Since I started working on decluttering my house, about a month before taking over The Simple Year, I’ve made a lot of progress. When I hit a milestone of any kind, like finding myself with empty containers, or my recent attic success, I pleased and accomplished.
Then I see the spaces in my house like this one:
Catalogs, a Sharpie, the cat’s medicine, and craft supplies.
Everything I touch turns into clutter. It’s like the Midas touch, in reverse. In spite of what feels like my almost constant effort to keep clutter off flat surfaces, I’m failing. After I took this photo I cleared it all away, but I wonder if I will ever get to a place where these things don’t accumulate in the first place. Is it possible?
I don’t know. But I keep returning to the fact that we have too much stuff.
Here’s Exhibit A: a bag full of random items, mostly Emma’s but not all.
I think I could say I’m done with the attic, but I hesitate to give it that status right now. Over the weekend I reorganized it a little and will likely do more. We have more framed art than we have wall space for, but many pieces were painted by Bob’s dad so we’ll keep them. I like all our art and like to rotate what we have on our walls so I feel the space is well used. I moved some old textbooks from downstairs and organized them in old milk crates. Occasionally I do some educational publishing work so I kept the books I’d be likely to refer to and gave away the rest. There is some free space now, and while I still plan to label the containers, I have a good idea of what’s in each one.
But I filled the free space. Because of clutter creep, and the fact that all the stuff was going to make me nuts. Despite my signage, I found us dealing with stuff all over the place again. So I resorted to my old, preferred strategy of putting stuff in bags to deal with another time. It’s tempting to just put them all out for a donation pickup without even looking in them. I haven’t gotten any traffic tickets lately so I don’t have to worry about important papers. 
Here are the bags full of stuff, including a half dressed Hello Kitty.
My neighbor told me she’s trying to donate or recycle three things a day, and often gets rid of more. I think I’m going to adopt her idea, because the fact that we still have clutter all over tells me we have to get rid of more stuff. And though I’ve freed up more space to store that stuff, I don’t want to store it. My bag-it-and-forget-it approach is just temporary, but it gives me a good place to begin.
I used a similar method to your neighbour when I started decluttering, except I started even simpler with just one thing a day. It was easy to find one thing, and I would always end up with at least 2-5 items at once. I also adopted the “one in, two out” rule. If we bought anything new, we had to get rid of two things. That way we knew we would always be decreasing. It worked really well! We never had to set aside time to declutter, it just happened throughout the week. It was never overwhelming. It seems like it won’t make a dent if you only get rid of 1-3 things a day, but it gets the ball rolling and definitely works!
Back in June I was trying to get rid of at least one thing a day. It did help but then I found it hard to keep finding things. But I found I got a burst of motivation to get rid of more things, and I’ve gotten rid of things I never thought I would part with. So I’m trying again. Thanks for your comment!
I think what you are describing is called ‘living a life’! For me there will always be stuff coming and going on my surfaces and I will always be putting things away to get back to a clear surface, but I accept that unless you live alone there will always be bits and pieces coming in to the house and ‘dumped’ and it is just part of the flow of life, the ideal situation would be to be able to clear stuff everyday but life gets busy! You are doing a great job, really enjoy your posts!
Thank you for the feedback and your kind words!
Rest assured, we ALL have random papers to sort, things needing to be put away. Most would say my place is pretty uncluttered, but it takes constant vigilance, and I notice the busier I am with work, the less frequently I do ‘touch ups’ and it ends up taking longer in one go on a weekend, than a little ‘straighten up’ every other day.
That’s what I have to accept, that there’s always going to be a flow of things in and out, and that dealing with it has to be done daily or at least regularly. Thanks for your comment!
I just found this site last week and have been binge reading to catch up. All along the way, I have been amazed at how similar my feelings and reactions are to yours. I can completely understand your frustration because I live it daily. But Jenni (reader above) is right. This is life. Crap comes and goes and all we can do is stay on top of it. My current frustration is the laundry. I have two home schooled teenage boys who, along with their father, go to the gym and play sports regularly. There is no end to the laundry and while I don’t make any of them wash or dry their clothes, they do have to fold and put them away which means there are constantly piles of clean laundry waiting to be dealt with. I want my house to look like something from The Lettered Cottage, but I’d rather spend my free time with my family or a good book. All you can do is create your routines (AM and PM), stick to them, and enjoy your family.
Thanks for your comment and welcome to the blog! Laundry has been an ongoing challenge for me too, which makes me feel guilty because we are a small family of 3 and my husband does the laundry. I fold and put away which is something I’ve been struggling to make into a routine. At some point I’ll get there!
