Anyone who knows me (Hi mom!) will tell you that I am not a neat and tidy kinda girl. Which isn’t to say I wouldn’t LIKE to be neat and tidy. But being disorganized and cluttery (my new term, it makes it sound cute) is SO MUCH EASIER.
I mean, when you’re neat and tidy, you have to actually work at it. You have to clean things up and put things away and have a filing cabinet that you actually USE.
But when you’re disorganized and cluttery you can just dump the mail on the counter and then not think about it for weeks. Months even! You can hold on to pieces of a broken toy because there IS an actual chance that somehow, someday, you’ll find that other missing piece and then VOILA! The toy is fixed! Forget that it’s now three years later, that particular toy is totally age inappropriate and your kids don’t even remember the movie it’s from. BUT IT’S AS GOOD AS NEW BITCHES.
So, obviously there are advantages either way.
Except when you’re moving. Honestly, being a cluttery person when you’re moving sucks donkey balls. Like, MAJORLY.
Because instead of just packing, you have to clear shit out. YEARS worth of shit. Years worth of dusty shit, even.
I’ve spent the past three days “packing.” I say packing in quotes because most of that time has been consumed not with packing, but with figuring out what needs to be thrown away and what needs to be donated. I’ve actually packed very little. But I have filled my garbage cans with crap and I’ve taken an entire carload of shit to Goodwill.
And somehow my house is even more of cluttery mess than it was when this all started.
As I see it, I have two options.
1) Burn the entire fucking house down and make it look like an accident.
2) Figure out a way to be less cluttery after moving into my next house.
Neither of those sound like very much fun. Or like something I’ll actually be able to pull off.
I’m screwed.
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The last time we were moving (it happens often we’re a military family) my husband said “Let’s just have a fire sale” I said “Let’s just have a fire”
I’ve been trying to get stuff together for a garage sell so we have less clutter in the house. All I’m really doing is making more clutter by getting all this old crap out of storage and deciding its worth.
I’m the opposite. I’m OCD to a fault and I’m a nut about clutter. I’ll come over and declutter your house for you. I swear that should have been my calling. Haha
oooh, I love the term “cluttery” I’m going to have to steal it as I am the same.
Not sure how that happened since my mom is an utter neat freak.
Cluttery makes me think of cutlery.
I’m kind of an in between. I try to keep it all organized and clutter-free, but it’s hard to do with 3 kids so I tend to just give up.
go all “clean sweep” on the place. keep sell or get rid of, says the woman that can’t find her son’s DS for all the “crap” sitting everywhere!
I live in an apartment of cluttery goodness! There are piles all over my living room floor and boxes still lying along the wall from when I moved (16 months ago!!). It doesn’t help that I’m a professional procrastinator and keep saying I’ll get to it all tomorrow. Tomorrow has come and gone, a LOT, and there it all still sits, collecting lots and lots of dusts. I totally understand!
Getting ready to move myself…I could have totally written this. Also? Am stealing the word “Cluttery.” Describes my life to a “t!”
You and me, like peas in a pod.
And I’m stealing “cluttery.”
That word RULES!
I’m going to use it later this week. As in, “KIDS, CLEAN UP ALL YOUR CLUTTERY SHIZ!”
I vote for Peter Walsh! He’s that Australian guy who is supposed to be an expert in organization. I don’t know how much of an expert he is but I could listen to him talk for hours…
My first several “packing” days were spent throwing out crap. A lot of crap. I’m good at the cluttery thing too. Never bothered me before right now.
Reformed cluttery mess, here…. Know what worked for me? Get one bin, you know those big plastic deals? Throw all your junk in there throughout the week, month, whatever, all the stuff you’ll “deal with later” – then at the end of the week, month, whatever works with your life & schedule, go through the damn thing. Somehow it makes it easier to just go ahead and throw things away… It’s SOOO much faster, and keeps the junk from spreading through the whole house. Best part? When you have people coming over, you can go through your place like a tornado, gather everything up, throw it in the bin, and close the door – viola! Clean(ish) house!
Anyway, hope that helps…. Good luck to you!
Maybe this article from yesterday’s Chicago Tribune will change your hoarding ways. It’s about an elderly couple who had to be rescued after being buried under debris in their home http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-elderly-couple-trapped-in-home20100525-19,0,2946719.story
(I’m kidding about your hoarding ways….I know you’re nothing like these people. But it’s a crazy article to read)
Think we will probably share an episode of hoarders.
And? I’m stealing the word cluttery!
I say burn the house down…
One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds. BUY IT. Changed my life. Seriously.
I feel your pain! I moved a few weeks ago and brought some of the ‘cluttery’ with me in a box or two so it would stop spreading as I tried to sort it all out. Craigslist & freecycle were my best friends for a few weeks. Once you move it’s easier to maintain the new clutter. lol
I am going through THIS EXACT THING and I feel your pain big time. I spent an hour ‘packing’ yesterday and really all I did was throw out a bunch of shit, add a few things to my ‘sell’ pile, and stir up a WHOLE bunch of dust. And when that hour was over, I think I had cleared 1% of the space in my dining room.
BOOOO.
My husband would be a hoarder if it weren’t for me and my sneaking things into the trash. I always knew his love for antiques, junk and thrift stores (even though he’s not gay!), but it wasn’t until we moved that I realized the magnitude of it!
You need an intervention or a control freak to steal your stuff and throw it out- trust me- you won’t miss it.
I am so in the same boat. I decided it was time for a change. Have spent a WEEK taking things totally out of the house so I’ll have room to organize what is left… can’t see any difference except the yard is now full of cr8p.
I’ll have to read the trib article. My excuse is that it is genetic! Not MY fault.
So- how many books and magazine articles are you finding in the clutter about getting organized? I have a large selection, plus Feng Shui books too.
Cluttery… awesome word! I am cluttery, so much so that I still have Christmas decorations sitting out. Granted it’s all piled on 1 table, but there the junk sits with some snowmen on sleds staring back at me. God help us if we needed to move again because packing would include lots and lots of “packing” as well.
You are so screwed if your house actually burns down.
Messies Guide To Good Housekeeping (book).
Author tells you how we are great people (Messy’s); often overachievers, perfectionism can be a problem and how we are often very caring and loving people. I am still a Messy, but at least I feel better about myself. (actually a great book, I’m just a tough nut to crack; I truly hate cleaning)