Some Call it Clutter

Escaped the cull.

We pack and carry with us so much stuff. Big items of furniture, clothes and toys are obvious and very heavy. There was that Kirby vacuum cleaner that did everything that I bought 30 years ago. It was excellent for rug shampooing as well as vacuuming. Until two years ago, I carried it with me from Texas to Kelowna to Victoria. Ruthlessness, seldom a quality I embrace, met my heavier, slower friend. Informed that parts were fewer and farther away, it remained in the closet. Before coming to Regina, my faithful friend went to a Junk collector. I had to close my eyes for that one.

It’s the little things that are more interesting. For instance, why have the bottle brushes been relegated to the back of the junk drawer? And will I really use all the little yellow twist ties from at least three packages of sandwich bags? How long have those batteries been in that drawer? Do they even have power any longer? (They are still all good) What about the two rolls of doggie doo-doo bags? I haven’t had a dog for absolutely years, and my grand-dogs I seldom see anymore. But you never know, I might need those bags again ~ some day. I found only one key. No idea what it was for, but it looked like a key to a door? Maybe? There is plant food and lightbulbs, scotch tape (in three separate drawers), and brown furniture markers.

Each of these big and little things has had their own purpose. A future need, a future project, a back up or maybe just a want to. Throwing things out has never been easy for me. Learned behaviour? I suppose so. At the same time, I don’t want to just store things. My great-aunt Elsie told me that having something just to store didn't make sense. Some advise I've tried to follow, not always successfully.

In this disposable world, it has been too easy to collect stuff and then store it. In junk drawers, basements, closets or, sad to say, acres of storage units. Learning to not save so much stuff has been an ongoing challenge. Divesting myself of pieces of my life has never been easy ~ except maybe for those little bundles of yellow twist ties.

“For it is not merely the trivial which clutters 

our lives but the important as well.”

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ordering Disorder

Novels, textbooks, and poetry in shelves, on mantles and under lamps. 

Odd gadgets, cutlery and paring knives in kitchen drawers, 

Clothing worn and still tagged, linens and towels in closets and drawers

Knick knacks gifted or purchased at random

All shapes and sizes, needed and someday purposes 

Classy personal computers

Shiny laptops that just come along for the ride

Cell phones in pockets, purses, iPads or tablets

the ultimate junk drawers containing 1000’s of pieces of junk mail, emails from friends and family, old bills, pictures swallowed up like socks the dryer. Emails and essays, bills and documents, photos, schedules and calendars neatly saved in categories and folders, filed and ordered.

So which is easier to declutter?

Books stacked around in loose categories?

1. Keepers,
2. Maybe keepers
3. Donate…..

My computers? 

Signed out and closed up, 

not a file or folder in sight ~

neat and tidy as possible!

“I like  working among ‘creative clutter’. 

It gives me a sense of activity and achievement.”

~ Fennel Hudson, A Meaningful Life - Fennel’s Journal - No. 1

Flight and Flutter

As I journaled this morning, 

I was challenged by

the many thoughts in my head

that flit and fly so fast 

I barely know I think them!

Like post-it notes, 

fluttering from 

fridge doors or walls

mirrors, cupboards or computer monitors

colourful reminders of things 

that, over time, leave me wondering 

“Now what was that note for?” or 

“I already took care of that ~

why is that note still there?”

and so it goes

from morning til night

in the spaces of quiet that fill my days

I see them in the front of my mind ~

some of them waiting for a message

others I can’t read.

I don’t put real ones up very often ~ too much clutter!

So does that mean my mind is cluttered?

Probably, sometimes a definite ‘yes’.

But they are all just thoughts.

Hmmm….I used sticky notes at work effectively…….

“Paper is brain interface.”

~ *David Gibbet

*Author of Visual Meetings: How Graphics Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can transform group Productivity

Even a Glance

 

Even a Glance

Nerves of steel that vibrate like the tension on his guitar strings when he tuned them too tightly, became scary. But Josh would not let them snap. What did his martial arts dojo tell him? “Breathe, Joshua. Breathe gentle control into your muscles. Push away the desire to destroy your opponent. Stand in your truth.” 

Standing in front of a full length mirror in his bedroom, suited up for his upcoming competition, he was his opponent. If he allowed even a glance past his image into the depths of his mirror, he lost focus. The computer screen beckoned him. His desk - strewn with a jumble of pens, pencils, notebooks, the model race car he was building and old food that had a brush of grey green; dry crusts of old pizza, made him want to snap. Let himself sweep it all away in one grand swoop. Not one that just put all on the floor, but had the power of magic behind it. Every bit of clutter would crumble and sparkle into dust. He wanted the same cleanliness around him that he felt in his practiced control. His grandfather, would tell him “Slow up, son. Just start in one corner. But make sure that corner is within your reach.” That pulled Josh back right away. He looked past himself into the depths of the mirror again. He knew even if he turned around, he would still have to walk across the room to get to the jumble on his desk. He’d have to pass his unmade bed, trip over his jeans that he’s left lying where he stepped out out them last night. He heard his grandfather’s voice again - or was it his dojo. “Feel your feet on the ground, son.That is where you start.”

