Survey #242—Full Response from Gabriella
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Please read the two statements below, then answer the questions that follow. | B I have learned some important things about myself on my decluttering journey, have gained some insights that changed my mindset, as well as several very useful tips and hacks. This keeps me optimistic that I can gain even more knowledge and refine my skills in the future. |
| Please read the two statements below, then answer the questions that follow. | B more or less I still have quite a few areas to declutter and there are some already decluttered areas in which I would like to peel the onion further. Since I'm keeping my stuff basically structured and organized however, at this point it is not difficult for me to systematically go through one category after another. |
| Please read the two statements below, then answer the questions that follow. | Neither A nor B. I generally find it hard to let go of such items. What I've learned about myself though, is that I seem to gradually get emotionally desensitized to some of these items. It then becomes surprisingly "painless" to let them go. |
| Please read the two statements below, then answer the questions that follow. | Something in between A and B. I'm not afraid of lacking something in the future. Nevertheless, if I've already got a substantial number of items of a particular category that I use regularly, I keep them and try to use them up. For example, I'm keeping a lot of post-it notes that I gradually use up. (I've got the space to contain them, they don't deteriorate with time, and I've reduced the stash substantially already.) When they're finished, I'll buy only a sparse quantity of new ones each time I'm about to run out. |
| Please read the two statements below, then answer the questions that follow. | B |
| Write a statement that summarizes your current mindset with respect to the decluttering and organizing journey. | Decluttering can be a very gratifying process. Every unwanted item that is decluttered counts, because it constitutes another minute step toward an enjoyable home. Keeping my things well organized is essential, because it makes my everyday life run smoothly and efficiently. Not having to search for things, effortlessly putting things where they belong or cleaning up an area within a few minutes and then enjoying the calm and harmonious surroundings is definitely rewarding. |
| 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. | The following is not really a question. It's going to be more of a rant, that I feel the urge to express. It actually targets the inventors of the Packing Party Method. Please bear with me: In Episode 103 you discuss the Minimalist Packing Party as a once and for all method. You were taking it very seriously, and I appreciate that you did. As a member of the audience, however, I take the liberty to say that although the method may sound like fun, it is absolutely impractical in real life for anybody who owns more than about 300 items. Packing everything up in an already cluttered and disorganized household and then digging for a particular item in dozens of moving boxes will simply end in disaster. (If friends pack everything up as they find it, the owner will know even less where to look for things.) In the end this method would make the clutter and disorganization a lot worse than before. Even in a smaller segment this would exacerbate the problem instead of improving it, unless everything is packed and labeled systematically (which is probably not feasible if you have a heavily cluttered and disorganized space to begin with). What irks me is that somebody like Joshua Becker, who has a huge audience, suggests a method that that would be outright detrimental to most people struggling with clutter. The method may work for minimalists striving to become extreme minimalists, but it's no more than a bad joke for people who are overwhelmed by their stuff. I don't like the idea of censoring anything, but can we concentrate on the many wonderful methods or elements of methods that are practicable and useful for the mainstream audience actually suffering from their clutter problem? |
| Future topics | Changing our consumption habits to incorporate some useful elements of underconsumption (core). |
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