|
The Organized Life archives
Be Your Own Most-Honored Guest
Dear Subscriber,
Do you have a hard time motivating yourself to get organized?
Sometimes it seems like the effort to sort through the piles and stacks is just too much, and that it's impossible to know where to start. "Why bother?", we might say to ourselves, "Who is there to see the clutter besides me?" And of course the subtext of that thought is, "...and I don't matter. It matters more to me what a guest might think than how I feel in this space."
But a decluttered space is an important form of self-care and self-respect. The better care you take of yourself, the better you will be treated by everyone around you.
The truth is that you live in your space every day, so you matter more than anyone else who comes into it. You might even think of yourself as your own Most Honored Guest.
Just think about what happens when you're expecting company. If you're like a lot of people (including me sometimes), you try to hide your mess, because you want your guests to respect you. You want them to think you're someone other than who you secretly know yourself to be: a person with clutter. So you pick up the piles and shove them into a closet or out-of-the-way room.
Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Of course you know that's not the way it really works. That "unseen area" is now behind a door that you can't open once your guests arrive. This little fact lurks in the back of your mind.
Plus, maybe you've already started sorting the various piles, but now they're all together in one big jumbled mess, and you'll basically have to start over again later on. And it makes the closet or room you've stuffed them into essentially unusable even after your guests leave. Is there something in there that you'd like to get at? Welcome to your own personal Big Dig.
And finally, clutter attracts clutter. Since all that stuff is in there anyway, what's the harm in throwing a few more things on the pile? It's really disheartening to take a peek behind that door now. You've created an entirely new Monster in the Closet.
It's just a plain old bad idea to keep on living in a situation where you honor your guests more than you honor yourself. So I suggest that you begin to treat yourself as your own Most-Honored Guest.
Who would you love to have visit, if only your place looked great? Your best friend? Your family? A few work colleagues, or friends from the gym? Just think how great it would be to feel relaxed about this, no panic at all, just part of your everyday routine. To casually say, "Want to come over?" What a relief to know that your place essentially looks great, and with just a few minutes of tune-up can be ready for company, with no piles stuffed into the closet.
So, to begin, go to your front door and enter your space as if you are a guest seeing it for the first time. How does it look from the doorway? This will tell you which area you need to tackle first, and suggest a plan of attack. Today, right now, start to whittle away at the clutter that confronts your eye when you enter the space. Once you feel that the view from the front door is pleasing, keep moving slowly through your home (or office), assessing the view as a guest might, and clearing the problem areas one by one.
As always, set a time limit for your clutter-clearing activities. Boundaries are important when you take on what might be a huge and emotional undertaking. I suggest setting a timer for a half-hour to begin with; I think you'll be surprised at how fast the time will pass, and also at how much you can accomplish if you really give yourself over to it without allowing anything to distract you. If the phone rings, let the answering machine get it. If you have kids, make sure they're settled so you can have the time to yourself.
Slowly your entire space will come to be visitor-worthy, and each time you enter it, you will feel like your own Most-Honored Guest.
Until next month, happy organizing!
Sincerely,
Ann Bingley Gallops
The Organized Life
ORGANIZING DISCOVERY OF THE MONTH
High technology and its accompanying stuff have brought a whole new dimension of clutter to our lives. Every new item – camera, phone, anti-virus programs, etc., etc. -- comes with a software CD; the software gets installed on your hard drive, but you have to hold on to the CD in case you need it later. Soon these CDs can really start to pile up.
To cut down on the resulting clutter, dedicate a travel CD case to your hard-drive related CDs, and store the case with your office supplies. Depending on size, the case will hold as many CDs as you like (mine currently holds 20+), as well as software sleeves you might need to keep for their license numbers.
GETTING IN TOUCH
I’d love to hear from you. Please drop me a line with comments, questions, or suggestions for future newsletters.
Ann Bingley Gallops
The Organized Life
ann@theorganizedlife.net
www.theorganizedlife.net
646-382-3878
**************************************************
Copyright 2006, Ann Bingley Gallops
|
