The Art of Decluttering

Hey all!  Welcome back to my life.  It has been a rough couple of months over in the Lutz Family household.  However, we survived! In between my nervous breakdowns (yes, with an "s"), I have managed to cook, clean, work, and on occasion we have managed to go to church.  My topic of conversation today has to do with cleaning though, so let's get started.

If you step into our apartment on any given (unplanned) visit you will find a small 570 square foot living space filled with enough items that can safely fit into a 1,000 square foot apartment. Know the feeling? Well, if you do, I am sorry to hear that.  If you don't, welcome to my world.  If you are smart you will leave breadcrumbs to the front door so you can find your way out. Of note, the breadcrumbs might disappear as my dog likes to eat off the floor. So... enter at your own risk.

Several months ago I determined I needed to declutter.  Ok, nearly 5 months ago.   I bought 5 (I think?) tote bins and set about throwing everything in my kitchen and dining room and laying all over into these bins so I can sort through it all.  Keep in mind, 80% of it is mail.  While going through a long bout of depression and anxiety without meds what happened is what has happened frequently in the past.  I can't face our bills.  We do not make enough to pay them all.  The hardest ones are the medical bills.   I HATE opening the mail. It's always bad news.  So it sits and grows into piles. Collection letter after letter growing. I admit it. I have a problem. It is not an overspending problem, but more of a "I can't face the overwhelming responsibility of life" problem. It's not a "maturity" problem. It's a disease. Depression and Anxiety are real. I am a poster child.

Let's fast forward a bit.  For a couple of months I continued adding mail and other "stuff" into these tote bins.  I outgrew the bins and more stuff has begun piling up around me.  I was about to purchase more bins when my meds *FINALLY* kicked in enough for me to begin "facing the music", so to speak. How do you begin to weed through at least a year of your life? One minute at a time. It has taken me at least 3 months to go through 2 of the boxes.  I've made some phone calls here and there and set up some payment arrangements, none of which we can really "afford", but I will go through THAT topic another time.  I just keep reminding myself that God is in control, I am not.

Now I know some of you are sitting there and thinking "It took 3 months to go through 2 boxes? That's a ridiculously long period of time". How do I know you are thinking that? Because I think that myself every day.  Especially on the days I just can't deal with it and NO decluttering whatsoever gets done. There are more days of NO decluttering then there ARE days of decluttering. More "stuff" is piling up around me as I sit here and type this.  I could ask for and get physical help from friends. I have people more than willing to "hold my hand" through this, but the fact remains, *I* must do it and for the most part I am more comfortable doing it by myself. I could sit here and slam myself for the "lack of decluttering" I have done, but when I start thinking that way I remind myself of the two trips to Goodwill I have taken since this began.  The three bags of yarn I have in the trunk of my car to take to a friend's house to "gift" to her and some other friends that want it.  I remind myself that I have thrown away at least two 13-gallon trashbags of mail that was just junk mail, one Trader Joe's paper sack filled with catalogs and mail, and the 30-gallon trash bag full of so much "stuff" that was only worth going to the trash bin. So while it may not seem like a lot on initial view, it really was.

Now I know you are saying, how did all of that fit in two tote bins? It didn't.  What I neglected to tell you that in between all of this I have been watching youtube videos on the KonMari method of decluttering, based off a book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. These videos and reading parts of her book have inspired me to take some drastic steps on the days I am capable.  I have gone through all of my clothes.  Helped Scott go through his (had to explain the rules as we went along and let me tell you I was so impressed by his decisions!), decluttered my yarn, passed a dresser along to my sister-in-law and purchased an inexpensive streamlined chest of drawers (more my style and I love it!), decluttered my kitchen drawers and Scott and I both tackled our desk drawers.

Along the way, while watching some of these videos I was amazed at the amount of clothes that people have in their closets.  Even with all of our clothes put together before decluttering we didn't have even a quarter of what most of these people in the videos had.  I sort of felt my "poorness" of the last few years and it made me feel somewhat "less than".  But only for a few minutes.  Then I realized I had less work to do in my closet than those people and that made me feel fantastic. LOL.

I am definitely not following the pattern of decluttering as suggested in the book, because taking all of my papers (bills etc.) and dumping that all in the middle of the floor would cause an instant panic attack, nevermind the self-inflicting injuries that would occur just by me walking past this pile of papers at any point.  Seriously, I could trip on a piece of lint. That's another blog story though. With that being said I have been inspired to keep going.  It may take me the rest of next year to get through this small apartment, but I won't give up, only take the necessary breaks for my sanity.

Decluttering, it really is an art.  Do you have the necessary talent?