The decluttering saga

It's been a busy week, and my apartment shows it. Or, at least, that's what I tell myself. However, I've been realising recently that having too much stuff makes it harder for me to keep my place, although not always in the ways that I expect.

Sure, having too much stuff means it's difficult to find places for things and get them away. If there are less hangers than clothes or less shelf space than plates, then things don't get put away, and the mess grows.

At the same time, as the mess grows, it gets harder to put away those things that do have homes. When things have to be stepped over and reached around, it gets harder to put everything away, and the mess grows still more.

However, having a lot of stuff also means that it's easier for me to not do the tasks that I need to do. With more clothes than I need it's easier to not do the laundry, since I don't need to do it to ensure I have clothes in the morning. With a lot of dishes, there's no need to wash the dirty ones since clean ones are still available for use. This really came into focus tonight when I came across a container of cutlery set aside by a houseguest that I didn't know about. It was so moldy and so stinky that I wound up having to bleach the whole thing. I realised, as I was elbow-deep in bleach water, that I had far too much to clean and, if I didn't have so much, maybe I would have missed those dishes and cleaned them earlier.

While I'm trying to make sure I have a bit of a stockpile of things on hand, I need to balance this need with the stuff that I have. The truth is, I do have a lot of stuff that I don't need, and that I doubt will come in handy even if TEOTWAWKI arrives. So, once I was done cleaning my stinky dishes, I started getting rid of stuff from the kitchen. I got rid of a whole bunch of mis-matched cutlery (especially the most stupid-tiny tea spoons that I've ever seen), as well as a set of Christmas cookie cutters. I also set aside 12 sets of boring and really cheap ikea cutlery only to be used when I have potlucks (and possibly to be gotten rid of soon, really), and left myself fibe sets of nice (albeit a bit mismatched) silverware - four for home, and one to leave on campus - to use for everyday.

I'm hoping to use a similar appraoch on the rest of my stuff. While I'd like to get rid of as much as I can that I don't need, I'm hoping to take the extra things that I want to hold onto and set them aside. This way, they're there if they're needed, but they're not cluttering up my immediate living space, getting in my way, and allowing me to go far too long without dealing with things that should probably be dealt with. Next stop? My bedroom closet, and the too-many sweaters that it holds.

For those who are interest, one thing that I've done is to frame a print-out of this freebie posterfrom ReadyMade, designed to, "eeimagine the populist poster art of the first Great Depression" (interesting mention of "first" there). It's not much, I suppose, but it's a nice reminder all the same.