Survey #175 Response from Inanna
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Think about a decluttering project of any size that you’ve completed in the past. (The project may be as little as one section of cabinet, a drawer, or a small set of objects.) How successful have you been at maintaining the space or collection in the finished state? | Somewhat unsuccessful |
| For the project you thought about in the previous question, what habits, attitudes, events, people, or other factors contribute to your tendency to re-clutter the space? (For example, “I’m a habitual shopper” or “My family doesn’t respect my organizing efforts” or “The mail just keeps coming!”) | Any table or other empty surface cries out, "This is the place to put whatever came in the mail or whatever you just brought into the house!" I am not organized. I do not know what the "belonging place" is for what comes in the mail or for whatever I just brought home, unless it's an item of decor. I no longer buy new decor items. I have more than enough of them and they look lovely except for the chair piledwith objects. My elephant collection is complete. My candlestick collection is full. My candlabra collection occupies complete surfaces in two different rooms. My chamsah collection takes up a complete wall plus a small table. I have gotten rid of most of my stuffed animals. But I have stacks and stacks of papers. Unread mail. Also my own writing--revisions of chapters for a novel. Revisions of chapters of a finished memoir. Revisions of chapters of another novel which will have 70 thousand words total whenever I finish the last two adventures and the wrap-up. Hand-outs and notes from half=a=dozen different classes.and whatever books I am reading on health or one or two other important topics. Medical records, variously filed under "medical" "doctor" and various specialties and names of doctors. . I am beyond knowing where to put any of this stuff. Much of it probably is no longer needed. |
| What habits, mindsets, practices, or other factors contribute to your ability to successfully maintain a previously cluttered space? (For example, “I reset my dining room after each meal” or “I’ve set a limit of five decorative items in each room” or “I use the ‘after’ photo I took as motivation to keep my bathroom shelves organized.”) | I almost never buy new decorative items. Every wall is covered with photos or other framed images. If I were to marry, there would be no room for his photos or decorative items. I love the decor in my living room and dining room. My tall bookshelves (at least one in every room, and four in some rooms) are stiff piled with books. I continue to buy new books. I am trying to get rid of the five or six books for which i have duplicates. One yea4r ago I cleared my dining room table, my breakfast table, and one double-bed, plus at least one chair. The chair is now a chair. The dining room table has less than half as much, but too much to permit me to invite dinner guests. The breakfast table holds all the things I bring into the house. There is barely room on it to eat a small bowl of pecans. The bed has several small stacks but not as high. I have no technique for preventing the papers from piling up again. The dining table is covered with pill bottles of supplements. The bed is covered with new drafts of new chapters of one novel. |
| In which collections or categories of stuff are you most inclined to re-clutter—i.e., to refill areas and spaces that you’ve previously had success decluttering? (For example, “I purge my clothes closet every couple of years, but it’s always overflowing again within three months” or “My coffee mug collection is always out of control.”) | My walk-om clothes closet is large and so crowded I can hardly put freshly=washed T shirts back on the rack. I don't buy T-shirts any more. I still wear the T=shirts with frayed necks, azlthough only at home. My coffee mugs are not a problem. I almost never buy new mugs, and, sadly, one of my favorites fell and broke and I have nowhere to buy another like it. But the papers are everywhere. "out of control" doesn't begin to describe it. The entry hall is piled knee-high with mail along one wall and part of another wall. And there is one living room chair also piled with mail. |
| Fill in the blank: “When I finish my current decluttering/organizing project, I’m going to treat myself to ___.” | I am not engaged in decluttering right now. What could I possibly treat myself to? I have nowhere to put anything. |
| 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. | I know you did a meeting on how to categorize papers--how to settle on labe;s for files. I tried desperately to write down these labels, but I can't write as fast as you can talk. And I don't know where I put the sheet of paper--or the notebook--where I wrote those notes. I don't know where to begin. When I cleared off the spaces a year ago, I bought three little three-drawer plastic storage units and dumped everything into them helter-skelter. But I also filled ten large trash bags with what I threw away or recycled. I can't even formulate a good question. So all I can ask is, WHAT CAN I DO NOW? |
| Future topics | Lots of ideas on where to keep printouts of online information so that I can find them again. Ditto for other kinds of papers. Notes from classes. Where, besides the dining room table, can I put my laptop when it's not in use? One desk in tghe computer room is covered with my desk top. Another desk is filled with miscellaneous papers. Can you help me get started? I could theoretically put things "away" in their belonging places if I knew where they belong. But the file cabinets are full with duplicate items (multiple titles for some categories, as I mentioned in the case of medical records.) |
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