Are piles of clutter preventing you from having friends and family over?
What does your house look like at rest?
This idea came from some of my early readings on minimalism and it resonated with me. Where do things naturally come to rest inside your home? How do things look in the evening before you go to bed? If you are like most people, the same things sit in piles for many months without movement, perhaps adding or subtracting an item or two here or there. If your house does not look the way you want it to, how can you begin to find permanent homes for things so that your house at rest looks closer to your ideal?
Doom Piles
Have you heard of doom piles? It’s actually an acronym for “Didn’t Organize, Only Moved”. Often when folks are preparing for guests, they gather up piles of clutter and move them - sometimes in boxes, bags, or laundry baskets - into an area where guests won’t be visiting such as an upstairs bedroom, closet, or garage. The problem is, we rarely go back and go through these piles. Mail can be lost for years, I’ve seen it happen! Doom piles sound just like their name and represent all the dread and overwhelm folks feel when viewing them.
A better way
Avoiding doom piles takes some time and effort, especially if that’s how you have operated for many years. Starting a new habit of trying to put things away and unpacking immediately when you get home, or the same day will help. It will feel daunting at first, but as you complete the habit, it will get easier and easier to do. Think about what’s holding you back from addressing items right away. Is it time? Energy? Lack of an organized place to put the item away into? This will help you determine additional barriers and how to solve them. Do you need to schedule a time once a week to reset your home, such as 1-2 hours on Saturday? Do you need to find time when you feel your best to complete these tasks? Do you need to declutter and organize so that there is a clear home for everything you want to keep? Asking yourself these questions can help you get to the root of the problem. Many of our clients find that once we help them reset a space, they are able to successfully maintain it!
How to deal with doom piles
Unfortunately, the only way to deal with doom piles is to go through them. If you are pretty sure there is nothing important, you could ask a friend or family member to try and quickly review the pile before throwing items away or donating them. However, mostly likely you will need to go through them yourself to make decisions. Although this may sound daunting and uncomfortable, you can use strategies to make it a more tolerable experience.
Strategies to get started on clutter
Do you know what helps you the most? When I started my decluttering journey, I loved to watch the TV show “Tiny House Nation”. After watching an episode and hearing how much the people on the show loved living with less, I was immediately motivated to go and purge my own extra things. Once you figure out a golden strategy you can use it again and again to help get yourself going on clutter. Try a strategy and see if it sticks!
Body doubling: getting a friend or family member to help you OR putting on a cleaning video from youtube. There are tons of “clean with me” shows and having another person in the room (even virtually) doing the same thing as you will help get you moving and motivated
Short timed bursts: Often projects with take less time than you think. Try setting a timer for 5, 10 or 15 minutes and commit to working for that amount of time only. If you do 5 minutes today, can you do 6 minutes tomorrow? Try to creep your time up. Be sure to reward yourself afterwards with something you like - an enjoyable activity, show, or calling someone you like to talk to!
Schedule a time: Make sure you are setting aside some time in your schedule so that you can actually get to this task instead of it being last on a long to-do list. Protect the time and commit to doing nothing else during that time for success.
Moving towards: Perhaps you are having a very difficult time getting started. How can you take steps that lead up to starting? If you are doing something on your phone, can you go and do that near your clutter piles? Can you straighten them up? Are there pre-steps you need to take before you get started such as gathering some bags or boxes to sort papers into (trash, shred, file). Be gentle with yourself if you aren’t quite ready.
Hire a professional organizer: If the strategies above haven’t worked, perhaps it’s time for professional help. Hiring a person or team to come in a do a reset can be a valuable investment and most clients can maintain their new space!
Create new habits: Remember this feeling and channel it into prevention activities, such as putting away items the same day or at least weekly. On my own decluttering journey I learned that decluttering is only half the battle, without new rhythms and routines, the clutter with just build up again.