Partners in Clutter: Organizing With (or in Spite of) Other People

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.

Reach (Toward) an Agreement

This week’s assignment is to work toward an agreement to reduce the load of other people’s clutter in your home.

• Identify someone who contributes clutter to your space or your life. This could be anyone from a partner who refuses to respect the rules you’ve set for common areas to a dear friend who insists on giving you a gift at every visit.
• Write down a few statements about how the other person’s stuff and the related behavior adversely affect your ability to manage your space. Note the feelings and emotions that you experience in this situation.
• If you’re ready for the conversation, share your statements with the person in question. Be prepared to explain the organizing goals toward which you’re working and how their cooperation could improve your space and your enjoyment of it.
• If you’re not ready to have the conversation, reflect on at least one simple request that you could make of the person in question to enlist their help in keeping from adding to your clutter.
• Make a note on your calendar to return to this exercise in a few weeks. You may find that you’re ready (or at least more ready) to ask for the changes you’d like to see!

For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment