I’m determined to make some progress this week. Yesterday I cleared one small corner of the office/gameroom, and while that corner looks much better, the room still looks awful. I think that I should work my way around the room to get it done. However, if it takes three hours to clear/organize four feet of space, this is going to take forever. It’s a little depressing. This often happens to me. I get going on an organization project and then I do the math to realize how long it is actually going to take to fix the entire mess and it seems pointless. It makes me want to quit, and often I do.
If I’m working my way around the room, my desk is next. You’ve seen my desk. It’s scary. And it gets cluttered so quickly. Ugh.
I have to do this. I know my desk is bad, but that just means that if I can get it done, it will make a huge difference in the room.
Remember how I like to blame inanimate objects? I’m blaming this desk for its mess. It has entirely too many places to shove things for a person like me to be able to handle. The natural progression of my complaint is that I need a different desk. If only I had a different desk, I would be organized.
So the empty printer-ink cartridge would have been disposed of properly if I had a different desk? A different desk would have taken the alphabet magnet back to the kitchen two years ago? Another desk would have stopped me from buying more than I needed of those “bargain” invitation-type printer paper? It would have had a robotic arm to sort and file all the important papers?
I know I’m being pathetic right now. I’m going to stop whining and get to work. Hopefully I’ll have a Tackle it Tuesday post to show a much neater desk.
I say “hopefully” but I know that hoping doesn’t clean my house. I do.
I have been known to blame our house. We have moved several times and over the years when we lived in a small house I said I could do better if I had a bigger house……well guess what? A bigger house only has more places to clutter! Uggh.
I am very enthralled by your blog and I have now started off small in the kitchen. I too think I am going to have to retrain my brain into doing little things daily rather than wait until it's an overwhelming all day job just to make the main living area presentable.
Dear Nony
I found your blog and videos a few days ago and am addicted. If I am successful in sending this, I will write again.
You did it! And I’m so glad you found me!
So delighted to get your prompt reply. I think you are very courageous and extremely funny. Your extending fork sent me into hysterics, as did your imagined nightmare scenario of someone having to enter your house to get you a pair of pyjamas, should you be taken ill while on holiday.
I have a very low boredom threshhold where housework is concerned but find it easier to keep to a task that I enjoy. One of my big problems is the inability to throw away any documents but I recently had the good fortune to buy an Epson scanner/printer/photocopier for £25, which I imagine would translate to about $40.
I am using the scanner to scan copies of documents on to my hard drive, with another copy on a USB memory stick, and then shredding the original documents (except for ones which it is essential to keep). The shredded paper goes to an animal sanctuary where it is used as bedding for small animals.
I like operating the scanner, so it is easy to keep to a regular routine of scanning.
One more thing, an American lady on another website, who is a natural organiser and keeps her home immaculate, stated what might be obvious to many people but came as a revelation to me, namely that everything that comes into your house has to have a designated place and be returned to that place, otherwise it will be clutter. I have many things which have no designated place, which could be why, after a tidying session, my house looks much the same as it did at the outset, which is so disheartening. I enjoy your blog so much, I have to ration myself to reading a few days at a time. So glad you had the idea to do it. Kind regards.
This post made me feel better. I get overwhelmed all the time. It’s especially bad when it becomes all too much in the middle of decluttering, at that point when it looks worse than it did before. When I stop there, new clutter builds on top of it. Then, if I have to search for something, the “strata” is out of order & I can’t find anything. I’m enjoying reading all your posts, as well as the comments. You’re bright & funny, and I am grateful I found your blog. Now, if only I can catch up! 🙂
I know exactly how you feel. I have started making my bed everyday, but there is so much clutter around it that I have to step over piles to get to the foot and other side. My goal for this week is to clean a pathway around the bed so it will be easier to make. How did I let things get in such a mess?
Also I am reading your blogposts backwards and need to know how to get to a certain date without having to scroll thru all of them
There is a calendar on the sidebar, toward the bottom. If you hover over the dates, the ones with posts are clickable.