The Clutter Fairy Weekly #134
You and Your Stuff: Crafting a Philosophy of Decluttering
Decluttering feels like working your way through the maze of your relationship with stuff. Wouldn’t it be easier with a map? Our five-part series will guide you through drawing that map—your personal philosophy of decluttering—by examining your relationship with stuff in terms of values, priorities, positive and negative emotions, habits, behaviors, ethical and social questions, and practical approaches to change. In episode #134 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly, Gayle Goddard, professional organizer and owner of The Clutter Fairy in Houston, Texas, identifies key concepts to consider as you craft a personal philosophy of decluttering.
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The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.
Your Home Manifesto
This week’s assignment is to write a personal manifesto for your home—a sentence or brief paragraph that expresses, “This is how I want my home to support my life”:
- Write down a list of key values, goals, roles, priorities, talents, tastes, and so on, at the heart of who you are.
- Write one or more statements to reflect how your home might support the values, goals, etc. from your list. (For example, “My home contains a clean, organized, and well-stocked kitchen to support my role as the chef and planner of meals” or “My home is serene and restful so that I can enjoy weekends and evenings away from my full-time job.”)
For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.
My home is a quiet and comfortable haven for me to write, paint, and be with my husband. It is filled with books, various places to sit, good light, art supplies, high speed internet, and a supply of ready made or easily prepared foods so that I can fuel up and get back to creating. It also has to be aesthetically pleasing, I write historical fiction so it’s kind of Victorian in feel — not minimalist, but the clutter must be below a certain level or it will distract me and wear me down. It needs to feel easy, warm, cozy, and supportive.
At the core of my heart, my role is a childlike Pirate Captain, standing firm on the deck of her mighty wooden ship i.e.,
my home.
Talented to search out the rare treasures of people with like-minded, simply organizing priorities as we share the values of planting sustainable, multi-level gardens that feed us all.
As I finally bring my ship to dock the waters are calm, restful, safe and inviting to just be in the shared space together.
Manifesto reflects = Core of my heart. Childlike.
Standing firm in clearing my clutter.
Organized priorities. Similar values. Sustainable lifestyle.
Calmness, safety and inviting for others to share.
My home is an inanimate thing and can do nothing of its own accord. I am the animate, sentient being in this relationship. The question then becomes, what can I do for my home to best serve my needs and desires? It may seem like a nitpick point, but I must look at it from this perspective to put the accountability squarely on my shoulders where it belongs.
As they relate to my home, my values are freedom and privacy. My goal is to manage my home so it is clean, well run, and well maintained. My talents are creativity and frugality. My roll is to be the Jill-of-all-trades. (I live alone so I take credit for all that is good and blame for all that not so good.) My taste leans toward simplicity with accents of ornate.
My manifesto is actually a list of habits to cultivate. Those habits include, but are not limited to, making the bed, drying and putting away the dishes, dust mopping the floors, cleaning the range top, taking care of paper clutter, and weeding the garden. As an added incentive, by focusing on these habits I will be honoring the memory of my very dear Aunt Nana. May God rest her soul.