OK. I know. You can tell me. Your place is a mess!
I see that pile of newspapers a foot high next to your chair in the living room. The pile of newspapers includes six months of the Saturday Review of Literature. You can’t throw those out because you want to read them. Of course. But when?
And the mess in your closet – shoes piled up on the floor. And you can’t find the top you bought last week to go with your beige linen pants. Where is it? You hung it somewhere. You want to wear it today and you are late.
Do we dare talk about your linen closet? All those old 100% cotton sheets you have had for years that need to be ironed? Are you saving them in case we need bandages for a war? Out. It is time.
Get some stretchable garbage bags. Big ones. You don’t have to do this all at once, so don’t be afraid. The easy part is the linen closet. There are people who need those sheets and towels so don’t feel bad about giving them away. Put them in the bag. Tidy up what is left and you are through. You deserve beautiful, lush towels for yourself. Go buy some.
Get an extra pair of sheets. Lovely ones you don’t have to iron. You deserve it. You are the best company you will ever entertain in your bed. Indulge!
Be brave. It is now time for your CLOSET.
Start at the front of the closet and inspect the first twelve items. What is there that you have not worn in two years? Fold them neatly and place them in another garbage bag. Lots of organizers say one year but I know what will happen. You will put the bag in your car to bring to Goodwill or wherever then go out tomorrow and return half of them back to the closet. Two years you can live with.
Keep some of the very dressy things that fit. They are handy to have if you have an occasion to attend – but I am talking about everything else.
Repeat for the next twelve and the next until you have a full garbage bag.
Bring everything to your local charity or collection box right away. I told you. You don’t want to change your mind. The trick is to get these bags out of your life immediately.
Repeat the closet clean out again in about a week. Or sooner, if you can. Until everything in your closet is something you wear or will wear.
The next step is the important one. It will help you find the beige top.
Your closet probably has some space in it now so this is going to be easier than you thought. It will take an hour or so.
Treat your closet like a filing system. All colors together. All similar things – like pants – shirts – long sleeve – short sleeve also hung together and hung up according to color. Then, you can find things.
And it is easy to keep up. I did it about three years ago and I have to admit it takes no longer to hang the red shirt together with other reds than to stick it at the end of the rod.
One thing it will accomplish is you will see how many duplicates you have. Why do we keep buying the same thing over and over? Because we forget what we have. Or, we can’t find what we have.
The moral of this story is if this pack rat can do it, so can you.
Your office. Where is that file, anyway? I’ll tell you a secret. I still haven’t done my office. I just got a shredding machine but I have this terrible fear that the IRS will come to audit my 1988 tax return as soon as I get rid of it.
But, now that I have written this all down, it is on my list. I’ll let you know.
For the ultimate guide on organization check out Regina Leed’s new book!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: patriciasinglet
November 11, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I do this before every announced visit from family and friends. If you come unannounced, what you see is what you get.
Patricia – Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworkers last blog post..The Power Of Your Words
My place isn’t a mess … I am one of those people who throws out just about everything. I own a business and one rule I have is:
If I can get it elsewhwere, I throw it out. I have to keep certain records for a cetain period of time. When that time is up, I “purge” and I do it consistently. My business will be 24 years old in 2 months. If I wasn’t a “purger”, my office would look worse than your accompanying picture and I probably wouldn’t have a place to sit. I have seen many offices just like that. We’ve all seen Andy Rooney’s office on 60 minutes. Gag.
I am a neat freak at my office because that is my livelihood. I have to be. BUT, I don’t HAVE to be so severe at home and therefore, I’m not.
Years ago, I drove all my employees crazy because everything had to be “perfect” … One day a good friend who had a different point of view about life (she was one of the last polio victims in the U.S. and spent a year in an iron lung)
looked at me and said “Sometimes good enough is just good enough.”
She was right.
Lily Rose.
I hate people like you!!!
Corrine, You know don’t you, somehow you know where I am in this process…I am like an onion…each layer being pealed away. What is going to be left? My son’s friend came today to take away the couch I bought the week after my x left and I was, for the first time in my life, alone…the couch and rocking chair that went into my new apartment, the start of my new life, hours spent rocking, crying, forming a crystalis and then emerging, years later. The furnishings of a new beginning….today he came and took them away, as well as the remnants of a past life, when the children were little, cleaning out the storage unit on Elston. An antique hutch, table and chairs where dinners were shared…where we laughed, spilt milk, swept crumbs up and disposed of them in the garbage. The antique satee salvaged from the neighbors trash pile and lovingly refinished and reupholstered….packed into a van with the other lovingly tendered pieces of ‘stuff’ and carted off to their new life…no longer a part of mine, not part of THIS new beginning….again. Bits and pieces, flotsam and jetsam that has become, as it was carted away, an ache that will stay in the bottom of my heart….growing fainter as one day dissolves into the next….New paint on the walls, new curtains in the windows of the treehouse, new furniture on order….scuba gear drying in the bathroom, hd tv, cd’s in the stereo that rock my world. Slowly, emerging, slowly unfurling crimped wings, drying, expanding, lifting, loving, ME.