“One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.”

~ Gustave Flaubert

Just in Case........

Little drawers

Big drawers

stuffed with perfect bundles

of organized clutter

tucked away

just in case but

out of sight

out of mind.

lonely computer cords.

forgotten project supplies.

fixit things squirrelled away.

neglected artist’s tools and paintings.

criss crossing through years 

of progress, plans and maybe’s

kept together for later,

someday or sometime.

“Just in case is the curse of packing,,,,,”

~ Alexandra Potter

'Has Beens' and 'Whats Are'

Rose Garden in Beacon Hill Park with deer fencing

Where do I start?

There is so much to do ~

I’m not sure I can tell

which one comes first?

Oh, not the housework ~

for that I’ve got a plan.

Do I always follow it?

Not necessarily ~ but

I call my disorganized clutter 

‘setting up visual cues’ ~

like readying the ironing board and iron

beside a small pile of laundry.

Where do I start?

1. The written word

2. Personal peering into my life with guides and anchors

3. Awareness of ‘has beens’ and ‘whats are’.

When will it be finished?

Like everything else in my life

it will be finished when

all steps and missteps zip past.

So I’m setting up visual cues ~

disorganized clutter appears with

puzzle pieces and paper turned and tossed 

on table, chairs and counters.

Where do I start?

There are so many pieces!

Begin with ‘what’s are’ and ‘what’s known’

to see this solitary race as beautiful!

“I make a project and I panic. Which is good, it can be a method. First, panic. 

Second, conquer panic by working. Third, find ways to solve your doubts.”

~ Eduardo Souto de Moura

Day One of The Five Days of Personal Archaeology

Filling out forms seems simple enough when any emotional content is removed. 

That is until speaking with a very Canadian voice on the phone saying - ‘And you will need to send us an official document stating when you left Canada for Texas and also when you returned to Canada from Texas.’  

My calm - sort of - reply - ‘From 20 and 30 years ago? What sort of official documents?’ 

‘Oh, an old passport, a letter of hire, ……’ At this point I tried not to stammer. 

‘But what if I don’t have anything like that?’ 

The calm, tiredly patient voice replied: ‘Well you could call the Human Resources office where you worked in each place and see if they still have anything on file.’

My head was swirling, thinking of all the boxes and a few files of saved papers. Thinking of all the times, in a fit of decluttering, I emptied files of what I had considered just more clutter. At the same time, knowing that a deep dive into the remains of a rampant decluttering might - just might - unearth the necessary paper work. Will this only take five days? Especially when the remaining four are work days?

Well, as Brené Brown, a vulnerability researcher says - ‘...draw deep on your courage’. For me, my courage has been so incredibly buried that even the thought of such an Archaeological Dig just about sent me running in the other direction. But what must be done, must be done. Gratitude? Grateful that I have some ruins to dig through - my 70 year self as well as boxes, binders and files

So, deep breath and here goes!

“It’s interesting to see that people had so much clutter 

even thousands of years ago. The only way to get rid of it all was 

to bury it, and then some archaeologist went and dug it all up.”

~ Karl Pilkington, An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington

Creatively Listing

One of the qualities for my Daily Planning is flexibility. Not the wet noodle kind of flexibility, but bending to the moment. This morning as I was mentally reviewing my day - weather included - there were just too, too many details in my head. There seemed so many, in fact that they were tripping over each other just creating a pile of wet noodles! So, I gave in. One more list can’t hurt.

One more challenge. Not a huge one, but I’d just like to get on with things and not have to fuss about all this stuff. I didn’t want another little scrap of paper jammed in my pocket or cluttering up my already cluttered cell phone. It’s raining, windy outside, and for Victoria cold! How do I do this day!? I stood in the middle of my bedroom by my small writing desk and thought. Aha! A solution. For years, a dry erase board has been incredibly useful for mind mapping. Two of them sit patiently on my piano. (Pianos make great easels, for things besides piano books.) Getting things out of my head and down on paper - or in this case a dry erase board - creates a sorting place for the jumble in my head. 

Now I have three lists (plus the one on my cell phone). All of my lists are in specific, visual places. They are not scrunchable. This new/old one is big and I get to use coloured dry erase markers. Being erasable is especially important on this new ‘list’. At night before bed, I’ll take the eraser to it, smudging all the colours so it vanishes just like all the events of the day. Each morning a new daily plan may be outlined if my head is all a-jumble with a busy day.

