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Post by dayeanu on Oct 7, 2014 12:29:09 GMT -5
About maintenance --- one of the best, most helpful books I have ever read is Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding. With their method, you clear and clean a space - the size is up to you, but they recommend small, like a square foot or two, or half of a sofa cushion. The next day ---- before you clean another target area ---- you do maintenance on all the previous areas cleared. I like that, because square foot by square foot, you are developing the habit of defending your space. It seems reasonable to me that by the time you have successfully cleared a big area, maintaining it would almost be automatic.
Using this method, I have also learned what an issue maintenance is for me. Not the cleaning, but the tossing of random clutter into newly cleared spaces. Using their technique has been eye-opening for me. Some days my time is spent simply removing new clutter from cleared areas.
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Post by ponygirl on Oct 7, 2014 12:29:33 GMT -5
I've found that de-cluttering has become part of my psyche such that I can't handle an object without wondering if I should keep it or not. This is exactly what I've been doing. Each item, 'Do I need this?'
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Post by larataylor on Oct 7, 2014 15:46:43 GMT -5
Gives new meaning to the phrase: Question Everything. And the Question is: Why are you in my house? dayeanu - another problem is when *other* people take over any clear space that appears, because, hey--"I could really use that space for this new project." That's just abominably rude, isn't it? Like parking in the spot someone else shoveled snow out of for their car. If I clear a space, I OWN that space! Go clear some space yourself!
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Post by lostchild on Oct 8, 2014 3:08:51 GMT -5
I defend all of my spaces. I get upset at losing spaces. Today I spent the day trying to defend my living room. Daughter has company and they are working on project. I had to settle for putting their toys in the corner which worked.
Nothing is where you can trip. I can even vacuum. I just feel like I lost space. I know I didn't though. I know that there will have to be some unfinished areas during break because I am finishing classes and getting three big projects done.
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Post by larataylor on Oct 8, 2014 4:58:28 GMT -5
I defend all of my spaces. I get upset at losing spaces. Oh, yeah. Me, too. Small children and ongoing projects are a challenge … which is why homeschooling/unschooling gave me problems with clutter. What made it even harder was that I wanted to continually give my child a clean slate for whatever was striking her interest. And she was very much into drawing, painting, writing … all that paper-producing stuff. DD loved to buy new, pretty notebooks and start new journals - different ones for different experiences and interests. Thankfully, in later years she has organized these, keeping just a few pages from the ones in which she wrote only a few pages, and making a big box of empties to be used or donated. How she learned to be so organized, I have no idea … it seems to be inborn. The most anxiety-producing thing for me now is "decluttering clutter" because my living space has been recluttered by that stuff several times now. These days I'm better at moving clutter to the garage if I can't deal with it right away, or dealing with it right away if I can. In the garage, I'm consolidating things that require decisions from others, and I keep working on getting stuff into the trash from there. Stuff is covering the floor, but it's only ankle- to knee-deep at this point … no mountains. In one sense, it's better to have it spread out and "in the way" because that motivates me to put it the trash.
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Post by desireelafleur on Oct 11, 2014 12:02:24 GMT -5
I defend all of my spaces. I get upset at losing spaces. Today I spent the day trying to defend my living room. Daughter has company and they are working on project. I had to settle for putting their toys in the corner which worked. Nothing is where you can trip. I can even vacuum. I just feel like I lost space. I know I didn't though. I know that there will have to be some unfinished areas during break because I am finishing classes and getting three big projects done. I hate losing spaces as well. The resentment fills up fast. One "rule" that I can't get people to follow is "don't put ANYTHING on the stairs to the basement". I have to carry laundry baskets down those stairs so can't see. The stairs must be kept clean or someone, most likely me, is going to get hurt. But it's an empty space and we all know what happens to empty spaces...grr...it really is like a goat path on the mountain when the stairs get like that. Apparently I am amusing when I say so...
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