Clutter Confessions and Denial
What’s your worst clutter confession? Can you name three clutter confessions?
A clutter confession is something you know you shouldn’t keep, but do keep. You don’t need it, you don’t use it, you have absolutely no plan to fix the situation surrounding the item, yet you keep the darn thing (or things).
If you have a clutter confession, you’re likely in clutter denial. When you’re in clutter denial you can do one of three things:
- STOP IT!
- Solve it; i.e. make the item work for you so that it becomes a non-clutter item.
- Keep on living in denial.
My clutter confessions - and what I plan on doing about it:
My photos: As I’ve noted many a time; I am drowning in photos. It’s a serious issue. I have a plan - organize them. I already started so this is a confession and denial on its way to becoming a problem solved! Go me.
My old jeans and this one dress I adore: They don’t fit. I had them before I had my son (7 1/2 years ago). But I have a serious crush on this one pair of jeans. I LOVE them. I like the dress too. However, they don’t fit. I workout, but get lazy, and always stop if I’m at like 10 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight; which is a fine weight for my size, but not skinny like I was. I can’t justify keeping them if I can’t wear them. So my plan is to hang up my jeans where I can see them and workout double time. This time not stopping until I can wear my jeans. So far so good. Been working out about 1 1/2 hours a day. We’ll see, but at least I have a plan.
Cards from certain people: I have cards from my grandma who I adored and can’t give them up. I also have a few cards from another someone, (I’ll never tell) that I can’t get rid of. These cards are basically memories, and they serve no real purpose other than that. My plan - well, seriously, I have no plan. Some things you just need to accept. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get rid of these cards. It’s sort of an “ah well” denial situation.
What are your clutter confessions? OR share a story about something you’re in denial about.
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POSTED IN: Simplifying
8 opinions for Clutter Confessions and Denial
pat
Jul 13, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I wish my obsessions were so few. I share photos (hubby is a photographer - it never ends!) but the clothes — far more garments that I need to get rid of than just a pair of jeans and a dress. A closet full!
Also: books (the more I give away/trade/sell the more I seem to get!), magazines, and general junk.
I’m purging now.
Shelly G.
Jul 13, 2008 at 10:33 pm
My biggest clutter area and denial area is my pantry… Oh my it is always in disarray… Even when I manage to get it controlled it comes right back…
Marcia Francois
Jul 14, 2008 at 5:15 am
Oooh, I have lots of clutter confessions. But what I’ve started doing is blogging about it and taking a picture (to give it its due honour :)) so I can get rid of it.
You can see my last post here:
http://organisingtips.blogspot.com/2008/06/declutter-by-taking-pictures.html
Jill
Jul 14, 2008 at 7:23 am
I have the same issue with cards. Some are from my dead grandparents, some from dear old friends who have moved away, many are invitations to my Mom’s annual family party that I hoped to organize into something (I don’t know what…but something) - I managed to purge some of them by keeping my favorite from each person. I tried to choose one with the largest sample of his/her handwriting (which, to me, is a reminder of the person’s character.) I had the plan to photograph the cards I kept but then realized I keep them in my photo albums anyway. So far, I am at an impasse - I have incorporated the cards I’ve kept into my photo albums (which, I brag, are very organized and kept up to date with ridiculous precision) and I try to be ruthless with new cards. Luckily, most of my friends and family have gone digital and I am able to resist hitting the print button when I read them.
My biggest problem is still books. I am a columnist so I read books on writing and grammar. I have mercilessly purged the ones I can replace with Internet research but there are some I can’t let go. The copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull I’ve had since I was nine, the copy of Alice in Wonderland I got for my tenth birthday, a copy of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book. I can’t throw them away. I re-read many books so I tried putting a sticky note on each book with the date I last read it, intending to throw it away if it collected a year of dust. I still couldn’t toss them. Sigh.
Any ideas?
Jennifer
Jul 14, 2008 at 4:53 pm
@Pat well, I don’t know that my obsessions are that few, but those are the problem ones :)
@Shelly - pantries are tough, they just get filled and refilled so fast.
@Marcia - good plan. Blogging it makes it seem more real somehow. Hopefully I can lose those darn last 10 lbs of baby fat now that I’ve blogged it!!
@Jill - I’m not going to be much help in the book area. I’ve collected for years, since I was a kid. I gave many of my books to my son, but I have plenty still on my own. I go through every few years, but I swear it makes almost no difference. I especially get the classics issue. I’ve got this old school ed of a tale of two cities and little women, plus at least three versions of Alice in Wonderland. It’s hard. Books are so darn lovable. Maybe I’ll do a post on my book struggles at some point.
Carol
Jul 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Why do we have to get rid of everything? Books are to be treasured. They are not something to get rid of unless you didn’t like them and are sorry you ever read them. I get discouraged with everyone telling you to purge everything that makes us human.
Peggy
Jul 17, 2008 at 1:47 am
Jill, you might be able to get rid of some books at paperbackswap.com. You’ll feel better knowing someone else can use them.
I have an entire box full of birthday cards! But you can always use parts of them for homemade gift wrap accents or decoupage.
navi
Jul 19, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’m horribly cluttered. I keep things because I tend to end up needing them right after I’ve decided I don’t need them and toss them (or after my husband goes on a cleaning spree and tosses, say, that small box of papers I should have filed into my filing cabinet that I’d wittled down from 4 large boxes of papers, that had our birth certificates and stuff like that that you rarely use, but need to have handy). I never sit long enough to finish organizing things, so I always have this box, that’s mostly things I can get rid of, but there’s a few papers I need, and I don’t have the time to go through it all, so I keep the whole box.
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