This one is obviously going to be a life-long process, but I feel like I have been making some really good efforts in cleaning up my external and internal spaces lately. So I consider this item of my bucket list as being closer to mastery then it was six months ago.
I believe the big reason behind my success has been that we have been able to settle into a reliable routine. The funny thing is that we got to this point in a rather organic way. But I recently began reading through and do the challenges in Having a Martha Home the Mary Way by Sarah Mae. The basis of this book is having a more spiritual motivation behind your homemaking efforts. It is a 31 day challenge I guess you could call it. I'm only on Day 6 but I feel like I'm benefiting from the Mary challenges already. (I haven't started doing the Martha challenges yet because I'm already in the middle of a different cleaning assignment I've given myself of washing all our walls.)
Day 3 was actually about establishing a workable routine. I don't feel a need to change much of our current routine (other than my own bedtimes and wake-up times), but I still like what Sarah had to say about not seeing my routine as an hour-by-hour schedule and thinking in terms of "anchors" instead. These anchors are the activities that consistently happen everyday at about the same time. For us (and most people) these include meal times and (for our stage of life with little ones) nap time. (David is finally making the transition to just one nap at about the same time as Jon. I am soooooo excited!)
My point here is that having a routine in place helps tremendously with a level of mental clutter for me. I don't have to worry about what I need to do during any given day. I just focus on what I can do in working around the anchors of our day.
The next level of mental clutter elimination is the omnipresent To Do list. No joke, this is the best secret weapon for getting anything done. Now, not everyday gets a full list for me, but when I need it, I sure use it. Sarah Mae's Day 5 actually talked about this as well, but she takes it the next level. The big piece of advice she gives comes from Ivy Lee's Six List from the 1920s. Instead of writing down everything that you could possibly do in one day, you write down the six most important things you want to get done the next day the night before. Talk about decluttering if the To Do list is getting streamlined as well.
On the days that do have more going on or more that needs to get done, I've already been making ample use of my white board in the kitchen to make To Do lists. It helps me get the big picture of my day out of my head and into a visual form which then makes my head feel less cluttered. Sometimes I have to make these lists for the day the night before just so I can go to sleep without those thoughts running in circles in my head in an effort to not be forgotten in the morning. I really need to just get a small notebook and pen for my bedside table. I just haven't gotten around to that yet.This is probably because I don't need it all that often, but it would be nice knowing it was there anyway.
Now that the inner realms feel less cluttered it's time to address areas of physical clutter that I've been able to get under control. In Lessons from Madame Chic by Jennifer Scott there is a chapter entitled "Clutter Is So Not Chic". It contains this definition of what clutter is:
I think Jennifer goes more into detail in talking about clutter "hot spots" in her other Madame Chic books, but they are basically any spot that ends up accumulating clutter like a little magnet because of location and convenience. I've been able to tame some of my hot spots.Clutter is an accumulation of miscellaneous things that do not belong where they currently are.
My big examples are the top of my bedroom dresser and my entire craft room. A month or two ago the top of my dresser was just driving me crazy. I had several baskets containing odds and ends and they were getting close to overflowing and I realized that I really didn't need all of that stuff out at all. So I attacked! I kept out only the very basics of my toiletries that I use every day (lotions and scents, mostly) and I couple of other items I like to have easy access to (nail trimmers and a file and a couple other things). I then went the next step and made it pretty, because why not? It is so nice having a tidy surface to greet me whenever I get anything out of my drawers or just when I'm passing through when going about my day.
My craft room was another space that had just gotten ridiculous to the point where I wouldn't want to actually use the room for its intended purpose. I had boxes of stuff covering my craft table and things just weren't where they needed to belong. Plus the feng shui was just off with how the big items were arranged anyway.
So, after a solid day I was able to get the boxes consolidated and in the closet, got the tables switched around (the craft room also has my massage table in it), and things just tidied, and now it is a much more welcoming space. And just today I went another level and went through the boxes in the closet (I was looking for something among the randomness) and did some more consolidation and gained a view of what the next level of organization could be... maybe in another year.
Part of the clutter in the craft room was a stack of art that I hadn't gotten around to hanging. After being in this house for a full year, I finally got some of it hung. So that stack is smaller if not fully eliminated yet. I just don't have a vision of which walls they will go on yet.
Having a workable routine, a high comfort level with To Do lists, and taming my hot spots has brought more peace to me on more than one level. I look forward to continuing the Mary and Martha challenges as well as taking opportunities to live more chic-ly in creating the higher quality of life that I wish to achieve.
Hope you have enjoyed these bucket list reports (1, 2+3, 4). I've enjoyed making these improvements in my own life.
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