One week now and for looking at the spaces, you wouldn't even know I have done anything let alone made any progress!
This is the time when one can get deeply demoralised and can cause one to stop. The work you have been slogging at is INVISIBLE!!!
Even to yourself!
You can imagine how that must make one feel! The doubt pours in. The loud resounding questions rolling around your brain screaming 'why am I doing this??????????'. Well, it is obvious why when we can see it, touch it and feel it. But not so obvious when it isn't bloody obvious.
This is the very time you have to find ways to make you keep going. This INVISIBLE can happen a few times through the whole process so this is important to get on top of a strategy that works for you. Otherwise, one could be doomed to never get out from under the 'stuff' ever!
If all else fails, I highly recommend the 'breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out over a few times slowly' along with a seriously good cuppa tea.
You may ask... 'what has gotten me to this state of fluster after going so well'.
Good question. Glad you asked.
Have been busy getting teenage son to get involved with his room and in order. No mean task. But I take delight in even the minutest task done.
What with him doing his room and me trying to get the study up and running the whole house looks like a shambles. Even robbers wouldn't know where to start? They would come in and say 'What tha' and nick off in sheer terror. I did mention in a past post that one of the few 'plus' sides to having too much stuff and not in its rightful place is they can't find all of what you might have and really don't have a clue when dealing with a house stuffed to the gunnels. Even robbers like a tidy home.
I will state this is no reason not to get oneself back on track though.
So what have I achieved?
Well, my sons cupboard now has 'HIS' clothes hanging up in there, which before had items of my parents, along with Latvian National folk costumes. These are now hanging in the cupboard in the Study. I culled more as I transferred and also hung what I intend to sell, along with winter coats, jackets and other seasonal clothing etc and the national outfits that I intend to keep sealed in their very own cocoon.
Getting more organised does takes time.
I am culling my video tapes as well. Yes... VHS. DVD has it's limitations also. But that is a whole other blog altogether. I have shows from eons ago, including old movies that you just cannot get and will dub down to DVD. But the most interesting ones are where I have copied Oprah shows about topics that were important to me back then. How interesting to look back. The earliest so far has been from 1998. No joke.
There were 2 episodes of 'Spring Clean Your Life' or along those lines. I was in the throws of my life spinning out of control, but had no idea it was about to get a million times worse. If only that crystal ball actually worked. Looking back sure has its benefits in the plus as well the negative. There were various banners of those who control, those who were OCD and also along with the clutter bug. The then expert was Julie Morgenstern 'Organising From The Inside Out', and she actually had some very interesting points and tips that made sense to me.
Some that will be helpful to me right now and very timely I must say.
This is her with the then book.
She used the acroynym S.P.A.C.E.
S - for sort first by grouping and no running around. Have a box handy for items to go back to kitchen, bathroom etc and do in one hit at the end.
Now that one I will use. The time it will save will be enormous.
P - for purge by tossing anything broken, missing a part, stained, torn etc as well as donate.
A - is assign kept items and can even assign zones within a zone ie filing for instance.
C - is where you then only go to seek the containers to put said assigned items and if you do not have suitable go buy what fits and looks good in the space and label so easy to see quickly what is inside.
This was interesting, but it made sense to do this last as you invariably will save money and be able to make the intended space look really schmick.
E - is Equalise but I put my spin of evaluate. This part is an ongoing part of the acroynym. Maintain, reassess with period tune ups so as to avoid later massive catch ups.
Now this sounds all good to me, but haven't quite gotten there as yet, but is still very much my ultimate aim.
Julie said to organise one space at a time. This makes sense if you are not in overload everywhere like myself. But I will use this to my advantage eventually and do the current space a few times till I get it to what I see in my minds eye.
Here are some statts she stated, which I am sure still holds true even today. Remember this was from 1998 that had some very interesting hairdo's!
The time wasted taken in searching for items is a minimum of 12 weeks per year and this was conservative. I would agree to this.
