Does your clutter mate in the dark of night?
There is a very humorous and accurate quote I made up related to clutter and organizing that I wanted to share with you. Here goes…
“Clutter mates in the dark of night and forms clutter babies.”
I usually get a chuckle from my audience whenever I say this quote because it’s quite funny to think of clutter saying, “Quick… no one is looking… let’s multiply before someone catches us…” as more and more clutter secretly adds to a pile that has formed.
The reality is that clutter piles, if left unchecked, can grow. It’s just not during the dark of night. Rather, our choices cause the clutter to grow or shrink. Let’s imagine the following scenario…
There’s a pile of papers on one part of your counter- it’s a combination of unopened and opened mail, bills to pay, thank you notes to write, the school permission slip to send in with your child, the takeout menu for your favorite restaurant, etc. On the other side of your kitchen, the counter is spotless- a perfect surface for food preparation, etc. If you were to enter your kitchen with your hands full of more paper that you weren’t ready to address immediately, where would you be most likely to place the paper?
If you’re like most people, you’d probably choose to add items to the already cluttered surface, leaving the spotless surface spotless.
So what do you do to nip the “clutter baby” problem? Making some different choices will help you with this…
- Commit to not adding any more clutter to the piles you already have. This begins to address things from today and into the future.
- Eliminate the clutter piles that have already formed. This addreses the past.
- Choose not to let new piles start. If you notice a small one that has begun, deal with it before it grows bigger. This maintenance is an important organizing habit to adopt.
With these simple choices, clutter will have met it’s match with you!
