Survey #258—Full Response from Lynn W
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| What useful decluttering or organizing strategies or methods did you take away from the book? | The container concept, as well as decluttering one section or shelf at a time so you can complete the task rather than leaving a mess for another time. Another is OHIO, only handle it once. Immediately take it to its home rather than making big piles to deal with later. Never leave a room empty handed if there are things that belong in other places. |
| What parts or aspects of the book did you find difficult to grasp or challenging to apply to your home or situation? | None |
| Please share your favorite quotations or key ideas and concepts from this book. | See answer to first question. Same answers here. |
| White suggests a decluttering process that requires making a final decision about each item (keep, trash, or donate) and placing the item in its appropriate home right away rather than into a “keep pile” or “keep box” for later organizing. If you’ve used her method, how has the “take it there right now” approach worked for you? What are the pros and cons of her suggested strategy? | I adapted it to my physical abilities. I use small baskets to sort 'keep' things into rooms they go to. When leaving my project area, I take the boxes/baskets to the room I am going to and deal with all the items in the box before returning to my project atea. My project isnt complete until all those boxes/baskets are empty. This adaptation saved me many steps by not transporting each item one at a time. The roadblock from this concept is for items that don't already have a room to call home or an already assigned container to reside in. It means I make quick arbitrary decisions rather than thoughtful ones and it usually changes. This is where her question of asking 'where would I go to look for this' helps with working out the logic for the item location decision. |
| A big part of White’s decluttering philosophy is the “container concept”—the idea of setting firm limits on the containers you use to hold your stuff, where “containers” are understood to mean the boxes, bins, racks, baskets, drawers, cabinets, shelves, etc., that you use to hold stuff, as well as the rooms that must contain the containers—and then decluttering to fit those limits. If you’ve used her method, how has the “container concept” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her methodology? Are there areas or categories of stuff for which it works better than others? | I love this concept. It helped immensely in sorting through my mother's things while incorporating my own into the house. It forced me to make choices about any duplicates or currently unuseful items and helped me sort the 'keep' things into logical container categories that fit my needs rather than continuing to use mom's unorganized system that wasn't working for me. I still use it even when revisiting previously decluttered rooms for a second or third decluttering or reorganizing. |
| White suggests following the “visibility rule”: Start every session of decluttering in the most visible places in your home. If you’ve used her method, how has the “visibility rule” helped or hindered your decluttering? What are the pros and cons of her suggested approach? | No, not visible, most congested was more important for me. My house is mostly clutter-free on the surface. It is the internal congestion that isca peeve. I focus on areas that give me a problem such as not being able to quickly find things in a container or having to look in several places rather than going directly to the location it logically belongs and then returning things to that location. My visibility concept is to start each decluttering session with an easy win to get the momentum going. Sometimes, it is loading or unloading the dishwasher or putting a load of laundry into the washer. This gets the appliances working for me while I use the washing cycle time as an incentive to clean other things in the house before the cycle finishes. The visibility prompt isn't useful incentive to me unless I am having visitors into the house. Then, I try to take a look around with fresh eyes. Taking a photo of a room helps with that. I notice things in the photo that I've become blind to and that goes onto my to do list. |
| 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. | Have the two of you considered writing a book on the subject? |
| Future topics | If the two of you were to write a book, what topics of interest would your audience like to read about? What aspects of "The Clutter Fairy" methodology help it stand out from the crowd of other decluttering organizers? |
Be the first to comment!
Comment on this survey response
Please use the form below to share a comment on this survey response. We ask that you keep your comments courteous and respectful. Polite disagreement is fine, but abusive language won’t be tolerated. Your comment will be held briefly for moderation after submission.
"*" indicates required fields
