The Impossible Dream to Clean

February 25, 2013

As the winds of March begin to blow, I want to open my doors and windows and allow it to sweep away all the clutter my house collects. If only it were that easy. The Library carries books to help me reduce the "stuff" and become organized. This year, I am perusing several choices: 

• The Organized Life: Secrets of an Expert Organizer, by Stephanie Denton, contains checklists and step-by-step instructions on organization. The book is small and should be a quick read.
• Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff, by Lori Baird, has a quiz at the beginning to determine my "clutter type" – collector, concealer, accumulator, or tosser. I’m guessing I’m a combination of collector and accumulator.
• Eliminate Chaos, by Laura Leist, presents a 10-step system to organize both my home and my life. I’m thinking I’ll need more than 10 steps to achieve this goal.

There’s a book I found at the Library a few years ago. I liked it so much that I bought a copy: Organizing from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern. The book suggests that I create my own system of getting and staying organized. What I have come up with so far obviously hasn’t worked. Maybe this year I’ll meet with success.

To coincide with removing and/or reducing clutter, I’ve decided I need a change in mindset. The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essentials, by Leo Babauta, could help. The dust jacket says, "The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary – freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better." In a perfect world, once my house is in order, this book will help keep me from collecting new stuff.

~Bev F.
Parkville Branch