Monday, July 18, 2011

Declutter: baby steps

I must quote my favorite organizing guru, FlyLady:
"Your house didn't get messy in a day, and it won't get clean in a day either."

(My Sweetie says Weight Watchers has a similar saying about how long it took the weight to get there in the first place.)

I am continuing my hour a day of decluttering the house-I-don't-currently-live-in.  The garage sale pile continues to grow.  This week's decluttering zone is the Master Bedroom.  You would think, for a house I haven't lived in for more than a year, there wouldn't be any of my stuff in the master bedroom.  You would be wrong.  I ventured into the closet today.  Items that are now gone: dark green shoe polish; a black velvet blazer I have never worn; 2 Halloween costumes; a flannel sheet that doesn't fit any bed in the house; and on it goes...

I invoked the above quote at the end of my hour: I am often so excited about the progress I am making that I am tempted to move into other rooms, to open more drawers and cabinets, to go out to the *gasp* garage.  But that is mission creep.  I am learning to identify when my clear thinking and feelings of success lead me to try and take on too much.  I start out with a good idea, but it grows and grows until it is just too much of a good thing.

I found one intriguing box in the garage but decided, "I can work on it another day."  Yay!  No mission creep.  Just slow, steady progress.  Baby steps, so I don't burn out on this.

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