Almost exactly three years ago on
17 May 2019 I wrote a blog post about my efforts at 'declutterization' - my word, one which you won't find in any books about the subject of trying to remove clutter from the house. What brought me back to the subject? Reader 'im-hamsa' recently wrote a kind comment about the post. The comment did two things: a) reminded me about the post - I had totally forgotten about it and b) spurred me on to continue my efforts.
So what has changed since the post was written? Well, 2019 was a busy year for declutterization and boy-oh-boy did we get rid of a lot of crap! Not only things like old clothes and pillows (pillows? we had that many? - yup), and chachkis', but furniture as well. Our living room was home to a huge shelving unit we had bought while I was still stationed in Germany. It was a nice set of shelves but ultimately had to go because it was really just one big dust collector! We live in the desert, and anyone who has lived in this environment knows just how dusty it can get - IT'S HORRIBLE! In its place we settled on a small TV stand with drawers, and a cabinet for the grand daughter's toys - both from the IKEA store here in Vegas. Other furniture like a large coffee table and mis-matched end tables was replaced as well with more IKEA pieces. This took care of a lot of mess and clutter in the living room (okay, that is when we can get the grand baby to pick up her toys!!)
But then...
The end of 2019 saw me get busy with the train layouts and taking care of clutter took a back seat. Then 2020 came around and brought with it a pernicious little bug: COVID! I spent much of the year in telework status and 'worked' from home (a misnomer because my job requires me to be on-site, I can't do a damn thing at the house!!!). One would think that it would be a perfect time for decluttering but ultimately that's not what happened. Boredom and lack of self-control meant I did a lot of impulse buying. Yup, more clutter, but mostly confined to The Cave - no spillover into the rest of the house.
2021 came around and eventually we came off of telework and I got back to working, albeit in odd shifts: two days going into work one week, then three days going into work the next week, then repeat. It was an odd sort of 'disconnected' time. My mind was 'disconnected' too. I just couldn't get back into tackling clutter. But I was awfully darn good at buying things! arrrrgh!
Welcome 2022! And welcome COVID! In January of this year the bug caught up with us and the whole family came down with it. I physically missed two weeks of work, but when I went back I was drained and very little got done! If that weren't enough, the same week we came down with the bug our clothes dryer went kaput. In order for the technicians to get the new dryer into The Cave, a whole bunch of boxes had to be relocated into the house temporarily - more specifically, I put them into our bedroom. Now you see, that wouldn't have been necessary had I been diligent in clearing out The Cave during the COVID lockdown period, but it is what it is. BTW, I did in fact sell a lot of toys that were in The Cave, but they were all small items, and made very little dent in the overall insanity out there!
That brings me back to decluttering and my original post back in 2019. With the bedroom now a mess from having moved boxes into it from The Cave, that room had to be tackled. My original spreadsheet for keeping track of my progress was accidentally deleted and a new one started. Why keep a spreadsheet? For no other reason than it gives me a way to track progress and is a sort of mental butt-kicker. I have it, I know I have it and it provides incentive to keep going by making updates. I bought a nice shelving unit - also from IKEA (can you tell we like that store?) - for the bedroom. Onto these shelves went all my 3-ring photo binders (a system I started while stationed in Germany for storing negatives and prints vs. putting them all in boxes) that were relocated from the hall linen closet. Bettina was against putting any shelves in the bedroom for many years but when you live in a small house you really have to utilize space as best you can. She finally relented to the shelves and it made a big difference. Towels and linens previously stored in the bedroom went into the linen closet where they belong. Photo binders went in the shelves in the bedroom (a better place may have been in the living room but that would then make the living room feel 'busy' again'), and most of those boxes from The Cave relocated back out there where they belong (still have a couple to go through). While working on the shelf and the photo binders and linens I was able to either toss out or give away nearly ten bags of 'stuff' (old bedding, clothes, blankets, etc.). Good Lord where does all this stuff come from??
Sooo, thanx to the latest decluttering efforts, the living room looks much neater than it did, the hallway linen closet now holds linens like it was meant to, and the bedroom has far less stuff in it than it did - but is still a work in progress. Also in the hallway is a small walk-in utility/clothes closet that we've been using as video/DVD and photo album storage. Once the bedroom is finished, that'll be the next project.
Decluttering is a lot of work, but is doable if you just set your mind to the task. Don't expect all that extra junk to go away overnight - it takes time. To borrow a line from the movie Finding Nemo: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"
Enjoy! Opa Fritz
