Clean Up Your Life on Oprah

Oprah had Nate Berkus and Peter Walsh on as guests to present a clean up action plan.

First up was a family who suffered the loss of a dear child to cancer 5 1/2 years ago. They could not bring themselves to let go of objects because they did not want to lose the memories each object had. They felt that it would be a betrayal.

Peter Walsh said that this is very common. Nate mentioned the loss of his partner Fernando in the Tsunami. He could identify with this and said he realized that people aren't things that memories are much stronger.

Peter suggested that you focus on the items that have the strongest positive memories.
He presented a three step plan:
1. Remove all items and place outside.
2. Select the items with the strongest positive memories.
3. Place/sort items into piles for charity, keep, and memory (strong positive memories)

All stuff has power over you whether it is positive or negative and uses up energy.

Oprah clarified the objective as move on, move forward, but keep or hang on to the memory inside your mind.

They cleaned up and had the bedroom (that belonged to the deceased child) changed into an office.

Peter then mentioned that 70% of the population has to deal with clutter.
The next segment was about a family of seven, five children, a stay at home Mom, and a Dad.

They took a camera tour of their home. Clutter every where, things not put away, dining room table filled with stuff (last time they ate there was 2 years ago), and disorganized closets, as well as clothing thrown in piles everywhere, and food or dishes in bedrooms. The wife said she loves to scrapbook and her stuff was all over the place. The husband called the scrapbooking stuff kah-rapp. (Shocking and unsupportive, I say!)

The philosophy is that cleaning out clutter equals a better quality of life.

Peter asked if they had regular routines or house rules.
They said no. He said that the parents had to model the behavior to avoid such chaotic circumstances.

The first cleaned out the garage as it was eight years since they put a car in it since it became a dumping ground.
Peter suggested a F.A.S.T system 5-10 minute clean up.
F = Fix a set time to clean up and get organized.
A = Any thing not used or worn in a year get rid of.
S = Stuff that does not belong, get rid of, or classify/organize
T = Toss stuff in the trash
Have a vision of your space, purge, organize.

Have a plan on sorting and designating s.

Rule: If you bring one thing into the house (or buy new clothing) get rid of one thing so you are replacing items, not creating storing items and having the accumulation take over.

Too much clutter equals less productive activity.

What kind of life do you want? What do you want to keep in a room?
Do you want to be taking care of things or make time for people?

The lady got a nice desk for all her scrapbooking stuff from Crate and Barrel and she was happy it was all in one place. She was told to limit her stuff just to keep the space organized.

Now that you read this, get busy! Get organized!

Peter Walsh Designs