This ‘solution’ takes me back a bit ago to black or green chalkboards and coloured chalk. Cleaner and definitely not as dusty. Old ways of doing things, upgraded to this year’s models, are still very valuable. In this world of technology using hands on solutions with what you have at your finger tips (or on your piano) seems more difficult. Or maybe just forgotten. Literally unheard of for younger generations, especially the youngest.

“The best solutions are often simple yet unexpected.”

~ Julian Casablanca

Facets

Modest, yet many faceted ~

so goes the busyness of our lives.

Simplicity does not need flat, empty space but freedom from clutter and chaos ~ 

enhancements within the singular design of each life.

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”

~  John, Maeda, The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business

Amidst Clutter

I’ve been going through drawers today - actually I’ve been clearing clutter for the past couple of days. Moving furniture around. Bruising myself - just my finger but a ‘battle scar’ none the less.

In small spaces, one needs to use all the space that one can find. Initially I filled drawers and corners and...well drawers and corners...until there were no drawers or corners left to fill. This clutter clearing has put a new face on down sizing - at least in my mind. In the corners and crevices, I have found scrunched up plastic bags, plastic bags containing screws and bolts for some unknown thing I put together a long time ago, three bags (plastic) of coin wraps, another bag (yes, plastic) of match books - and of course electric cords for unknown electronic devices. In other words, the clutter that I’m clearing is of little to no use, although the matches would come in handy if there was ever a black out.

I suppose one point of this essay, is that clutter breeds - or we breed clutter. I do recall being amused, as a teenager and young adult, of all the plastic containers saved religiously in kitchens of friends and family - until entrepreneurs designed, produced and sold fancier containers. Now, we - I suppose I should just say me - save plastic bags!

More interesting was the drawer that I cleaned out in my newly reorganized second bedroom. This excursion into clutter has been like going through a box of old photographs, a slowly fading fascination in this digital age. What I found was a folder with tiny paintings, tiny pieces of personal vitality, that I had painted while trying to find my feet in the world outside of work schedules and nursing. They are definitely not high art, but they are a lovely part of my then budding creativity. There they were tucked in one of the drawers, lying quietly waiting to be rediscovered.

“You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer 

in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”

~ Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

Memories, Photos and Files

It seemed an innocuous pile of papers
beside another innocuous pile of papers.
removed from the file drawer sometime ago for the sake of ……..what was it?  ~

sorting?    

getting rid of old statements?
Papers connecting and collecting each month and each year……
the desk top not seen for at least two months, save for an edge or a corner or two.
So with finality, one paper or page ~ one file folder or old envelope
swept decisively in recycling or trash.
(Clutter can be filed neatly or disposed of.)

All the pieces of this one life connect in these files and memories,
yet another link in the memory and reality chain are years of photographs stores in boxes, suitcases, albums and in e-files - impossible to sort and file but lovely for a good, long browse.

“What I like about photographs is that they capture

a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

~  Karl Lagerfeld

Etiquette: Nature and Nurture

“Pick up after yourself.”

“Hang up your coat.”

“Leave no trace.”

“Pack it in - Pack it out”

Disconnected phrases yet...

useful outside and in.

A parent’s invisible voice clings to a child’s invisible 'self-only' 

that leaves a trail of disarray.

Hiking in forest, hills, mountains or plains, 

adults teach children reason.

Teaching transferred into house and home

creating trails of neatness and prevents clutter ~ 

a lesson I’m still practicing!

“Etiquette is the science of living. It embraces 

everything. It is ethics. It is honour”

~ Emily Post

Vision and Story in Rags

Today was spent culling clutter throughout my house. It seems a regular, ongoing task. I really don’t know where the clutter comes from.

Most of it today was old clothes - clothes worn for work, or play, and some warm cuddly night clothes. Whatever they were, they were my favourites. I look into the box where I store all of these pieces of fabric and think of quilts that could be made of precious scraps, old soft cloths that would really do a nice job cleaning my glasses, or rags that would make really wonderful dusters. Looking at the tags, all these clothes have come from Great Britain, China, Taiwan, Canada, United States - really all over the world.  

As my hands cut and folded the worn clothes, I thought of the person behind the creation of each piece. Every step in the process of making any clothes required vision, creativity and plain old elbow grease.

For each person involved, money changed hands. For some the only vision may have been money in a bank. For others, it may have been grocery or rent money. Still others may have had a design in their head waiting to be made real. Some may have been really proud of handmade workmanship. And still others may not have cared for anything other than paying a piano teacher. Last, but not least, pride in growing cotton or raising silk worms is far from my closet, but at the beginning of the creations.

Whatever their reasons, and however these people participated, I have enjoyed all of their talents. I am grateful for my little box of memories - pieces of fabric that tell me a story each time I open my box of ‘rags’.

“When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.”

~ Chinese Proverb