Survey #257—Full Response from Sandra
| 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”? | Short answer: YES!!! I used to own too many clothes, too many books, too many toys, too many kitchen gadgets, and too many "just in case" items, etc. Why? Because they were mine, they had been given to me, or I had paid for them. Now with a lower threshold, I value space and function over accumulation. |
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| 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? | Easier. I'm wiser now when it comes to saying no and I'm a much more mindful shopper. Even sentimental items are easier to declutter because my children told me they are not interested in most of them. I said the same thing to my mom 🙂 A harder to manage category nowadays would be digital files. |
| 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? | I lost control when the children were little with too many toys, books, school papers, and clothes. I'm glad I started to be a good example to them while they were home to see it. I'm happy to say they are very good at managing their own space now - much better than I was at the same age. |
| 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? | My dear husband is struggling with stuff he is storing from his now deceased parents and with sport equipment we used to enjoy but no longer do. Nothing happened yesterday: we're on a 10-20 year timeline here. Those items are either slowly deteriorating or taking up a lot of space in our house, and he is actually keeping things he says "should go someday". All this I find very frustrating because nothing changes. And now I'm afraid to declutter because I know for a fact he will use the free storage space to spread out the mess. |
| Future topics | I guess a refresher course on the psychology of clutter would be helpful ! |
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