Survey #166 Response from Anonymous user
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Briefly describe who will benefit from your efforts to declutter and get organized, and how they’ll benefit. Think about members of your household, but also about the larger world—e.g., the people who’ll buy your stuff at a garage sale, the shelter residents who’ll get your donations, the next generation of family who’ll carry a lighter load, and so on. | My guests benefit. They don't have to look at it. I benefit it. I can have more guests and I don't have to be embarrassed. My child benefits. He doesn't have to clean it up when I'm gone. If I have a garage sale, the purchaser benefits. If I give some away, the recipient benefits. |
| Tell us about a memory of a person or incident from the formative years of your life that influenced your attitudes and emotions about belongings, clutter, organizing, or any related subject. (For example: “Grandma’s house was packed to the rafters with stuff.”) | When I was growing up, the house was clean and uncluttered. My father kept his clutter elsewhere so I never saw it or knew about it. But nobody taught me how to organize my stuff. I don't know where to keep things. I can't remember where I put the same thing last time, so if I have more than one Item om category X, then if I get another similar item, I don't know what to call it or where it belongs. Either I file it under a new name, or I set it on a table--usually the kitchen table, since that's where I come into the house. Now the table is piled with many categories and I don't know what the belonging-place of any of it. I can't put it away because I don't know where it belongs. I go to clear off the table and put everything somewhere and now I can't find any of it, perhaps because I was never taught to organize where things belong. Of course there may be emotional reasons for the confusion. I really don't know. I can help friends and kin to put stuff away, because THEY know where their stuff belongs. I need someone to tell me where my stuff belongs. Then I can put it there. |
| What is the strongest memory to which you feel connected by way of an object, such as a souvenir, photo, or keepsake? | I had a wonderful collection of Superman comic books from the 1940s. I KNEW it would be valuable some day. If my mother hadn't thrown it all away while I was at school, it would be worth a fortune now. My mother threw away my beloved friend, my Old Papa Bear, the Teddy Bear that my mother's sister had given me, the wise Teddy Bear who loved and understood me. I told him everything. . I collected stuff animals of all kinds (dogs, lions, tigers) into my seventies. I've gotten rid f most of them. I only have six or so stuffed animals left, including one huge bear. |
| 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. | Please tell me again the list of topics for filing. Buckets, I think you called them. I wrote them down but I don't know which of my fifty notebooks I wrote them in. That would be a start in organizing my twelve or so filing cabinets. I need to organize my file cabinets and notebooks. I try to separate them into categories (health; spirituality; recipes; bills; several other categories but I'm blanking on them right now) but by now I just grab whichever notebook has some blank pages. I'm thinking that it might pay me to pay Gayle to help me. I'm overwhelmed. |
| Future topics | Most of my clutter is mail. Much of it is from classes I learn in. The teacher gives handouts and I take them home and put them down somewhere. I don't know how to organize the papers. I need an email containing the names of the--what do you call categories? Barrels? Buckets? I need big bucket categories and also how to subdivide them. Example: medical. Naturopath. MD. Dentist. prescrptions. Physical therapy. Eye Doctor. Cardiologist. Supplements. (Is this the right way to break it down? Or do some of them go in a different Bucket?) Interesting Magazine clippings: Minorities, Religious minorities, ethnic minorities, Sexual minorities, homosexuals, gays, lesbians, trans-people, blacks, Latinos, Hispanics, Dark skin, racism, other category names that I'm blanking on just now. Notice that I have two or more names for the same thing, and some are filed under this and some are filed under that, because when I find a new one I don't recall how the prior ones were filed. Financial Information. Banks. credit cards. bills. utilities. many others whose names I'm blanking on. It's overwhelmingly confusing. the lmultiple names for each category is a monstrous ongoing problem. |
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