Oprah The Clutter Control Show

I watched and as promised took notes. Peter Walsh was the guest guru. He also does the show Clean Sweep on TLC (love that show as well as Mission Organization on HGTV) and has written a couple of "how to organize" books (below).

Here is a synopsis of the issue covered:

Seems America has a super sized mentality when it comes to acquiring things -- more is better.

(My reference: Suze Ormand always says, "People first, money second and things last.")

Things don't really make us happy.

One in ten people rent storage space. Our houses are twice the size yet we have half the family. A mention was made of a woman who stored her Mom's stuff away after she passed and paid rent on the space for 25 (approx) years. That is a lot of rent money. She never visited the place, just paid rent till it had to be emptied.

Two kinds of clutter:
1. I might need it
2. Memory clutter

All this stuff eventually takes over our lives. It robs our psychological, emotional and spirtual selves of quality time because we are taking care of the stuff.

The backseat of a car tells a lot about a person.

Clutter pushes love out of a relationship, and is replaced by the focus on the things and, thinking of them, then taking care (or not) of them.

The degree of disorganization equals a lower quality of life.

Some suggestions on controlling the messes.
1. If you buy something, get rid of something. Replace the old with the new but get rid of the old stuff.
2. When doing major cleaning, have three boxes or bags, "keep", "donate","toss".
3. If you have too many kitchen utensils, take them all out and put them in a box. If you need something, take it out and use it, put that one item back into the draw. After a month, what ever is left in the box, donate.

My thoughts: I ask myself when making a purchase -- Do I need this or want this? What will I do with it? Do I want to take care and maintain the item?

I try to get rid of stuff monthly. Before I had children, I did not have an issue but the children, they outgrow clothing or toys and this is what I am always putting in a pile then donating it.

I seem to like to collect a lot of reading material, books, magazines, newspapers, etc.
I need to organize and cull that more frequently than I do.

And there should be a rule about the papers children bring home from school! This is also a sore area.

Junk Mail -- I get piles of it. I heard the rule of "touch it once then toss" -- this is a good rule and has helped. I do save all the credit card applications and once every couple of weeks, open them then shred them, then toss.

Maybe, I should get rid of everything except the computer and accessories. I seem to like this the most but wait!, I would have to keep the vacuum cleaner also because the computer causes lots of dust.

Books by Peter Walsh (get them from the library to prevent clutter in your home)

It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan to Live a Richer Life with Less Stuff

How to Organize Just About Everything - in 500 steps!