March 10th, 2012 Learning the Skill of Clearing Clutter
I’ve just posted the Simple Life Tip of the Day – Learning to Clear the Clutter. I’ll give you a bit of a synopsis.
Over the last year or so of earnestly clearing clutter from my home, I’ve learned a few things. The most recent came as a revelation of what should have been obvious to me all along: clearing clutter is a skill, not an inborn talent or trait. It’s something everyone can learn, if they really want to. The skills of clearing clutter are not what I expected, though. I expected to learn how to neatly stack things on shelves, and how to get organized, as well as how to get rid of clearly useless things. Yes I am learning these expected things, but I have learned much deeper, and much more powerful skills. I’ll briefly share them here – you can read more explanation in the full article.
Some of the skills I learned while learning to clear clutter:
1. To make decisions rather than ignoring something
2. To accept responsibility
3. Not to accept someone else’s responsibility
4. To know myself and my own likes and dislikes
5. The courage to change
6. The willingness to make mistakes
7. The willingness to admit that I had made mistakes in the past
8. Creating and reinforcing the habit of repetition and daily routines
There are more things that I have learned. I’m not even sure if I’m aware of all of them right now. When you begin to change your life, you may be surprised at the number and kinds of things, both small and large, that you start to face and to realize that if you deal with these things, you will begin clearing your path of obstacles that you did not even realize were there.
How do you learn these things and how do you develop these new skills? By getting started. Pick a spot to clear the clutter, observe whatever seems apparent to observe, and then just keep going. You will find patterns that you did not even know you were repeating and you will find that some of your own habits are what actually reinforce the patterns that keep your home and life cluttered.
Be willing to change. Be willing to learn new skills. Skills are just a habit that is repeated, improved, and learned.
You may also be interested in some of the Simple Life articles on clearing clutter. The Clutter Control Center is a good place to start.
In peace and love,
Patti
PS. The photo is from the home of my beautiful, late sister-in-law. She remodeled and beautifully decorated her home and has been an inspiration for me.
