I once had an Aunt and her home was always company ready. You could have rung her bell at any given day or time and she greeted you with a smile and she would have a piece of cake in her freezer ready to thaw along with snacks while we waited. Her house was always company ready. Everything had a place and the closets were perfect. You could tell by her home the type of person she was. Very loving, and welcoming.
I also am loving and welcoming and do keep a decent home but in no way am I my Aunt.
I am trying very hard to be more like her however.
My Aunt never was not able to find her keys when she was leaving the house. They were in the correct place. She didnt save takeout containers like I occasionally do. She had nice stackable storage containers, and all sorts of cupboard lazy susans and wracks.
She bought the amount of clothes she needed. I open my closet and cant decide what to wear because things are just jammed inside. I am sure there are things I completely forgot are in there.
Why do I do this? Why cant I be more organized?
When you are organized it makes life so less stressful.
When you can find what your looking for it makes life so much easier.
It does not have to be to the extent of my Aunt but I sure would love to be.
I think a lot of it is emotional clutter. I think we all get so busy and just put things down and rush around to make it livable and not necessarily organized.
I think sometimes we get so overwhelmed with our lives that we just dont know where or how to begin organizing everything.
Tell me where do you need to work on decluttering?
Are your closets cluttered and you just cannot find what you are looking for?
Are you putting food in your body and cluttering the ability to be healthy?
Are you overspending and cluttering your financial life?
When we work on decluttering we are then able to open many doors. We can let people into our homes and lives with pride and we can see the picture more clearly.
Lets all of us great ladies join together and make a vow we are going to begin decluttering.
Please join me.
Please tell me your thoughts.....
Hi, and thanks for creating this! I too am 51, a homemaker looking for for the next big project. It could be going back to school, or starting a business, just don't know. What I do know is that until I get rid of the clutter in my mind and in my life, I can't move on. My desk has papers, my coffee table has papers, my dining room table has papers, and my bookcase has papers. I have a 'to file' stack, a 'to do' stack, a 'make a recipe folder' stack, etc. You get the picture. Every morning I get up and see this stuff, I just want to throw it all away! If it's important I'll get a notice in the mail, right? WRONG! What I want to do is get in the habit of handling a piece of paper only once, but with so many, that would be impossible. As Lucy of Peanuts would say, "Aghhhhhhh!".
ReplyDeletethank you for responding. I think we are just so busy at this stage of our lives that we get overwhelmed. I plan on doing another blogradio show Im hoping either Friday or early next week with my advice on how I have handled the clutter in my life. I will post when it will be on and hopefully you will listen. I have found websites like flylady.com to be so helpful as well as an author named peter walsh...he has many books on both emotional and household clutter. Im a huge fan and he has a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network which is also a favorite of mine. hang in there...we all get overwhelmed....together we can take baby steps .... we can do this...
ReplyDeleteDonna Ryan
ReplyDeleteListen to "Getting Rid of Clutter" hosted by donna marie ryan on 2/7/2011 10:00 AMEST #BlogTalkRadio http://tobtr.com/s/1525681
This sounds great. I'm too working on shedding the things that I don't need any longer for the things that I want.
ReplyDeletehi buttercup...getting rid of the past gives us space for bright new days in the future....hope you get a chance to listen to the blogshow. thank you so much for writing and good luck on the journey!!
ReplyDeleteyou ladies made the first important step in being willing to consider you have clutter physically that impacts your mental and emotional well-being! congratulations!
ReplyDeletemy new project in life is to transition to a new career. it must involve creativity and design. a baby step i have taken is to work on a portfolio of home staging projects.
i noticed that in spite of being enthused it also brings up emotions. as one moves forward it always means letting go more and more of "a past" which is only a group of emotional images one keeps in the mind...i'm learning to become more mindful of what i choose to see in the future vs the past.
btw...i do offer some free services for use of your photos (anonymous) it entails downloading "before"pix to me for commentary and then you can act on my suggestions and download the "after" pix.
you can find me on FB: pl design therapy
meantime: i find cleaning/organizing is like going up into an attic and finding a precious special something one tucked away for a time like this. and the time is now! xox
Hi Ladies,
ReplyDeleteI too am a 50+ lady with many ideas for little projects... i am often alone and will get immersed in what I am doing... then a day or 2 will go by and I look around me... whoa this place is a tip then I go around putting everything away. I am the guilty party of course. I am getting better at this one though, thx to Flylady and her gals.
As for the little projects, you have hit the nail right on the head there. Slowly going from room to room and moving the piles to my office.... and yes I am dealing with them one by one. At least the rest of the house is presentable and I do have a system going to go thru them... just not an instant fix for some....
I am constantly on the look out for ways to simplify our home and make it if not maintenance free, easy maintenance.
Thx for opening this and I do look forward to visiting here often to see what others have to say.
Hi Heather...I thank you so much for writing on the blog. I feel the age of 51 is a wonderful place. In my life I lived with chaos and clutter enough....this second half is going to be filled with fun and laughter despite the situation. Dreams can still come true for all of us. I hope you keep posting and together we can all make this chapter the best one yet...
ReplyDeletePia...thank you for writing....future dreams can only come true when we let go of the past. the past needs to be our memories....it sounds like you are making many new ones.....
ReplyDeletethank you so much for posting...I hope many people see it and check your site out as well....
visit us here as often as you would like...!!