Survey #257—Full Response from Gabriella
| 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”? | I grew up in a maximalist household, was given a lot of things and was expected to keep and preserve them. That probably accounts for my difficulty in letting go. At the same, it made me feel overwhelmed by all the stuff at an early age. As a young adult I lived quite minimally, however, and enjoyed doing so. This changed toward my end 30s, mainly for two reasons: 1. My tendecy to accumulate an ecxessive number of books and a fair amount of clothes. 2. When I was 38 my, mother and grandmother passed away within the same year, leaving me to clear their apartment that was filled to the brim, within short notice. Grieving, I managed to clear only about 80%. At present I am still struggling with the last 5 - 10%. On the other hand, I've always felt satisfied and relieved after decluttering and getting things out of the house. In the past years I've made substantial progress in reducing my inventory. Newly acqired items and presents that don't work for me, I get rid of quickly. Even letting go of sentimental stuff has become less daunting. I now take painstaking care to minimize the inflow. It may sound weird, but I've begun to gain as much pleasure and satisfaction from NOT acquiring new items (and making a game of it) as many other people get from shopping. |
| 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? | Both. It has become easier to declutter in the sense of my having developed decluttering muscle (and my home organization works fabulously). Since I have reduced my inventory so much - though by far not enough - now the items that are left are increasingly difficult to let go of. Pertinent categories: books, sentimental items, clothes |
| 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 partner (to me, the most wonderful man in the world, for the past 35 years!) Is not strictly speaking disorganized but is able turn any space into clutter paradise in no time - and hates to clean up. He used to own very little stuff, but in the past years, has accumulated a plethora of clothes (he wears 5% of his clothes 95 % of the time), kitchen iitems and sports equipment. The problem is, that he keeps everything, even broken items, that pile up in corners of the patio of our home in Morocco (in our Berlin home I don't let him do that). He wears 5% of his clothes 95% of the time. Not exaggerating! When I complain about the clutter he tells me with a sweet, irresistible grin "The clutter is bothering you, not me". |
| 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? | It would help immensely if my adorable man got rid of all of his belongings that he doesn't use, never will use or does'nt care for anyway, i. e. things that are just sitting around, clogging up our space. |
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