Liz, a friend of mine, e-mailed the other day saying that I had "gotten to her" ... in a good way. That my efforts (small though they have been so far) to de-clutter my house and my life had her thinking she needed to do the same thing.
But she was feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all. And I agree whole-heartedly. If this was an easy thing to do, we'd all have done it by now, right? You either have to be at a breaking point where you just can't stand it any more, or you have to start small and just do a little at a time. Chip away at it.
While at the Kennedy Space Center last week, we watched an IMAX film about the Hubble Telescope - at one point an astronaut (amazing people, by the way) had to unscrew about 30 small screws - while on a space walk in his space suit - like doing it with oven mitts on. A challenge to say the least. He said the only way he could approach it was by being zen about it - one screw at a time. Don't think about what is coming and don't think about what you've done. Just do them. And I think that's how you have to approach any task that seems overwhelming. One screw at a time. Don't look at the whole thing or you'll be put off from even starting.
So just pick a drawer, a shelf or a box, and start doing it. Or pick a corner of your desk! If it's something you feel you need to do. If you don't feel that your life is too cluttered, by all means don't de-clutter it. Do what YOU have to do, not what I do.
The other thing Liz relayed was a paraphrase from the FlyLady - a woman who has a site dedicated to organizing and de-cluttering your life - she, Liz says, has a rule: "If you don't love it, why keep it". And this struck me. If I am going to buy anything else to go into this house, I think I'm at the point in my life where I can put a little more money into it and buy the one I love instead of buying the cheaper but still tolerable model. (Oh, by the way, I am CHEAP - it's something I've known for a long time - comes from being, well, not poor, but by no means rich, when I grew up, and having Scottish ancestors - but my friends now tell me openly and I accept this as just the way I am. There are worse things I could be).
So: "one screw at a time" and "if you don't love it, don't buy it". That's the wisdom from the Flylady and the space engineers.
