The Resurrection of Romance

(Image by Bingo Naranjo from Pixabay)

 It's that time of the year again, the sun (when we see it) is at a level in the sky when, after the darkest days of the year, it suddenly illuminates not only the dust but also the clutter. Armed with my resolution to get more from less, I have felt compelled to start to tackle it once again.

This year I have not been alone in doing so, after signing up for a brief introductory online course run by two professional declutterers. It seems that such people really do exist, and their mission in life is to deliver people from being overwhelmed by too much stuff. 

Twenty-two years ago, when we built our own home, we were overly ambitious with the amount of storage space we created. Now, just over two decades later, we have filled every nook and cranny with all those items that might come in useful; walk-in cupboards and empty bedrooms are overflowing and our "minimalist mansion" has become a cluttered cottage with floorfuls of excess. It's not the way we want to live but the clearance required always seems too daunting to ever complete.

Previously, however, it seems that I have concentrated too much on the disposal of items. For instance playing the Mins Game where you throw away one item on the first day of the month, two on the second and so on until there are thirty one on the 31st. Of course, once you have rid your home of 496 objects, it is all too easy to allow another 496 in through the back door over a period of time, almost unnoticed until January when the weak winter sunshine begins to highlight them. For somebody who doesn't even have a great affinity for stuff, it's all the more difficult to understand why I keep finding myself in this predicament nor why I can never bottom out the mess.

Thanks to the course from The Declutter Hub I have finally recognised that not only is the problem clearly of my own making which of course I knew, but that it requires a change of mind-set to overcome. Throwing away posssessions, even when of no tangible use, will not cure the problem if it is always easier to tuck away anything unwanted, (just in case it may come in useful further down the line) than dispose of it immediately. If I place no value on space on shelves or inside cupboards, I am only ever going to fail as I repeatedly clear only sufficient to rapidly fill them up again. There is a limit to how many empty cardboard boxes, plastic lids for long lost containers, pieces of string and miscellaneous widgets any household needs not to mention the surfeit of stationery, books, paperwork, crockery and clothing. My problem comes in our failing to recognise exactly what the limit is.

Last week forced me to come face to face with the reality of the situation: my clutter represents an act of retaining the past in expectation of a future need whilst completely ignoring the present. Space and the organisation of  things have to be more valuable than the stuff that is depriving me of that space and making its organisation overwhelming. So having less is not about reducing possessions per se, but instead about placing a value on and appreciating the benefit of regaining the ambience of a tidy, well-administered home, fit for retirement. There is nothing that saps the energy more than having to tidy in order to clean. What too can be as dispiriting as putting down something and then wasting what feels like hours looking for it, only to discover it where you first started to search and attributing the oversight to the build up of clutter around it?

As an organised person who does have places for everything (just a few too many at the moment), I have always been able to embrace the concept of order; it's just the volume and tidiness that I have struggled with. However, having been firmly told that decluttering is a marathon and not a sprint in which you must start small to build up your muscle power, I finally feel that there is scope for a new me. Simply tidying a few drawers and throwing out only that which we know we shall never use again, is sufficient to spur me onto greater effort. For instance learning how to fold to file clothes rather than stack them has been revolutionary and even Mister E is on board with that one, swearing that he'll never remove  a T shirt from his drawer again for fear of upsetting the order and having a sneaky practice at folding for himself!

In fact he was so inspired that after undertaking his own quick tidy up this morning, he took me out this afternoon. 

In light of the restrictions there are not very many places we can go but Schedule 3A, Part 1, Section 2 (1) (i) The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020, as amended, clearly states that it is a reasonable excuse to leave the place where you are living in order to visit a waste disposal or recycling centre, and that's exactly what we did! Who said romance was dead?