Survey #174 Response from Em
| Which member(s) of your household support or contribute to your decluttering or organizing efforts, and how? (For example, “My husband keeps the home office and his workshop organized.”) | Zero. My husband kept his own things organized, did the dishes, and helped with vacuuming and laundry. He has died, so now I have to do it all alone. |
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| Which member(s) of your household frustrate, foil, interrupt, or otherwise complicate your decluttering or organizing efforts, and how? (For example, “My preteen child picks through the donation box to retrieve items even after we’ve reached agreement to get rid of them.”) | My two cats slide whatever they can off of surfaces, including breakables and food. They raid any cupboard, shelf, or closet that they can open. In addition, my husband is cluttering from the grave, in that he left two huge storage lockers stuffed to their ceilings. |
| If you were to wish for one change of behavior from someone—or everyone—in your household with respect to clutter, what change would you wish for? (For example, “My preteen child picks through the donation box to retrieve items even after we’ve reached agreement to get rid of them.”) | Because I am the only human in the household, I guess the change has to be in me. I wish I had the interest, strength, and discipline to get my belongings weeded and in order. I recognize that much of my problem is that I spend a lot of my time (perhaps the majority of it) helping others just for the company, while my own life spirals into deeper chaos. |
| Describe an item about which you have a strong disagreement with someone else in your household over whether or not it deserves a place in your home. (For example, “My mother’s 30 years of TV Guide magazines.”) | Part of the problem is that there is no one with whom to share my household, so I have no accountability and can keep all of the junk I want. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | Can you site instances where lonely clients discovered or acknowledged that their clutter was a form of company? |
| Future topics | "Reaching the Tipping Point" Many people in the chat comment that the decluttering becomes easier and more thorough on the second or third pass. Are there ways to reach a tipping point quickly? Can a tipping point be reached before tackling the hardest clutter by several passes on the easier stuff? Another topic: "Restuffing the Unstuffed Areas" It seems that my decluttered areas invite more clutter than they had before decluttering. Do you have insights on this, perhaps from the experiences of your clients? What is the mindset that keeps destroying the decluttering progress? |
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