putting them down or noticing that the windows could really be washed. I know it is almost all over when I begin to dream that someone from one of those organizing shows will knock on my door and lead me through the overwhelming process that I’ve begun. I sit defeated, surrounded by treasures, garbage, things that belong to other people and things I don’t even remember purchasing and no one comes to save me from myself.
If I’m feeling especially sharp I can even convince myself that organizing is overrated and that my disorganization is probably positively correlated to my productivity and creativity!
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.” A. A. Milne
While this can be exciting, being surprised about where my house keys are every day is a bit of a drag and a total waste of time and energy. Clearly I’m no expert on de-cluttering so I won’t attempt to compete with the pros here but I have 2 strategies that are usually enough to get me going and keep me on task. They might also serve you if you are procrastinating on your goal using cleaning or de-cluttering. (I can’t write because my desk is a mess…sound familiar?)
1. Hide the pile. Seriously, most of us are very visual, so a huge pile of tax receipts, winter and summer clothes, office files or kitchen cupboards can be so un-motivating and intimidating that we just want to go back to bed. So shove it all out of site and…
2. Start small. Choose to sort for one type of item. Maybe you want to hunt in the big pile for clothes that can be given away, things that don’t belong in that room (put them all in a big laundry basket and put it out of site, just outside the door of the room you are working in). You can pluck away at this over a few hours, or in shorter increments of time, and the pile will get smaller. Really!
The benefit of the hide the pile strategy is that if you are really legitimately interrupted you have not left your home or office in a terrible state. The drawback of the hide the pile strategy is that you might just forget about it all together. But hey maybe that’s not so bad either.
“My theory on housework is, if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares, why should you?” Erma Bombeck
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