Cleaning Vs. Organizing

[kandigurl]

[lj-angst intro]So I've been thinking about the times in my life where I was CONSTANTLY posting to LJ or FB or various forms of social media, and mostly they were times when I was avoiding doing something else

Comments

[meepettemu]

Cleaning and tidying for me! My house is a mess because we are lazy. Oops.

[kandigurl]

Lol, same. Though honestly, I've had to stop telling myself I'm lazy because I know I can do things when I put my mind to it. It's less that I'm lazy and more that I'm easily overwhelmed.

[alphaloria]

I struggle with the house also! I have been slowly adding organizing solutions because my ultimate dream is that everything in the house has a place and that at least once a week I put back the things I casually toss here and there.

In 2010 I moved into a 300 sq ft studio, and any little bit of clutter made me feel like I was drowning, so I was on top of the cleaning and decluttering game. So I know I can get back there.

[kandigurl]

"my ultimate dream is that everything in the house has a place and that at least once a week I put back the things I casually toss here and there.".

Yessssss. That is also my dream. I've never, ever managed to get to the "everything has a place" point. Usually because I have a lot of stupid knick knacks, or random mementos I keep for no reason. But Marie Kondo actually has good ideas for that sort of thing (setting knick knack collections on decorative trays so they do have a place, keeping mementos in special decorative boxes, etc.), so I think it's doable if I keep plugging away at it!

[alphaloria]

Also have a designated place for the random shit you don't have any other place for and you may never find a place for.

I have my mementos in a plastic tub in a closet. Knick knacks I keep to a minimum but they each have a place, and if they get to be too much then off to the thrift store they go.

[ravenfeather]

I wish I could get rid of stuff I don't need! My problem is that I am creative enough to know that if I look at something long enough, I KNOW I can find a use for it, and that it will probably have quick value. I LOVE quirky.

[kandigurl]

Yeah, I struggle with that, too. I have to ask myself, "Sure, I COULD use this for this other thing...but WILL I??" History usually says no. And then I either have to use it for that purpose RIGHT NOW or get rid of it

[ravenfeather]

when I sold my house, retired and moved back home, I put most of my stuff in storage, and lived in an efficiency while I was setting up my uncleared and wooded property. It took six months, and then I was able to move my stuff to a closer storage building with the idea of slowly moving it over to the cabin. Problem is that the cabin filled up quickly. I lived for a year with one suitcase of clothing - and four wardrobes of clothing in storage. I got my coats out the first winter, but the rest I intend to donate to goodwill. It is now going on five years - with that same suitcase of clothing only. I thought one time I would NEVER be able to get rid of a book, but now I can look at the quality of the writing, and get rid of those that I know I will never read again. Same with dishes and such. It is still a slow process, but now the storage building (that I pay for every month) is mostly my daughter's stuff that she did not have room to take care of when I moved.

[kandigurl]

Yeah! That's how it was for me, too. Letting go of one book and the world not ending was a pretty big revelation. :)

[pheloniusfriar]

I am doing pretty well right now (give or take a bit), but I struggle with all the same sorts of things myself. In terms of getting rid of stuff, I used to have a huge problem with it (a bit of a packrat, but not a hoarder). What always puzzled me is that "stuff" doesn't really mean anything to me (I've lived out of a suitcase for months while traveling and was happy as a clam at high tide), so why did I have trouble tossing out stuff I wasn't going to use. The answer for me is that each item had a story and some sort of history and I needed to either document it somehow (I tried a bit and it was way too time consuming) or acknowledge that story and using that to decide whether I had moved past it or not (much of the time I had, but until I thought about it I couldn't). Fashionable pants will elude me to the end of my days...

[kandigurl]

The fashionable pants thing is kind of an inside joke with myself, lol. I was visiting my cousin once and I told her she was wearing pants that made her look like she had her life together. Basically I feel like anyone who can put together an outfit that makes them look like an adult and not a twelve year old with a collection of cartoon t-shirts and deteriorating jeans is probably doing better at adulting than I am.

I'm actually reading a book on hoarding right now, and a lot of them mention struggling to discard things because of their connection to stories. So much in that book makes me feel like I really dodged a bullet by forcing myself to start getting rid of things early, out of fear of becoming a hoarder.

[miss_ethereal]

I could have written this post. I salute you for even broaching this topic on youtube and making a plan to be more organized.

I struggle with cooking. Anything beyond a microwave makes my anxiety go nuts. I'm 33 and I can count on one set of ten fingers the times that I've actually cooked a whole meal.

[kandigurl]

I also struggle with cooking. I can do it, I've been teaching myself a little bit here and there and I can follow a recipe (for COOKING, not BAKING, another thing I learned is actually two entirely separate things), but I hate doing it.

My problem is when I'm hungry, I want to eat something right then. I don't want to have to think about what to eat, how to make it, what I need to make it, what I need to CLEAN to make it, how long it will take to make it, etc. I just want it to exist.