Wishing for a Clutter Genie

“I need help!  Living in a disorganized house is the pits.”

• Paying bills by mail is hard because that process involves stamps, pen, and keeping up with the bill itself. A hitch in any one of these steps will derail what should have been a quick and easy job.

A genie sure could help. Maybe there is a magic lantern lying around here somewhere.

•  Laundry’s tough because you have to sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away. A back-up anywhere in this process leads toward piles of sorted unwashed clothes, molding stuff in the washer, wrinkling stuff in the dryer, unfolded clothes waiting attention on the sofa. or folded clothes not yet stored but being used out of the piles where they are.

Extra help would be nice. What’s this I found! A magic lantern? Oh, no. It’s just a creamer.

• Managing medicine and first aide stuff can get so complicated especially when you use it so seldom. Where did I put that alcohol when I used it last time? Do we have any more adhesive tape?

I need somebody to help me locate what I need. A clutter genie sure would help a whole lot. Where, oh where, can I find a magic lantern?

There is good news and bad news. The bad news is there ain’t no such thing as a clutter genie. The good news is that a sanely organized house will give you the support you need.

To get that help read organizing books by Sandra Felton, sign up for daily encouragement through the Yahoo! group called The Organizer Lady, and join an organizing support group. You can gain access to all three on the very valuable website, www.messies.com. Go there. You might just find your genie.

      

      

Fall in Love with an Organized Life

Real, long-term change comes only when the heart and mind embrace passionately the dream of a new, organized way of life. Maybe the passion is not there when we first start out, but somewhere in the organizing process we catch a glimpse that stirs a yearning. Seeing how others live, pictures in magazines, our childhood home, a visit to a friend’s house or model home, or even a television or movie settings remind us that another way of life is desirable and possible. Our prime motivation must be love for what we can barely see at this time of a new and better way of life.

Knowing that we can have more causes a strong distaste for clutter and what it does. The desire for release from disorder grows best in the soil of the love of order and beauty.

Many messy people have felt remorse over their life of disarray and  their helplessness to change what they so dislike. But deeper remorse come from knowing they have been denied a wonderful way of life. Pain of clutter prods us to begin the journey of change, but we move forward lured by the dream of what can be.

Fall in love with order and beauty.  Pascal was right when he said, “All men seek happiness without exception. They all aim at this goal however different the means they use to attain it...They will never make the smallest move but with this as its goal.” (Pascal’s Pensees, Section 7)  Seek the happiness you will find by getting the house under control and keeping it the way you dream it can be. You’ll love it!

Warmly,
Sandra Felton
The Organizer Lady ®
Founder, Messies Anonymous

Visit the Messies Website

More Is Better? Why we choose clutter.

MORE IS BETTER? WHY WE CHOOSE CLUTTER

In nature more actually is considered better. Research done some years ago found that animals are attracted to what is called “supernormal stimuli.” If an Oystercatcher bird is given a choice between her own small egg and a larger egg from another bird, she always chooses the big one. The same is true of the Herring Gull and the Greylag Goose who choose eggs too large for them to have laid.

Butterflies go for supernormal stimuli as well. Male butterflies are drawn to the female that flickers its wings the fastest. When an artificial “butterflly” is presented that flicks her wing even faster, he is prefers it above all others.

The society in which we live every day is awash with supernormal stimuli. Interest has been renewed in how it is affecting the way we live today. Books such as  “The End of Overeating” by David Kessler, MD, are being written about overeating pointing out the excess provided in our food supply and how some people respond to it with overeating.  Hollowell, an expert in the field of Attention Deficit Disorder, reports in his book “Crazy Busy” that in 1981 he began seeing what he calls “pseudo ADD” brought on by people participating in an overabundance of activities.

Finally, and of special interest to us, is the problem of over-acquisition. The question arises, Have those of us who struggle with managing our possessions fallen into the same pattern? Do we respond to the abundance of possessions that have become available in our society in a way similar to those who overeat and become overbusy? In other words, are we attracted to more, more, more and bigger, bigger, bigger like the Oystercatcher and the butterfly? Do we somewhere deep down make choices on the basis that more is better?    

In a TV hamburger ad for Sonic , a teen who bought two sandwiches tells her father, “Buy two of everything. That’s my shopping mantra. Always have one in reserve.”

Realize that in our overstuffed environment we often see oceans of  overabundance of things and activities that attract us to get more or do more that lead to a cluttered and crazy lifestyle.

Recognize that some of us must avoid places that put us in contact with “supernormal stimuli”,  like malls, yard sales, and TV marketing shows. We need to say no to the many activities available as well if we want to be restored to the sanity of a well-lived and moderate lifestyle.

Keep Clutter on the Run by Scooping and Swooping

Disorganized people are easily bored with the tedium of housework. We, and I include myself in the midst of this group, enthusiastically pull out equipment and supplies for an exciting project. We become energized by the creativity and vision of what we are producing. We are building, cooking, painting, or working on any one of a hundred other possible projects that capable people such as ourselves may get caught up in.

But then -- then comes the time to clean up, to put away, to tidy (sigh) up. With our energy spent and with nothing more to create, we mentally turn away from that project and move on to something else exciting, leaving the residue of now abandoned materials behind. Cleaning up seems just too tiresome. We tell ourselves that we will get to it later, hopefully. Now we have an area of clutter.