I think the key here is to live a more simplified life. I have given up some commitments, made less commitments, and overall, become very particular about what I do commit myself to. Because each commitment is going to bring more clutter into your house. As well, I would get brutal about what you think you “need”. Keeping things just because you think you might want it down the road usually results in getting overwhelmed. And then the discouragement will set it. One thing that is working very well for us, is my rule of no clutter on horizontal surfaces. When something comes in, it needs to be addressed. Any appointments are immediately written on the calendar, and the notes or business cards are immediately put in the dry garbage. Really, when you think of it, North Americans have been blessed financially beyond measure. And that is a surefire way of clutter coming in to our homes. Just because we have the financial resources, it doesn’t mean we need to spend our resources on stuff that is going to end up giving us a LOT of work to thin out. Now, as far as the laundry, as I have mentioned before, I do a load a day, so it doesn’t really pile up. Now, by the time our daughter is 9 or 10, within two years, she will be required to do her own laundry, because that age of a child is more than capable, and it teaches them life skills they will need for their future.
You make a good point about our blessings! I’ve pared down my own commitments this year which has helped. For me, I know I need to focus on dealing with things in a more timely manner.
I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I began doing my laundry, and while I didn’t do all of it, it was good to be able to do when I needed things like sports uniforms clean. When I went to college I remember meeting more than one kid who had no idea how to do laundry so it’s something we”re going to learn in my house too! 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
As you continue your journey, you should find that each repeated iteration of decluttering goes more easily, and faster. Both because you have less stuff, and you’ve already handled it before. Haven’t looked at/looked for/used that item since you last declutered? In the box it goes!
And yes, it is a continuing project. It IS life. You grow, you change, and things that were important become unimportant. New things or ideas come into your life to replace them. Breathe deeply, know you’re not alone, and let the things go.
Thanks Roberta! It’s been interesting to me in that it gets easier because I’m getting through the process more quickly and have less stuff, but then again I’m kind of down to the nitty-gritty because I got rid of all the easy-to-let-go-of stuff!
I have found the Konmari method has made this easier. I got rid of stuff, and the stuff that is left has a place, so I don’t end up with the cluttered areas. But, as previous commenters said…Life happens and can be messy.
It is definitely messy! 🙂 Thanks for your comment. I am a big fan of the Konmari approach too.
I share your frustration with the ongoing re-entry of clutter. It’s progress, not perfection and some
days, weeks, months are better than others.
For quite a while, I’ve done the get rid of one item per day thing and that worked well. In August I
decided to get more serious about getting rid of things and started doing the month thing: 1 item on the 1st, two items on the 2nd, etc. That really worked! Then I got my husband on board and we’ve been working on it through Sep. and Oct. We still have the attic over the garage, so we’ll make it.
Having a check-list keeps me accountable. Some days the items may be larger, other days it may be
something small like a pen or paper clutter. It’s ongoing as I read through my library, I check off
the book to be donated to the library after I’ve read it.
Having children around increases the challenge. We’re grandparents who care for our two grandchildren frequently. On those days the clutter factor multiplies!
Tracy, you’ve made an incredible amount of progress this year. I meant to comment on your progress
with books! I know that has been a huge step for you. Thanks for your time blogging, and your inspiration.
Thanks for your kind words Judy! They are much appreciated. I really love the idea of 1 thing on the first, and so on. Lots of potential to unload a lot of things!
It was hard to begin the book purge process again, but once I got rolling it got easier. My biggest hurdle was the idea that I might want to read a book again, but I keep an accurate Goodreads account so I can always borrow a book I want to re-read and no longer have.
I often feel that you don’t give yourself enough credit for all the good work you’ve been doing! I agree with the others that life happens but I think a point you touched on earlier is key: trying to be aware of how much is coming in and trying to cut back from there.
Clutter creep should make it into the Urban Dictionary. It is a real thing. I used to blame my husband and kids, but really- I’m guilty too. The papers, the lists, packing and unpacking of bags for activities, school and events. We live in a (really) cold climate so we can add all manner of outdoor gear to that list. I try to do a quick run through every night to at least empty a bag or two but there is always something sitting on top of the washing machine or stacked on my desk. The truth is, we don’t all live in a Pottery Barn Catalog room, sometimes things stack up and not everything is whimsical and color coordinated. It’s life, we do what we can. Keep fighting the good fight. I’m giving you an A.