Day 58

Day 58:

I am now convinced that I live in a house that re-generates things once you've cleared them.

Have you ever spent hours trying to clear out and clean a room or space, then looked at it and thought "Wow, I've hardly made a dent"?  I have been feeling like this about my house and room for several months. Box after box, hours of shredding and trips to the tip and donating to charity shops, yet my room is in a near-constant state of mess. Even though things have been brought into my room and cleared from other parts of the house, they don't seem to be getting any clearer either.  In order to combat this problem, I've come up with a few handy hints, which I hope could be helpful to you, should your box bedroom become a constantly re-spawning SCP of mess.

Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT just move things to an area with space in order to deal with it later. This may seem like a good solution at the time, and it is, in the short term. However, continued use of this strategy will lead you to fill up all of the space available to you, creating a huge backlog of clearing that is now an enormous task. Always remember that you will have to do it eventually, and it is better to do it now and maintain a clean space, than force yourself to live in a cluttered space until it is sorted. Living in an untidy, cluttered environment lowers mood and makes it much harder to tackle the growing problem. 

If there is something important that you need to do, and you just can't do it right now, try to put the things in a space that is not in your living/working area. Keeping your essential spaces clear will allow you to do the important thing without being impeded or distracted by it. If you are worried you will forget about it, try to make a note in your calendar or place a reminder somewhere to do it. I know this may seem like an extreme approach, but I can personally attest to it working. Right now, there is a bunch of random stuff on my desk from what I've been clearing today: coins, a notepad, old letters, pencils etc. I've been writing this for more than an hour, since I've been constantly distracted and fiddling with the stuff. Granted, I am working on improving my concentration and attention span at the moment, so I'm highly sensitive to it, but I have noticed that it is much easier for me to do tasks (and do them better) when my room is clear, against when my room is cluttered.

Secondly, dedicate regular time in your schedule to cleaning. The amount of time you may need to set aside will depend on your house, how much is in it etc. I set aside blocks of a few hours on weekends, as well as shorter blocks in the week. This is a lot (we are in the middle of a mass clear-out), but it is important to keep on top of a space, especially after you do a big clear-out. Several times, I have had the excitement of having a nice clear room after a long while, but then things start to sneak back in when I stop constantly working on it. Before I know it, the room is a mess again, and I don't even know where most of the stuff came from.

Lastly, I would advise against buying a large number of storage boxes to move stuff around in, especially ones that aren't collapsible. These can be super convenient for moving the stuff around, but there is one horrible snag, that hides in the shadows of the far-off future... The boxes will still be there when all of the stuff is gone. They aren't always easy to get rid of either, since they can be bulky and expensive to sell. If you do want storage boxes, only buy as many as you know you will need for the stuff that you are definitely going to keep.

Hopefully, you find this helpful! Right, I'm going to clean my desk.