I have found that reframing the tiresome cleanup process works to my good. The key is to stay on top of the it by putting things back as you work. Use the words SCOOP and SWOOP to make it more fun. “Scoop” what you got out back into place as soon as you are done with it. “Swoop” this thing or that into its rightful storage spot (or into the trash) while you are in the working process.
If you do that, when the job is done and you look around, you will amaze yourself at how little you have left to do in order to finish things up and leave the work area in good condition. What is even better is that your supplies will be in the correct place the next time you need them.

We who are disorganized by nature not clean up easily. What we can do successfully is SWOOP and SCOOP so consistently that we avoid tedious housework.


Warmly,
Sandra Felton
THE ORGANIZER LADY®
Founder, Messies Anonymous
Author: NEW! Organizing Your Day
www.messies.com

 

Beware the Hidden Danger of Being Organized

Once you have internalized organizing principles you have a dangerous power, a power that you ought not use indiscriminately. Keep this in mind. Because you know how to simplify, sort, and store and have learned tricks of the trade, you have learned to keep more than you should.
    
If there were one dictum we need to learn in order to live in a truly harmonious way in our houses (and offices) it is this,

“Live without crowding in the space you have.”
    
As a newly trained organizing person, you have learned the principles. You have grouped things together.You have learned to containerize. You have labeled. You have made storage lists to refer to. Because things are so well stored, perhaps you do not realize how much you have tucked away. Without realizing fully what you have done, you have turned your house into a hidden warehouse.
That leads to two considerations of problems.
    
MEMORY   We can only recall so much. If you forget what you have stored away, you buy another one that leads to more clutter. Even if we have room storing a lot, there is only so much we can remember.
    
CONVENIENCE   If you have a hard time accessing the items because they are so tightly packed, it is easier to buy another one to add to our storage problem.
    
The answer is to simplify further than you think you have to. Get rid of the extras you “may need sometime.” Discard duplicates. Don’t buy in bulk; let the store warehouse the products for you. You may have kept many “good” items because it seems right to do so. Let me tell you that if it is not good for you at this time, it does not belong in your house.
    
The following are clues you are probably keeping too much. You have:

Rented storage units

• Storage sheds in the yard
• Bed lifters so more can go under the bed
• Vacuum sealer bags so you can shrink the space items use
• Too much storage furniture like chests of drawers and bookcases.

Realize that you are more creative and have more ability than most people to see the possibilities of objects. That can cause you to want to keep too much. Pretend you are one of those people who do not struggle with clutter because they keep only what is of value to them in their lives NOW. Act like you think they would. One of the advantages of having another person come to your house to help is that you can learn how organized people think and act.

    

When you have less jammed into the space that you have, you will have come to the place where you can live organized without struggle. And that’s a wonderful, wonderful place!

    

Knowing how to organize gives you more power than you ought to use.

Warmly,

Sandra Felton

THE ORGANIZER LADY®

Founder, Messies Anonymous

Author: NEW! Organizing Your Day

http://www.messies.com/

Restored to Sanity

Some have questioned how step one of Messies Anonymous that states we admitted we are powerless over clutter and our lives have become unmanageable can work. Some have even stated that admitting we are powerless is discouraging and takes the heart out of any hope of getting the house under control.

Whoa, fellow Messie! Let's look at that further.

Stand firmly on that first step. Internalize the fact that, as we are, the clutter that follows our lives consistently lets us know that we indeed have no power over clutter.  Bravely admit that just trying harder and longer has never worked and won't work.

But don't stop on step one. Go to the step that states about being "restored to sanity." We must be willing to give up hope of going our own way and seek sanity, graciously given to us by God.

Once we do that and begin taking personal inventories and dealing appropriately with what we find by abandoning those thoughts, habits, and feelings that have kept us powerless over clutter, then the house will begin to change. Clutter and disorganization will start to melt because we are being restored to sanity.

It doesn't come easy. It doesn't come fast. But it does come to those who concentrate not only on changing the house but themselves. Many have experienced things similar to what Katherine shares:
"I have had to make certain changes in myself for the house to change. Now that I see progress, I realize something else. As the house changes, I am changing.
My self-esteem is improving. My confidence in myself is growing as I become more competent at this. I wake up & walk into my clean kitchen every morning and I feel GOOD. I look around and feel proud of how far I've come."

Keep coming back. It works if you work it.

The Impotent Messie

It's a strange phenomenon -- the feeling of helplessness many Messies have about housekeeping.

The Messie sees a sock on the floor and thinks, "What a shame! A sock on the floor. It really ought not to be there." She sighs and continues on, momentarily saddened about the sock.

Why doesn't the Messie pick it up? I think it is because her mind is tired when it comes to housekeeping. Years of trying and failing have destroyed any sense of success, so she avoids the situation instead of doing something about it. And, besides, the mess is so out of hand everywhere else, what difference does one sock make? It is much like lifting a motorbike. It may be hard but it can be done by trying. But if you have to lift a truck, you may feel that it is really not worth the effort to try.

That's why it is important to have a plan. The big job of "housekeeping" would be impossible if it weren't done one job at a time. This is the principle behind the Mt. Vernon Method (or Mt. Vesuvius Method) and the Flipper System. They break housekeeping down into small attainable goals. They alleviate the mental overload that caused the impotence to begin with.