Twitter: raymond8
November 11, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Great tips, Corrine.
You have just give us the step-by-step to clear the clutter.
I think I’ll begin from my desk.
Thanks.
Raymond Chuas last blog post..Anxiety – One Of The Causes Of Stress
Dear Ang -
Knowing where you came from and now seeing you where you are today brought me to tears.
I am so proud of you. And of the beautiful way you described your journey. You are a talented writer.
Maybe it is time for a book?
My love and admiration to you -
Corinne
Dear Patrica-
No one arrives into my house without an invitation.
(Well, maybe YOU could drop in!)
Dear Lily Rose and Grace -
I am going to let you two fight it out!
I am more in line with Lily Rose on this -
I am a neat freak at my office because that is my livelihood. I have to be. BUT, I don’t HAVE to be so severe at home and therefore, I’m not”
Except I am a crazy neat almost everywhere(that shows!) Don’t look in my junk drawer in the kitchen!
Dear Raymond -
I bet you are organized in your entire life. That’s the impression I have from your writing.
Is tht true?
Twitter: raymond8
November 12, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Well Corrine,
In some parts of my life, yes.
(but not all)
Raymond Chuas last blog post..Create A Passion That Drives You
It feels good to be back to reading your posts again after being away for a while. This article reminds me of what I did several months ago – cleaned out my closet.
I took several expensive suits that I once wore on Wall Street and gave them away to my church for the young man who is going on his first job interview. I whittled down a collection of suits to just two that’s left hanging in the closet.
They say if your house or car is a mess, your life is a mess in some area. That’s why it’s important to clean up the clutter, get rid of the mess and then other areas of your life will spontaneously clear up too. It’s an energy thing.
Everytime I get ready for a trip, I go on a cleaning spree and do my laundry so that when I come back, I feel the lighter energy of the home waiting for me. Feels great!
Good to be back!
Dear Stephen -
It is good to have you back in the US and commenting again. Missed you!
I don’t doublt that you are a neatnik! It shows in everything you do.
I crave neat too! I think it is a control thing. If things are neat – at least something is right in the world – no matter what else is going on!
June said by email -
Great article, Corinne. One thing you left out is the medicine cabinet. You would be surprised how many outdated bottles are in there. I have followed the clean out closet doctrine and it really works. What works for me is to tell myself I am not throwing things out, I am giving to charity.
Whoops! You are right, June!
Thanks for reminding us of that important and sometimes dangerous cache of stuff er collect!
Just took a look. Those outdated medicines are now gone!
Corinne,
As ususal your advice was right on target. My wife and I are in the process of downsizing as we move from one house to another. Your advice made it easier to accomplish–and we are still accomplishing.
bernie
My FIRST comment: I, too, tried to straighten out my bedroom,
cum office, computer room, sewing room, etc. a few years ago. I decided to start with the books. They were everywhere. On
cockeyed shelves I put up myself, in bookcases, on and in
my night stand,and so on. So I made two piles, and I had a
large garbage bag for “throw-outs”. At the end, there were a
few paper-backs in the garbage, and a healthy pile of those
I was going to donate to the library, and the ones I was going
to keep. Guess which was the largest? Right! So I decided to
get one large bookcase, which reached the ceiling, and when
I filled it up, I had to buy another one, which quickly filled
to the last inch. I put the ones to be donated in milk crates
and shopping bags and put them into the trunk of my car.
And drove for months with them in the trunk. We had a huge
rainstorm, and the car got swamped, at least 2″ into the front
and back floors. I checked on the books. They weren’t wet, but
they were damp and smelled like…you know that smell! Anyway,
I took the ones that were salvagable and lined them up on the
steps that lead to my apartment. They looked like an army on
the march, up my stairs, and sure enough, every once in a while, (I sometimes need to rest before climbing the stairs)
I sit down and go through them again, and think: Hey, I never
did read this one….and take it back upstairs. And I wonder
why I am constantly murmuring to myself: Gotta clear out this
place one of these days. Yes, and pigs are gonna fly.Louise
Dear Louise -
Great! Glad to have you on board! Come back often.
I guess at some time in our life, we have to admit to what the world considers our faults -
LIKE BEING A PACK RAT!
It’s harmless. Until you find you decide to move to a smaller place!
That’s when pigs will have to start to fly!
That photograph could have been one of my table! Papers overflowing everywhere …
Strangely enough, this messiness only affects my books and papers – my clothes, shoes and other personal effects stay politely in place.
My trouble, in addition to being a pack rat (when I see a piece of paper, the first thing I think is – let me put it away , I’ll never know when I need it), I always put off for tomorrow what I can do today … End result – the mess sends my spouse and kids round the bend!
MY mess is an ORGANIZED mess … I can find things in that mess, but perish forbid if someone tries to neaten up…then I spend hours searching for something that is right under my nose …
Right now, this propensity to mess is bigger than me but I hope that someday, I’ll be bigger than it!