Extract from Clear the Clutter: Make Space for your Life

To Save or Discard?

Decision-making and goal fulfilment

We live with the objects in our homes. Some of them are used every day, such as toothbrushes or pens. Others, like Christmas decorations, maps, and ice skates might be used once a year or less. Objects have their own 'rhythms of use.'
There are also things that are never used. You may have lost your taste for them; they may be broken, forgotten or covered with dust. They no longer participate in your life -- their rhythm is out of sync.

Unused things, those that you no longer care about, those that lie around or those you have to do something with (at some undefined point), we refer to as junk. Junk has a remarkable talent for patient waiting. Every time you pass it you feel a faint gnawing, and that feeling can deplete energy. A backlog of chores sucks your energy drop-by-drop. I see this in people who procrastinate in tackling their own backlog. It can even lead to apathy.

If this is the case, we usually turn our backs on these chores and find loads of excuses not to do them. My advice is: Transform the situation and get them done.

And now for some more advice in the form of a riddle: How do you eat an elephant?

Answer: A little bit at a time. My motto is: 'work on it.' The time that a job takes can be split up into, for instance, units of an hour. For example: Clean up one bookshelf per week. This is more satisfying than weeks of dreading having to deal with an entire bookcase. Work through the job consistently, one small task after another, until it's done, but make sure it gets finished. The pressure will be off and you'll feel relief. Cross the chore off your list; look back with satisfaction at what you've accomplished; take a week's break and start again by splitting up a new job into phases.
Dealing with an overdue clean-up job needs time; it also needs energy and some organizational ability. How do you tackle a long-standing job?

Tip!
If you feel a strong resistance towards cleaning up, start with a simple chore, a kitchen shelf, for instance. Reward yourself. Don't be put off if you create even more chaos by tackling the job. Ask yourself, item by item, if it benefits your life. If the answer is yes, then put it back. If it's no, take it to your departure point.

A woman and I cleaned her desk together one morning in May. The clutter on her desk, which had developed into a mountainous pile, had been bothering her since the previous November. We started by placing an empty table nearby - an ironing board would do. Each item was transferred from the desk to the table. Every drawer and compartment was emptied. We then cleaned what turned out to be a lovely piece of furniture, and placed her chair in front of it.

Sitting at her empty desk she took each bundle as I handed it to her. The stamps went in the stamp drawer and we tried out each pen. Paper for recycling was put in a pile. She put her son's swimming certificate with his belongings. There were nostalgic objects, papers for her husband, unfinished administrative work, and a huge supply of envelopes. The piles to dispose of grew larger and the table was quickly cleared. We tied up all the loose ends and before we knew it, forty minutes had gone by. The mountain she had feared for the past six months had shrunk considerably. What was she actually doing while sitting at her desk that morning? Was it really cleaning up? What energy was required? She was constantly asking herself: 'Is this meant to be in our house, or somewhere else?' 'Do I keep it or throw it away?' Every item that she held was subject to a choice.

Cleaning up means making choices. If you find this difficult then limit the time to, let's say, thirty minutes; take a break and then continue. If you definitely want to keep something, put it where it belongs. If you still don't have a definite spot, then make that your next project. Those items definitely pegged for disposal should be taken to the door, so they can then be taken to their final destination the same week. Create a departure area in your house; this is the spot in which you put the things you've chosen to get rid of. They then only need to be taken away. This is also the place for old paper and returnable bottles. Don't forget about a special spot for out-going mail. Your departure area is also the place for borrowed things, which need to be returned, shopping lists and the birthday present that needs to be delivered. It is comparable to a departure hall at an airport; and can be a lively area that settles down in time, before the buzzing picks up again. That's the nature of the place.