Clutter, not mine. By Flickr user tallkev (CC BY 2.0)

Clutter, not mine. By Flickr user tallkev (CC BY 2.0)

We had a decent to do list this past weekend, and we actually got a good portion of it done. Not everything, mind you, but I’m always overly ambitious when it comes to what I want to get done.

One of the tasks for Sunday was to finish cleaning up the upstairs. (We have an odd house in that the main living areas are upstairs, and the bedrooms are downstairs. Such is life in a house on a downhill lot.) I thought it would take a half hour or so, tidying up the organization projects from recent weeks. Well, one thing led to another and we just kept decluttering. We spent multiple hours at it, and got the place much tidier than I thought we would. I still need to finish tidying my desk areas, but the house is so much cleaner.

Decluttered areas make me feel so much lighter. My mind is clear to think, to create, to do. When I don’t have to clean up an area before using it, I’m much more likely to use it. A clean kitchen causes me to cook. Clean work spaces cause me to get things done. Clean craft areas cause me to craft.

Lifehacker had an interesting article on decluttering a while back. It talks about how clutter affects your mind, and how it really is physically painful to get rid of things. Decluttering isn’t always about purging items, but when it is, it’s an even more difficult task. I’ve held on to a lot, and some of it has specific baggage attached to it. Dealing with it is no small task, and it’s quite emotional for me sometimes. But it still needs to be done.

We’ve been working on organizing the house for about a year, and we’ve made some significant progress. I never would have gotten this far on my own. Rory’s a great organizer and leader in this regard. We have a way to go yet, but ideally we’ll have the place in “sure, we’ll give you a tour of the house” shape before the wedding this summer.