The Simple Act of Decluttering

Even now, one of my greatest struggles is with chaos of any kind.  Large crowds, too many people talking at once in a small space, too much happening within my field of vision, chaos in my workspace or living space… all of these things are harder to endure since my brain injury.  Wherever I can reduce chaos, it helps my state of mind.

“Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong.” – Marie Kondo

As I look at my desk right now, amidst the monitors, speakers, headphones, keyboard, mouse, and picture of my wife, I see a few receipts I need to file, a tax refund check I need to deposit, a water bill I’ve already marked as paid, and a rather intimidating pile of random correspondence I really need to sort through.  Oh, and as I’m looking closer now, I see our new package of bank checks that my wife asked me about the other day… I couldn’t remember at that time where I’d put them – obviously I didn’t put them where they belong.  There are a couple of books at my desk I’m not using, a notepad I haven’t touched in two weeks, and several other random things spread about.

This tells me that my desk is way too cluttered.  Clutter makes me uncomfortable because when I look at it and think I need to sort things out, it can feel more than a little intimidating.  There are too many things that I’ll need to figure out, too many decisions to make.  In the end, I too often choose to leave it for later.  This further complicates the issue, because in the interim, more clutter always seems to be added to these piles.

I could talk about all the many places I create clutter, but let’s just say that I’m at the wrong end of the minimalism spectrum. 

“The more you own, the more it owns you.” – Henry Rollins

For me, this statement seems especially true of clutter.  Today, it feels like a struggle just to carve out enough space on my desk to work.  I’d like to clean it up, but then I’d have to look through each item of correspondence and figure out whether to relocate it to an “Action Required” action pile somewhere else that seems to make sense, file it correctly or recycle it.  Then I see the sheer number of items in the pile and I’m suddenly feeling overwhelmed with the potential amount of time and effort that it will require.  I see the books on my desk, and know where they go, but I’ve already been beaten into submission by the pile of correspondence and don’t want to deal with that either.  So instead, I pick up a questionable looking tissue and throw it in the kitchen garbage as I pour myself a cup of coffee.  Then I’m back at my desk, things pushed out of the way enough to move my mouse and get to my keyboard, and I’m working again.

I do know that when I’m working or writing, a clear desk contributes to a clear mind.  So, I’ve made an executive decision.  I’ll take a break from writing at this very moment and declutter my desk.  I’ll be back when I’m done.

“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.” – Barbara Hemphill

What felt like it would take at least an hour to do, actually took less than ten minutes.  It’s a lesson I really should take to heart, but the next job I look at will probably feel disproportionately large as well.  However, I’ve achieved a solid victory for myself in this case.  On my desk now are my monitors, speakers, mouse and keyboard, and a picture of my wife – that’s all.  And it truly feels better.

This is a lesson that I’ve had imparted to me on many occasions in the past.  Every job seems much larger until I start it, and once I’ve finished, I realize just how small it really was.  For some reason though, I don’t always carry this way of thinking into the next bit of clutter that sits in the way of my progress.  And of course, what occurs to me after this small but significant victory is that I’m suddenly motivated to do more – but for now, I’ll focus on completing this post.

“One Piece at a Time” – Johnny Cash

The phrase “One piece at a time” immediately brings an old Johnny Cash song into my mind, clearly identifying the generation I grew up in.  It was a song about a man who worked in a factory that built automobiles; he brought an oversized lunchbox to work each day and, one piece at a time, snuck out every single part he needed to build his very own Cadillac.  The relevant point here being, sometimes a very big job needs to be broken down into many small jobs.

All that I’ve read of minimalism says that when we declutter our living space, it helps to declutter our minds – and this is something I can definitely benefit from.  I understand that true minimalism is not on my visible horizon, but the simple act of decluttering my space can have such a huge impact on how I feel and how productive I can be.

“A place for everything, and everything in its place” – Benjamin Franklin

This certainly describes the optimum way to keep our home and workspace, but it can feel unreachable for many of us.  Some cultures deeply embrace minimalism and are able to keep only what they absolutely need, but those of us raised by parents from the Silent Generation were taught through our upbringing to keep anything we might possibly need again sometime in the unforeseeable future.  While I understand that’s not how I want to live, I do still hang on to some things that I don’t necessarily need.

Balance is the real key here for me.  I’m trying to make a practice of donating or discarding that which I’m unlikely to need in the visible future, while working to create an organized, yet simple, storage system that works well for the things I’m not ready to get rid of.  This is critical, because with my less than stellar memory abilities, if I’m not careful, I’ll end up hiding things from myself – and that never turns out well.  There are at least three things I put away somewhere over the last couple of weeks and I now have no idea at all where they are.  I looked in all the places that make sense to me, but they seem to have fallen off the planet. 

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

This is good guidance for me.  All too often when I consider doing a job such as decluttering, I start by visualizing the project completed and work backwards from there to define my plan of attack.  For a decluttering job, even before picking up the first item I’m thinking about the decision processes and action requirements to determine where each item needs to go and how I’ll get it there.  So, I’m not starting where I am, I’m starting where I want to be.  Instead of beginning to organize using the resources I have, I’m thinking about the resources I don’t have.  And finally, instead of doing what I can, too often I focus on what I can’t do and camouflage my discouragement by postponing the job.  This the exact opposite of these three points made by Arthur Ashe.

What I can do to be successful is start small.  I know this.  Sometimes starting small, for me, can be simply putting one thing in its place, but even such a small victory can build a small sense of momentum and get me moving in the right direction.

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” – Lao Tzu

When chaos impacts how I feel, reducing it even a little can have a very positive impact on my sense of clarity and well-being.  I intend to make a daily practice of putting things in their place, even if it’s just one thing – but hopefully it’ll be a few more than that.  Each item I declutter reduces the level of chaos my mind has to sort through.  In addition to helping with my focus and clarity, it brings a sense of happiness and motivates me to do more.

As I start on this path of a less cluttered life, the following quotes each feel relevant to this topic…

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

“If you can dream it, you can do it!” – Walt Disney