Monday, February 16, 2009

What is clutter?

I came across this definition of clutter that can be found in Karen Kingston's book Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui. Here are her four categories of clutter:
  • Things you do not use or love
  • Things that are untidy or disorganized
  • Too many things in too small a place
  • Anything unfinished
What might be clutter to another may not be clutter to you. However, I do think it is very helpful to hire a professional organizer as an impartial party to help you go through your stuff. Sometimes it helps just asking yourself "Do I love this and use it?"--if you don't, toss it. Try not to think about the "some day" or "someone special gave this to me"--I think these are the biggest traps we all fall into. The space your clear by getting rid of what you don't need will allow you to enjoy what you do love and use all the more. My brother's family used a method that worked for them getting rid some of the clutter in their home. Once a week they would set a timer for twenty minutes and would go through the house clearing clutter. It's amazing what can happen if you make this part of your routine.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd like to take a moment to comment on holiday clutter. My counters are covered with valentine ---well, junk. My kids are treating cardboard dust catchers as prized possessions. What is a mom to do?