RESOURCES: Three myths about decluttering and organizing

Image courtesy of Creative Commons, used with permission from TrixSigio

Clutter – and aren’t the types increasing every day? – are one of the worst things for us chronic illness warriors. Yes, clutter and excess “stuff” is bad for everyone, but for those of us who battle fatigue and pain 24/7, it’s even worse. We don’t have the energy to keep up with basic tasks like the dishes or laundry. How can we be expected to keep all the crap that comes into our homes under control?

There are ways to keep control, though. Overcome the hurdles.

1. Understand there’s no need to have hours and hours to declutter. The key is to start. Start somewhere. Start anywhere. Then plug away.
2. You can buy cute matching containers or devise a complicated color-coded system, but it’s not necessary. Ordinary, common items like banker’s boxes (or ones from Amazon – we all have those lying around!), are perfectly useful for getting your life in order.
3. Know that decluttering and organizing never stops, because the things coming into your house never end. Understand that even after you’ve separated important papers from recyclables, more important papers will appear and way more recyclables will turn up like clubbers at a free rave.

Now, this sounds extremely simplified. It’s not. And yet it is. If you keep these three things in mind, and base your efforts on them, hopefully you can dig out from underneath the mountains of stuff threatening to overwhelm us every day.