Saturday, May 24, 2008

Clutter,Clutter, Everywhere

Those who know me know that I really can't stand clutter. It's weird, and hard to describe. I feel less organized for sure, when everything is all over the place, and things are piled up in areas all around my house. I also can describe the feeling as frazzled. It certainly is not a calm or peaceful feeling as I rush from pile to pile, searching for what I need at the moment.

There is a show that I have occasionally caught on cable called Clean Sweep. The premise is a design team and host go into someone's house to help them declutter it (ie:get rid of junk) and organize it to make it a less cluttered, moreorderly, and peaceful living space.

The people they select for the show really must be heavy pack rats. Because just looking at their home I have to wonder....do people really live like that? Did they go in and make it a whole lot messier for the show? The stuff is abundant and overflowing everywhere.... So the homeowners have to go through all their stuff and have a yard sale to make money for the renovations to make their house more organized and less cluttered.

The before and afters are just amazing. Their homes go from piles and piles of junk, to clean,clear, tranquil retreats. Just looking at the makeover makes me feel better, and I don't even live there! I wonder to myself if the homeowner's will keep it up.... or will they fall back into their old packrat ways.

So,what does this show have to do with me? Well we just finished up our third yard sale to raise money for our adoption. We had a ton of stuff donated to us from our Sunday school class. From this month of having a house full of yard sale items .... well my house is a bit cluttered. There is literally not one room that gives me that peaceful easy feeling. No, not one. So, it's time to work on getting rid of the clutter and getting the house back to normal. I am recommending to myself to start one room at a time. If I have just one room that is my little sanctuary, while I work on the rest of the house, I'll feel better.

So, it's a Clean Sweep at my house! Time to clean up and clear out!

2 comments:

Karen said...

As you know, I came home from our road trip with the determination to declutter and I have one piece of advice - do one room at a time!!

I have something going in almost every room at my house and it's driving me batty! Seems like there is hardly a place to step without stepping on or over a pile!

I know it's always worse before it gets better, but gracious, I'm ready for some 'better'!

And, on the bright side, I do see it coming along and it no longer looks like the 'thief' people came in when we weren't home ;)

Mamosa said...

I always wanted Clean Sweep to come to my house...but my husband would resist venomously. He is a heavy duty pack rat. I'm sure (I have 23 years of experience in living with a pack rate) that they don't come in and stage it. It would seem comical (to anyone other than myself) that God engineered our relationship, because in this area we are truly polar opposite. My sanity lies in the fact that our home is 4,800 square feet, with the entire bottom level being *his*. I'm pretty compulsive about not letting stuff pile up in the other 3,200 sq ft, but sometimes it just happens. When it does happen, I feel very unsettled.