Saturday, 20 October 2018

Stepping Out Challenge - Day 20 - Clearing the Clutter Pt 2





Welcome to today's post, I am taking part in a 31 day blog challenge where I post everyday in October.  I love creating challenges for myself and joining ones by others.  My challenge for the rest of the month is to reflect on some of the series I created for myself and inspiration that I have taken away.

Listen to the Podcast


Today I am going to be concluding the Clearing the Clutter Challenge 

Thank you for coming back to todays post.  I think I was very brave to put myself out there - I am a minimalist trapped inside a clutterholic – is there such a thing?  Anyway I like order but I love collecting, and I probably need an assistant (who doesn’t)  I think I’ve become more discerning over what I collect, and am not the sort to collect trinkets  but I guess my treasures, might to some be trinkets.

I decided to start a challenge that would see me go through a number of areas and transform them of clutter.  Right off the bat I had a long list of areas and I was going to do this!!!  Here is my original list of things I wanted to clear:
Here are the areas that I decided to sort out:
1.    Sort the contents of my hand bag/s
2.    Clothes that don’t fit
3.    Tatty un-wearable clothes
4.    Old makeup/products -
5.    Old jewellery – broken pieces
6.    Recycled Paper/Shredding
7.    Old paints/art supplies not used
8.    Shoes
9.    Fabric – vintage and new
10. Paper/card
11. Filing cabinet
12. Ephemera
13. News paper/ Magazine cuttings
14. Computer photos
15. Emails on computer
16. Books on shelves
17. Recycled painted materials
18. Old hand bags not used
19. Poetry to sort – and decide what to do with it
20. Podcasts recorded - edited
21. Rubber Stamps in draws – art supplies
22. Pencils/graphite/charcoals – art supplies
23. Stored frames and unused art material
24. Magazine subscriptions
25. Typing to be done – notes in books on paper
26. Freezer -
27. Garden – weeding/cutting back and pruning
28. My sons room!!!!
29. Garden picking up leaves from palm trees – recycling
30. Photography – art work


The coloured ones are the ones I got done.  One of the things I didn’t factor in was the time each area would take to do, to clear it out and then write about and photo, upload, everything.  Life still went on – I was working in the day then came home.  With this as I looked at it I felt that I had set myself up for failure as each area that I needed to be cleared would take more than one day, depending on how big the task was, so realistically what should have done was choose say 4 areas to focus on rather than 30 and factor in ‘going down memory lane’ or the having a face to face with the ‘resistance’.

When I did the first few days I was quite chuffed with myself.  I had followed the advice of organizers, had 3 bins  - Keep, Chuck, Recycle and vowed to touch things only once. I didn’t factor in how big the emotional attachment would be and this 5 second conversation would play every time I picked something up:

Mind: you can’t get rid of that, do you know how long you’ve had it
Me         yes I know but its not being used for 10 years
Mind     but it might come in handy, we were saving it just in case
Me         yes but just in case might never come
Mind     you know what happened to that other thing you got rid of your dads sewing machine – irreplaceable!!! Can’t get that back now can you???
Me         I have to let the emotional attachment go, I can live with it, I need to clear some space
Mind     but it looks so pretty, do you remember when we brought it
Me         oh yeah, I nearly forgot, wow, it does look lovely doesn’t it
Mind     That’s what I was saying
Me         maybe I’ll just keep this one, but I said that about all the other pieces
Mind     you were right about those as well, you know your so good at this, you’ll find space for them
Me         Ok maybe just this last one
Mind     that’s what I was saying – great minds eh!

That was the conversation that I went through but once I got into the swing of things it got easier and listened less to the emotional attachment voice and struck a balance.
In the end I was able to do 9 areas and rather than beat myself up for not being able to do 30 areas I was pleased that I was able to do the areas that made a bit of an impact.  It is again a lifestyle and not a quick fix.

I continue to have a purge of things on a regular basis, cutting back on the things that no longer serve a purpose or can find a new home. I still have those conversations about how useful the item will be, and its putting one thing continually out of its place that the build up happens, and the place begins to look cluttered.

How do you deal with the ‘Oh I’ll move it in a minute’ and days later 3 other things have joined it?  
Do you have your own Collector’s tale, what kind of things do you collect that you feel you should /could/would get rid of but …….tomorrow, or what tips do you have that has worked for you?  I would love to hear your thoughts

 Tomorrow I will share another challenge.  I hope during this month you find some time to challenge, be creative and stretch yourself.

    Why not join me each day for the rest of October as we dive into to some exciting challenges and look at ways in which they can impact on your own life. 

    I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, it is never too late to start! The main thing is to take one step at a time and do something that you find interesting.

    Stay blessed and be a blessing.
    Ps:  If you are on a budget and would like to check out some supplies/books at a discounted price, check out one of the links below:


    Posted by Amanda Trought at 13:39
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