Survey #257—Full Response from Anonymous user
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| How have your ideas, attitudes, and behaviors around clutter changed over the course of your adult life? Do you have a higher or lower threshold for what counts as “clutter”? | When our children were small, most things were put awey so that the kids didn't get into them. I didn't worry about toys being left out in the livingroom during the day, but they were all put away after supper. When the kids got bigger, it became part of the daily routine for them to do rotating chores, put things away when they were done with them, and do a good tidy-up at bedtime. ( I figured their future spouses and roommates would appreciate it.) We regularly went through outgrown clothes and toys. Now, I want my house to be ready for what we enjoy doing, without having to clean extra beforehand. I have a low tolerance for clutter and don't want to be cleaning when I could be enjoying whoever is here with me. |
| Do you find it easier or harder to declutter and organize as time goes by? Are there categories of stuff that get easier to manage? Are there categories that get harder to manage? | If children have the stories behind things that are special to you and they have memories of using the items, they are more likely to value them. As my kids got homes of their own, I asked which things were important to them and gave them the items for their own family to enjoy. Harder to manage: I inherited my great-great grandmother's tintype album, which only holds 12 pictures. If she could do it, I can at least try. I don't want to limit myself to only a dozen pictures, but it makes me think about which ones are more special than the others. I'm making my grandchildren " ancestor albums" with their direct ancestors- geandparents, great-grandparents, ... ,as far back as I can. I've pared down my photos to only 4 albums and several hundred on my phone. Photos get harder to manage, because everyone takes so many pictures with the tech available now. |
| Think about the person in your life who’s had the most impact on your decluttering and organizing, or the person whose own clutter creates the most impact on you. This may be a spouse, partner, roommate, child, parent, another member of your household, or someone outside your household or family. How have this person’s ideas, attitudes, and behaviors around clutter—or the way their stuff affects you—changed over the course of your relationship? | My mother was 4th of 10 children, only the second girl. and of a generation where the women were expected to do all the housework. She was very particular about everything being tidy. She cleaned thoroughly, decluttered ruthlessly, and taught me how to do the same. The only thing I was determined to change was that I was never decluttering my kids' belongings without their input, because it hurt me as a child when that happened. I started my married life expecting myself to keep doing everything the way she had. However, I was working full time outside the home and had a husband who worked away from home, so I quickly adapted to doing essentails. Mom didn't say , but I do wonder if she secretly thought I was letting my standards slip, My house is decluttered and clean because I function better that way and I know how to keep it up. I taught my kids (and my husband) not to have gender-specific ideas about chores. |
| If you could ask for one small change in someone else’s behavior that would improve the state of your home, what would it be? | I'd like my spouse to go through the "just in case" extras. |
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