Do u have a dumping room or closet

amother

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 12:45 am

I have this one room particularly that attracts all the wandering items and toys from the house...I struggle with overcoming clutter and hoarding habits

I feel like such a failure because it's a tiring cycle

not even sure what I want to hear

Maybe that its norm even in perfect ppls houses

I have this taunting voice in my head that I will never be organized and chaos is my core

Sad

amother

Wine

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 1:00 am

I have loads of such places.
I'm doing yael wiesners declutter challenge and am up to day 16
So I've gotten rid of or out of my house
One plus two plus three plus four... Through sixteen... Items.
So I think ice done around 100 items so far.
It feels so good!!!!

And I'm inspired to listen to declutter podcasts.
So tonight I got my living room floor cleared, my laundry transferred, and cleared some extra supplies by putting them in a high deep cabinet (podcast suggestion.) I can see my bedroom floor!!! Woohooo!!!!!

It is such a mechayeh.

I hope I make it strong to day30.
I can see why pesach cleaning will be easier with less STUFF.

Ok, I'll get off my soap box.
Hatzlacha!!

amother

Apple

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 1:18 am

amother Wine wrote:

Wow! You're just like me, only I didn't start the declutter challenge and still can't see my bedroom floor!!!! Where can I find more info on this challenge?

amother

Salmon

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 2:26 am

Yup. It used to be my miklat, like every other neighbor on my street who did the same thing.

Well, that got cleared out very quickly on Oct 8th. It's now the 'warmest' room in
our home. We have pillows, chairs, candies and comic books in there.

All the junk was dispersed around the house.

amother

Chicory

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 2:36 am

Of course! I'm not the neatest and I have several. Totally normal. There's an episode of Friends where a really neat character has this locked closet and her husband is going nuts thinking of what could be in there, and **spoiler** it turns out to be her junk closet... This question makes me think of that Smile

. Maybe some really neat people don't have a catchall spot but I think many do. A closet is probably better than a room, because then you're giving up valuable living space you could probably use for other things. That's what I try to keep in mind when I work on decluttering. We don't really need a bigger house, we can make better use of the space we have.

amother

Honey

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 5:56 am

amother Wine wrote:

Where can I get information to follow this challenge?

amother

Apricot

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 6:13 am

a dump room or catchball spot is a form of procrastinating
it's a way of saying 'these items don't have a home'

ideally every single thing in your home should serve one of two purposes

1. clear functional use [costumes for Purim-not if you don't have kids who dress up though...]
2. sentimental or monetary value [your wedding photos or your bar of gold - um who has that?]

amother

Natural

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 6:20 am

amother Apricot wrote:

What about items in transition?
Where do they go?

amother

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 9:40 am

Thank you for all replies

Regarding declutter challenges, yes I've done those and that's why I feel so disheartened.

It's an endless cycle of falling back into clutter habits sometimes even with 1-2 yr break of being on top of things...

I agree that clutter is a form of decision procrastination . Also coupled with the fact of never experiencing norm organized environment and routine growing up so in some sense id need a complete personality or gene transplant.

I hover between being sick of mess and chaos and hating to be a slave to housework. my mom at least made peace with her extreme hoarding.

Does that resonate with anyone?

amother

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 9:42 am

amother Apricot wrote:

for hoarders everything has sentimental value. Sad

Rappel

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 9:44 am

amother OP wrote:

If you're in Israel, I'm currently taking a household management course with Batya Scharf. She's great at encouraging habit building, and how to analyze your personal situation, break down problems and create solutions. I highly recommend her

amother

Wine

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 9:55 am

https://yaelwiesner.com/pre-pesach-purge/
Her challenge is to throw out or give away items according to the gematria of the date in Adar. So today, yud zayin, I need to get rid of 17. You're supposed to do it with a buddy for accountability. (I'm not.). She sends a daily email reminder.
I work ahead sometimes and mark down, "did day 16, and 4 more."

I also checked out minimal mom and clutterbug because they were recommended on this site. I started listening to clutterbug last night. She sometimes doesn't use the nicest language, like she'll say ****, so I'm happy none of my kids were around.

She said that people are taught how to clean up their house, but not how to declutter, and washing dishes and doing laundry doesn't prevent pileup! She said deluttering needs to be done daily. If you constantly are trying to put away and hide things before friends come, you need to get rid of half of your stuff.
LOL

Other good advice I got was to declutter your hotspot (like a dresser, counter, table) three set times a day to a five min. Timer.

I also liked her or minimal mom (don't remember which) five Fs-
First work for FIVE minutes on clearing the FLOOR.... Maybe ill manage to learn those2 Fs well and be able to move on to the next 3 Smile

Anyhoo, gotta go and tackle Decluttering my laundry room!

amother

Chicory

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 10:18 am

I recommend A Slob Comes Clean- Dana K. White. She has a blog, podcast, and several books. I like to listen to them on hoopla (library app). Decluttering at the Speed of Life is good. I've made better progress using her methods than random challenges where I tend to lose steam.