The fact that you cannot find things costs you more money. Again, I would agree with this.
As I wrote earlier my son is going over his room. We had to return books and one was missing and he said he lost it. Lost it alright. Had to pay the school money for the lost book when school broke up prior to Christmas. My cherub sheepishly came out of his room with said book behind his back. I am sure that once we return the book the monies will be refunded, but this is a perfect example of monies being wasted. There are many more, but hope this makes the point clear.
More money in our pockets is a great incentive to downsize, purge, declutter, get sorted no matter how you say it.
Mess is stress. Well, dah!
Now this expert impressed me as she accepted that there were those who liked abundance around them and actually were wired that way and needed it. I liked how she said it. ABUNDANCE. How nice is that. No shame, no stigma, just said nicely. She said this can be achieved as long as you streamline the above, which is what I do anyway. But the fact that she added this and allowed for abundance and our differences was for my mind blowing.
The discussion got to when you are doing the business of sorting etc that there will come a point where one becomes overwhelmed. She said that this is an important point in the process, but never got clearly clarified in the discussion. For me it means you are about to break the camels back and head to better parts of the process.
There was a guest called Victoria Moran 'Shelter For The Spirit', who said to design your space from your soul... sounds very Oprahish now doesn't it... I see it as setting your room/space with all the things that you love. Maybe that is the same thing, but thought it was worth a mention as at times a key sentence or phrase will make sense to one and yet not to another. Very weird, but very true.
Here is Victoria on that very show.
And her book.
There were several 'SFTS' with different subtitles. I am guessing that this was the one being referred to at that time.
There was discussion as to why this habit is and one sentence bandied around was that it served to not to deal with clutter meant you could use that block to avoid something else that was an even bigger bother to you. Interesting. Yes and no. For some yes. For ethnics no. We keep for the recession, food shortages, strikes and wars etc. Reasons can vary, but this is also still valid.
Another point that I myself don't do strictly is set time limits. Time your to do's so as to avoid unfulfilled intentions. My timelines are rather vague, but as time goes on and my pile gets smaller I will more than likely have to take this strategy on board at some stage. Just like a marathon runner who paces every step of the way to when upon entering that arena to do that last lap as a sprint to get to that enticing finishing line.
Now I am not keeping this VHS as I have now noted the more interestings aspects of its contents here in my blog. Who knew this blog would be more useful than at first glance. Gotta love that!
After I remove all items out of the study the next step is to move the furniture to their new zones/homes.
Then next the domino begins.
Next will be the computer to be set up.
Only items in assigned places placed back in.
Re do the entire lounge.
Finalise the dining room.
Then that part is over and I take a short break before tackling what is under the carport.
After my birthday gathering the other day one said when is the garden bee for a few offers of help with the backyard to be expressed, so will have to organise a gardening bee with a BBQ at the end as a thank you in there somewhere as well. This sounds like fun to me as I have helped at a few garden bees myself for others and have seen what can be achieved first hand.
As you can see my work is cut out for me.
After the carport I will call upon my trusty clutter whisperer to help in the kitchen.
In the show I watched as they sorted a kitchen like mine and it took 5 women, one being the expert and 2 days to complete and back then the quote to do this was $1,500 US dollars when it double the value of the Australian dollar, so it would have cost here $3,000!!!
Did I say avoidance was an option? No, just joking.
I have strategies to get this cost down to an affordable minimum and in doing so means it will get done over many weekends instead.
OK, have to go and the next lot done and get myself a cuppa tea while doing this. Try to avoid having many cups of tea around the house while you do this as you will find cups all over the house at the end of the day.
In this case 'just over halfway to finishing'!
One cup at all times only, otherwise you will be finding cups for days afterwards.
Been there, done that.
Cheers all
Anita
ps. Just found out that my kettle has bitten the dust. Ugh. Lucky I still have one element on the stove in which to boil some water the old fashioned way.
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