Survey #164 Response from Anonymous user
| What are your most compelling reasons to reduce clutter and/or to get organized? These may include your personal goals, work objectives, plans, fears, physical limitations, lifestyle choices, family history, etc. | I would like to be able to move through my space easily and have the work areas I need. |
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| What external factors drive or support your organizing efforts? Think about positive or negative signals from outside yourself that influence your desire or inclination to declutter and organize. (Examples: pressure from your spouse, stuff inherited from elder family members, a need to work from home, etc.) | There are no external factors that support my efforts in a positive way. There are, however, people who rudely announce, "You have too much stuff!" Many of these people have just as much stuff as I do, but three times the living space I have. Rather than motivate me, these comments make me dig in my heels in determination to prove that I don't have too much stuff. I end up finding ways to keep everything. So far as inheritance goes, I lived with second-hand stuff all my live, then inherited nice things after I was too old and weak to move furniture. The nice stuff sits in a locker. |
| What internal factors support your organizing efforts? Think about positive or negative thoughts or feelings that influence your desire or inclination to declutter and organize. (Examples: the urge to start a new hobby, feelings of guilt or shame, a desire to share your surplus with people who need it, etc.) | Shame is an issue, because of the criticism from others, especially people who call themselves minimalists and assume that everyone should live that way. I am still struggling to declutter after my spouse who died leaving a mountain of stuff to sort through along with the stuff from three other estates, so I am overwhelmed with the physical work of it. All attempts to clear my space result in a bigger mess, of course, which causes me to become more of a hermit because of the criticism from others. I don't want anyone to see inside my house. |
| What is the most exciting way in which your life will be different when you achieve your organizing goal(s)? | I will be able to move through my space freely and accomplish tasks in less time. I might be able to let a couple of trusted, non-critical friends in. I doubt that I will ever achieve the spacious, minimalist look so long as I live in a home as small as this one, but having only what I want and need will make a move to a home more suited to my lifestyle easier. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | I think I inherited a sloppiness gene, at least a packrat gene, from my father's side of the family. My cousins all struggle with and joke about the same problem. Do either of you see a sloppy or tidy gene trait you inherited from your families? |
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