Every so often I'll clean everything out, or at least a fair bit of it (the rest gets put "away"). The next thing I know, I'll look around my living room or bedroom and hurricane clutter has hit again!
Why is it that the clutter keeps coming back?
I know I'm not alone in this. Clutter is becoming a serious materialistic epidemic. They make TV shows about this stuff! Anyone ever seen hoarders??
I'm not nearly to that level, but I have to ask myself, why does my apartment start to look like a post-natural disaster zone when I'm barely home? If I am being honest with myself, it's in part due to my busy schedule, my lack of motivation to put things away, and this almost bone-deep desire to bring new things into my home to try and update the old.
Right now I'm staring at an empty shoe box. A part of my brain justifies this by pointing out its potential as storage, gift wrapping, or school-related project. The other side of my brain is shaking her head in disgust. "Steph," she says, "It has been there since September! You've got to move on!!" This side of my brain is practical, logical, and yearns to be clutter-free. The other side of my brain sadly shakes her head. She reminds me of the environmental impact of this box, the days of "reuse, reduce, recycle" (a theme drilled into us in elementary school), and the hope of finding a use for this attractive red box.
I often come home bone-tired. The last thing I want to do is tidy & clean as I feel like I've spent the entire day running around behind kids picking up their stuff & tidying my classroom. I want to curl up in my comfy chair, but I'm often faced with that chair being full of things I meant to put away. My clutter is becoming an obstacle to enjoying my apartment.
So how do you go clutter-free while negotiating a peace treaty between the pragmatic and dreamer sides of your brain? It seems like such a monumental task, yet quite necessary if I want to have full enjoyment of my space. In times like this, I'm drawn to check out the different options on one of my favourite sites...Pinterest.
Here are some of the more appealing suggestions:
- 31 Day Detox Diet by www.cleanandscentsible.com: this promises to help you reduce clutter in only 15 minutes a day (anyone starting to think this sounds like an ad for weight loss?)
- How about a "1 Touch Rule" as suggested by www.mothersniche.com? The theory is that if we put it away in the first place, we'd only be touching it once. By putting it on the couch, a shelf, the chair, the table, or floor, we'll be moving it again later. In theory, this means touching it multiple times as opposed to only doing it once.
- Magic of Tidying Up is a book recommended by www.modernmrsdarcy.com. By implementing concepts taught by Japanese personal tidying expert, Marie Kondo, this blogger has found new ways to organize and cut out the clutter.
We live in a society that is constantly being marketed to. We're being told we need things to be happy and that we won't be successful or at peace until we have the perfect combination of things in our homes. This contributes to the growing culture of clutter. The truth is, the things that we need to be happy don't come in shrink wrap, plastic bags, or even cute red shoe boxes. Learning to embrace the joys of holding someone else's hand, relishing a good hug, or spending time with loved ones is what really fills a space.
Someone I very much respect once told me, "We have to stop filling the hallow spaces in our lives with things that were never designed to fill them." He was absolutely right!