Survey #234 Response from Terry J
| Pronouns | She/her |
|---|---|
| Express your gratitude for something in your home that you plan to keep indefinitely. How does it support the life you love? | I love my beads and beading supplies. I enjoy wearing my beads, displaying them and the friendships that have come from my beading hobbies. Beading supports my values of being creative and keeping my mind agile by trying new things. |
| Describe someone or something that has helped you on your decluttering and organizing journey. This may be an idea, a story, a person, a book, a resource, etc. | So many Clutter Fairy ideas - a few that come to mind 1) taking care of clutter now rather having to deal with it in a crunch of when your capabilities are diminished. Stories of people that had to do it later and quickly made an impact 2) having a vision of the life you want to be living and removing what doesn't fit that vision - as opposed to throw out as much as you can 3) everything counts, give yourself credit for the little things you accomplish (and do the little things like taking things regularly to donations, etc). So many more, these just come to mind first. For ideas from other folks - Dana White and the idea of "take it there now". It makes such a difference - every single thing you "take there now" is progress in the right direction. And even if you get interrupted, something (or many somethings) are done. She has lots of good common sense ideas including the benefits of donating vs. other channels. Also, the "container" concept, you can keep what fits in the container - it's not if it brings you joy or it's valuable or who gave it to you, etc. If it fits in the container, you can keep it. Her stories of her struggles to develop these concepts really made me feel she's "one of us", she struggled just as we are struggling. From almost everyone - the idea of doing the dishes regularly so every "decluttering" effort is actually decluttering, not dealing with a backlog of dishes. And cooking is just cooking, not washing all the implements needed to cook and serve. Along the same lines, do laundry regularly - it makes such a quality of life difference (and also helps to see where you have too much of something and need to pare down). |
| Describe something that you’re grateful for having been able to declutter and release from your life. | Many many books. I especially felt relief when I Marie Kondo-d all my readily accessible self-help/improvement type books. I spread them all out on the floor and realized no way I was ever going to read all these books (let alone put the ideas into practice). So I selected a handful that I kept and donated the rest, many never opened. I wouldn't have said that they were weighing on me, but I definitely felt relief when they went. |
| Identify something in your space for which you feel grateful, but which you’d consider releasing so that someone else can enjoy and appreciate it. | I have a lot of crafting and related books. There was a store near me for many years that had an amazing remainder section. I had multiple interests - vintage jewelry, beads, polymer clay, quilts, knitting, etc. so many books intersected with my interests and I built up quite a collection. I've tried to narrow my fields on interest and declined to acquire new hobbies. So I've donated almost all books for certain hobbies - ex. knitting and quilts. But I still want to release more, mainly so i can use that space for other things. One problem I have is I get into a cycle - here's my thought cycle - I look at crafting/jewelry Book A and think I can release it. - But there are some really nice images, they are pretty inspiring. - Maybe I should just flip through it, maybe there are images I want to capture either for inspiration or for some mixed media thing I have in mind to do. -But I've had the book for many years and never looked through it. - But I have more time now, maybe I will look at it - I could put it by the TV and flip through it during commercials where I'm now scrolling on line. - But you've put books in that room before and you've never looked at them. See my brain spinning and spinning and the the verdict is still "undecided" after all that energy expended. How to release them - ex. give to friends, donate, etc. - is a whole other question. Unless I know a particular person would want a particular book, I think I really need to donate - so the "someone else" would ultimately be an unknown shopper. |
| 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. | None at the moment, I've been listening to many of the old podcasts - you cover so many topics! |
| Future topics | I like the idea you mentioned a while back of looking at other organizing books/etc - as you did with Marie Kondo. People attending the live sessions often bring up these other techniques/etc where they apply, so we get a hint of it, but a more dedicated look could be useful. |
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