[Beryl]

Hi Lost in Clutter,

I wrote you a reply in the other thread that you started. KT gave you excellent advice and I agree with her about not focusing on a household notebook right now, unless you are scheduling time to declutter . I'm going to give you another "method" for how to get started. As I said before, there are lots of ways to tackle this, so you just need to choose a method that appeals to you.

Because you're so overwhelmed, (understandably so!), maybe we can help you to focus.

Start with the areas of your home that are most distressing for you right now. If you can't choose one, here's an exercise to get you started: Take a paper towel tube or use your hands like a spyglass to narrow your field of vision and then scan the highly visible living areas of your home such as sofas, beds, chairs, counter tops, table tops, etc. Don't worry about stuff that is tucked away in the corners or behind closed doors. Pick one or two spots that you view through your "spy glass" that really bug you. If you can't settle on one or two, write each of the areas down on a separate scrap of paper, and then draw one out of a hat. Let this be your starting point. You can put sheets over all the surrounding clutter if it helps you to focus on just that one small area.

Pick up every item in that space, one at a time, and sort into these simple categories: trash, donate, stays here, goes elsewhere, not sure. Have a separate box or bag for each of these categories. Once the area is entirely clear, you can put back the items that should stay there.

Then you can put away the items that go elsewhere. If you aren't sure about where to put them, just keep them in the "not sure" box for now.

You mentioned lots of boxes of things that you can't decide what to do about, and it seems as if you are very stressed by that. It's really not such a bad thing! Right now, you are too overwhelmed to make decisions about the hard stuff, so don't even try. Just keep moving through the things that are easy to decide. If you're not sure about something, it probably doesn't have an immediate use right now, so you'll be able to get along without it for awhile.

Choose one spot in your home where you can put all the things that you're not sure about, and just get them out of your way for now. Once you've gotten some other things under control, it will be much easier to deal with the hard stuff, and we can help you through it when the time comes.

Choose one small area to start, and then post back and tell us what specific challenges you're having. We'll try to coach you through it.

Hope this helps!

Beryl

[dave]

Beryl, thanks for the tips!