The Clutter Fairy Weekly #156
Ask Us Anything: Breaking Up Is Hard | Tiny Bathrooms | Why We Procrastinate
This “Ask Us Anything” show answers your questions and discusses topics suggested by our viewers and listeners.
In this episode:
- You’ve made up your mind to get rid of something, but your heart hasn’t caught up with your head. We’ll talk about what to do about stuff when breaking up is hard to do.
- Learn to apply Clutter Fairy principles to planning the contents of a room on the smallest possible scale: organizing a tiny bathroom.
- We’re not lazy, and we don’t lack self-control, so why do we procrastinate? We’ll explore causes of procrastination and suggest strategies for breaking the cycle.
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The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.
Trial Separation
This week’s assignment is to explore letting go of an item with which you’re having trouble “breaking up”:
- Identify an item in your home that you feel rationally ready to release, but emotions hold you back from letting go.
- Take the object out of its usual display or storage space. Take a photograph that you’ll use when you want to recall it to memory.
- Reflect on your feelings about the item. Optional: Jot down a few words or phrases to describe those feelings.
- Now place the item somewhere out of sight: the donation bag or bin, the garage, or the trunk of the car.
- Live with the absence of the item for a week. Then come prepared next week to tell us whether you’ve noticed any change in your feelings.
- If you feel ready to say goodbye, take the next step and dispose of the item by gift, donation, trash, or recycling.
- If you don’t, that’s okay. Give your trial separation more time, then come back to this decision again later.
For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.
BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO
Older gal here, downsizing and having a hard time breaking up with my sewing machine. I’ve had a sewing machine in my home my entire life, used to sew a lot, but now just occasional mending and alterations. I think it represented a useful skill set, was tied up with my feeling that I was a competent person who had useful skills. Anyway, I’m focusing now on being a capable down-sizer instead of a competent seamstress, and my local donation center seemed pleased to receive my sewing machine and accessories. I’ll hand sew the odd mending task that comes up. Thanks for the nudge to get this done and to examine the thoughts and feelings that went along with it.
Linda, I think it’s amazing what you did! Congratulations.