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Moving? How Much Sentimental Clutter Makes the Sentimental Journey?

09/27/2011 By Nancy Borg With 3 comments

I’ve thought about this often.  When I moved last year (33 years of “stuff”), and realized that ALL of my sentimental mementos could not move with me, I painstakingly pondered over what things to keep and what to shed.  Here’s how I made those tough decisions.

First off, whatever doesn’t hurt to let go of…let it go! If it’s just taking up space because you never got around to tossing it? (procrastinating?) Well then, time to purge.

As for the things that are tugging at your heartstrings, well that requires a great deal more of thinking, particularly if your new space is smaller than your existing one and will not be able to accommodate everything you currently own.  So for me, I took a lot of digital photos of things I wanted to remember but didn’t necessarily need to keep. I actually donated my wedding gown because it had yellowed, my daughter thought it was ugly, and looking at it didn’t even rekindle a moment. I had inherited an enormous box of camp letters from my childhood, and naturally had preserved a collection of camp letters from my own children. I wrote a blog about that very special day and indeed was a very teachable moment. https://movethemess.com/?p=122 After a very emotional day, I walked away with one or two very special handwritten letters (an archaic practice these days), that I couldn’t bear to part with from my deceased Dad.

The funny thing was that most of the things I was saving for the “children”, they had no interest in. Go figure. Their sport trophies, random school projects and papers, stuffed animals, cheerleading pom-poms, naked barbie dolls with missing body parts, and  broken ceramic crafts, were apparently more important to me than them, and so they did not make the journey with us.

Across the board, all photos were revered and since they were mostly organized in albums, they were a no-brainer to pack. Even loose photos were coming with us.  I kept some classic board games like LIFE, MONOPOLY, and donated the rest.  The ten framed jigsaw puzzles that once decorated my playroom walls,  now adorn a hallway at a senior care facility.

In the end, moving while a traumatic event, gives you an opportunity to revisit your stuff, your past, and check in with yourself; to see where you’ve been, decide where you’re going, and most of all, what you’ve prioritized to take along with you on the journey.

Remember this.  We will all move somewhere at sometime in our lives.  Good food for thought.  How much sentimental clutter do you have?

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Why Uncertainty Can Clutter Your Home

09/14/2011 By Nancy Borg With 4 comments

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is make a decision.  When a choice becomes complicated and too difficult, we often just delay making any.  You’d rather think about it or handle it…tomorrow.  Procrastination is always the easiest option, but indeed the most dangerous.  For instance, if you can’t decide where something goes and you just put it anywhere, and you do that every day, you will be faced with overwhelming piles of things everywhere. If you have no specific place for the incoming mail to land, it will find it’s way onto every horizontal counter and pile into frightening paper towers. It’s a potential nightmare that can be paralyzing.  Lack of decision-making  is a perfect storm for not only inviting clutter but feeding it.

We are all guilty now and then of throwing a jacket over a chair, tossing an unread magazine or newspaper on a counter top, or using the staircase to deposit an eventual  journey upstairs. These scenarios are very common when we simply lack the time to put things back in their proper places.  But eventually, if they have specific places where they belong, they ultimately can return to their home with little duress.  Easy and doable.

The problems arise when you don’t have designated places for specific things. You must decide where your things land. And if you marry lack of decision-making with lack of time, you’ve got a full blown crisis on your hand. Clutter thrives when you have no organizational systems in motion. Anywhere is not a place.  Create a home for all your things.  Pick a consistent place for the mail to land, keys to hang, laundry to drop, and the grab and go to live, so you can always find them when you need to.

Decide to decide…any decision is better than NO decision.  What do you think? Can you decide?

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The Benefits of Four Seasons

09/06/2011 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

For those of us that live in parts of the country that have four seasons, what sadness transcends at the thought of another summer exiting.  But the truth of the matter is that a change of season is a natural motivator for actual change.  Some of us welcome change and others don’t fair as well, but regardless, the seasons will inevitably change in spite of our kicking and screaming. Whining about summer’s end accomplishes little, but recognizing the benefits can be fruitful.  In fact, it is an ideal setting for re-organizing our behaviors.

When we transition into a new season, it is a perfect opportunity to rethink the past.  The four seasons punctuate the cycle of a full year by the changes in our activities, the clothing we wear, the places we go, etc.  But those are not the only things that might change. Think about a change in season like an automatic reset, and when we can sense the physical change, it is likely to elicit an emotional response that syncs to both our personal and professional life as well.

We must prepare to adapt to a new season and for the change it brings on. A change in season is like a wake-up call to modify our daily life. Time to put away the summer clothes and organize your Fall and Winter wardrobe.   Do you need to buy new clothes because you’ve lost or gained weight from last season?  Did you cultivate new relationships or did some fizzle like the summer’s end? Can you visualize your current relationships and associations enduring through this next season? Does the thought of another Winter at the same job depress you? Evaluate.  Re-think.  Change.

Time does not stand still, it marches on and so should we.   Change is in the air, we can all feel it.  Embrace the brand new season.  What things are you ready to change?

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