Morning Musing: Clutter is Keeping You from FLYing

Dear Friends,

I have been accused of not supporting recycling efforts to protect the environment.  All I can say to that is BOLOGNA! I do not apologize for my attitude about this subject. The clutter has got to be eliminated from your home any and every way possible.

We recycle most everything in our home. I would say that we only throw out a few bags of real trash a year. Now don’t tell me I don’t support recycling. As a precious elected county commissioner, I know first hand how much trash cost us for every ton that goes into the landfill. I hate it, but trash is part of life and we have to learn how to deal with it.

I have been teaching you that giving things away blesses others and yourself, but what if the stuff you have is not worth giving, even to a charity. Many charities have complained that when people donate bags of clothing and broken stuff to them, it cost them a lot money to dispose of the trash. There is no way for you know where to donate or sell bulk clothing that is worn out and beyond recycling. So don’t overwhelm charities with your responsibility for putting this in the landfill where it belongs. You saved it, so you should take responsibility for your own trash. This means paying for the right to dispose of it properly.

I am all for saving the environment, but if you have been holding on to stuff because you don’t know where or how to get rid of it, then your home has become just like a landfill. No one wants to live in a DUMP! I know you have boxes of clothes and stuff that have not been opened for decades. It is time to release this stuff once and for all. There is no sense in making your children go through this clutter after you are dead and gone. Some of you have had to deal with your parent’s stockpiles. You know how overwhelming this job can be.

By all means donate all the usable clothing and appliances, have a free yard sale or give items to friends. Be careful not to lay guilt trips on your family members or your friends, give them permission to say, ” No Thank You!”

Your personal landfill is killing you. I want this trash out of your home once and for all! If I can impress upon you how dangerous it is to live in house that is filled to the brim with this unwanted, unloved energy sucking monster, I have done my job! Not only is it a hazard to your mental well being, it is a serious hazard to your safety as well; fire hazards, unsanitary, toxins, structural for your home, and attracts rodents. Now what does this sound like to you? A landfill or dumping ground! You got it sister!

Now your home did not become the landfill overnight, it took years and it is not going to get clean in a day! DO YOU HEAR ME! So don’t try to do this yesterday!

This is also going to be hard to face your mountain of clutter! You are going to want to beat yourself up about all of this stuff you have hoarded. DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE CLUTTER MONSTER’S WAY OF STOPPING YOU FROM EVICTING HIM! This is his evil ploy to discourage you. You are also going to be dredging up old memories that are sometimes hard to deal with. Let it out, cry if you need to, but purge these sad momentos so you never have to be reminded of them again. I only want you surrounded by things that give you joy and build you up. There is no room in your life for those memories of sad times. Free yourself to FLY!

Where do you start!

1. You get dressed to shoes, fix your hair and face and do your morning routine, including starting supper! Now you do understand this, don’t you!

2. If you are one of the people who needs to marathon declutter, then by all means, back your truck up to the house and start to load it up with your trash. I know you have tons of it.  For now, don’t worry about recycling, because your health is more important to me then the fact that you will be adding one more ton to the landfill. Do not email me complaining about my attitude. Sometimes it takes a good purge to get you started on a way of life that includes recycling and shopping with the environment in mind. Right now you can’t even think past your next hour, much less deal with the problems of the world. So get over your guilt about this and start to live. You and the world will be much better off when you do. Besides charity starts at home, so does your environmental consciousness. How can you save the world, if you haven’t saved yourself first?

3. If you can afford to order a dumpster. Do it! We did this a few years ago during our remodel. It was the smartest thing we ever did for our construction crew and ourselves.  It was expensive, but worth every penny. By this time we had recycled most everything we could and now all we had to do was purge the junk that was in our basement. These were things that Robert finally decided had no useful life.

4. I am not fond of yard sales, because they have a way of beating you up even more. You are never going to get what you paid for it at a yard sale! This leaves you feeling defeated by the whole process. If you give things away, you will be blessed by giving to those in need. Try this sometime. Just set a table up with items to give away. Just see who shows up and how you can bless them with your excess. The stories and the lives you touch will stay with you forever. Not only will you be helping others, you will be helping yourself and your spirit. Lighten your load!

5. When you move items from one room to another, (the garage) in hopes of having a yard sale SOMEDAY!  This guilt will eat at you too. The whole process becomes overwhelming. You have to price stuff and organize it, publicize it; the list goes on and on. Where do you start? Suze Orman taught me this. Let go of it and bless others. Just set up a table and put a sign on it that say FREE! The items will leave so fast your head will spin.  Just wait and see.

6. What if you can’t do a marathon decluttering, then take it one day at a time; as one member put it. It is like an alcoholic in AA. You have to take it a day at a time, control the urge to hold on to clutter by letting go of a little each day. This is how I decluttered our home, one 27 fling boogie a day; sometimes two or more. We have also added 5 minute dungeon duties to help with the process. Our first suggestion is to get the main areas of your home decluttered so you can start to enjoy the peace that this affords you. This peace gives you the incentive to declutter more and more.

7. During this process, always get dressed and do your routines before starting to declutter. All it takes is 15 minutes a day of decluttering to make a lasting impact on your home and life. Establish your routines and include these 15 minutes each day and before long, you will start to see major progress.

So the bottom line is get rid of the clutter any way you can; marathon decluttering or with the gradual approach. I don’t care which you are using; keep in mind as you bring something home, get rid of two items. This will help control future clutter problems.  What ever you do, it is the consistency that will make the difference. Your routines are the stability that allows your home to come together. We have all marathon cleaned to get ready for company.

I call marathon cleaning, “Stash and Dash”!  When you are marathon decluttering, you are not stashing anymore. The clutter is leaving your home. I have one big warning in all of this. Do not crash and burn! Take plenty of breaks and don’t pull out more than you can put back in an hour.  THIS MEANS ONLY CLEAN ONE SHELF AT A TIME OR ONE DRAWER AT A TIME, NOT THE WHOLE CLOSET! I hope I can make this very clear to you! When we get into our all or nothing attitudes, this is when we allow ourselves to get overwhelmed by the whole process and give up!

I want you to put on your blinders and quit looking at the immobilizing job of the whole house and only concentrate on little bitty bites at a time. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME ON THIS??? This attitude is what got your home in the shape it is in! It is called perfectionism.  All of us have it!  Let go of it and learn to FLY!

Be aware that decluttering is contagious!

Are you ready to FLY?

FlyLady

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