Mother’s Day gifts don’t need to take up a lot of space to be appreciated. Try giving a basket full of her favorite gourmet foodstuffs, a box of fresh fruit or a case of wine, says Abundant Life With Less; such gifts will remind her that you care again and again as they disappear. Another idea? Give a digital course or subscription — it will take no space at all and perhaps expand Mom’s mind. You can also give a gift card toward a stay at an AirBnb or a photo-filing service such as Dropbox, the blog says; either will enrich her life without adding to the clutter.
Tag: clutter
Kick off Decluttering in Time for Football
Even though the temperatures may still be muggy outside, the Labor Day holiday marks the symbolic end of summer break. Now complete, the kids are back in school throughout the country and the leaves will soon be starting to turn in the northern climes. Fall is on the way.
Also synonymous with fall is the start of the football season. When the players hit the gridiron in earnest, it’s time to hole up indoors in front of the TV — or bundle up at the stadium — and root for your favorite team. But you may still be ill-equipped to have people over for game day.
For one thing, your home may be too cluttered to entertain in, even in the most casual beer-and-chips kind of way. The answer is to gather up all of that extra stuff that’s lying around and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup. Once clear of clutter, you can have people over without having them trip over your old junk.
With summer nearing its end, you can get rid of the T-shirts and shorts that didn’t get worn, and store or toss those bathing suits and pool toys. And once you start to get those fall sweaters and coats out of storage, you may find a few things that you know you won’t be wearing in the seasons ahead. Get rid of them now, before they can take up valuable closet space.
You may need some fan gear to cheer on your favorite team or teams. Thrift stores supplied by donations to ClothingDonations.org can be a good source of lightly used jerseys advertising your team preference, as well as housewares to help you welcome gametime guests. Thrifts can also be a good source of cold-weather gear that you’ll start to need in the next few weeks.
Think of clutter as the opposing team — the immovable object that you must continuously advance against to score a “win” on the playing field of your home. Unless you are a football player yourself, outdoor activities will be less of an option as the weather gets cooler, so the time to start reclaiming your space — yard by yard — is now.
Mayday! The Clutter Must Go
In medieval times, May Day began as a celebration of the return of spring. People would weave floral garlands, crown a local May king and queen, and decorate and dance around a May tree or maypole to ensure fertility for their crops. In the late 1800s, though, May Day became associated with the labor movement. Workers’ rights groups designated May 1 as a holiday to commemorate Chicago’s Haymarket Riot.
In these relatively prosperous times, you may instead recall the old distress signal, “Mayday, Mayday!” This expression, it turns out, has nothing to do with the May 1; it is borrowed from the French “m’aidé,” or “Help me.” And people who have too much stuff know all too well the helpless feelings it can produce.
Psychology Today says that physical clutter — which it defines as more knickknacks, paperwork and other junk than can comfortably fit into the space — can have an adverse effect on a person’s ability to move and think. Multiple studies say that streamlining one’s space can reduce stress and improve one’s life satisfaction, physical health and cognitive capabilities.
Physical clutter (and now, digital clutter such as email) competes for your attention, LifeHacker says; it takes away from the tasks at hand and robs people of creativity. In order to think effectively, you must eliminate it. Unfortunately, getting rid of stuff that has emotional value produces a pain response in the brain. It may actually be easier to apply constraints to the things you bring into the home than get rid of the things that are already there.
In addition to increasing stress, clutter can affect your diet, produce respiratory distress, harm relationships, encourage poor spending habits and bring on a host of other problems, the Huffington Post says. And when you have boxes of extra stuff stacked in your bedrooms, overflowing closets and stacks of dusty papers in your office, clutter has reached a crisis level. You need help! (M’aidé!)
Take a deep breath. Designate a place in your home where you can stage a major decluttering (perhaps the garage, where you can also stage a sale). Set up boxes and bags for the stuff you’re going to keep, trash, and sell or donate. Schedule a donation pickup with ClothingDonations.org and start sorting. Decluttering will get easier — and once you start, you’ll feel better in so many ways that you may make it a habit.
Clutter & Hoarding Clean Up Do’s and Don’t
The DO’S
- Connect with the Hoarder– Place yourself in the Hoarder’s mind and connect with their emotions. They need to know that you will be there for them after the cleanup.
- Seek Professional Help– Weather you are a hoarder or a loved one of a hoarder, there are many therapists that specialize in hoarding. Don’t just go to a general therapist.
- Continue to talk with the hoarder about the hoarding situation.- This is not going away as much as the hoarder will promise to clean up.
- Talk about safety– Safety is a key concept that the hoarder is also concerned about. Talk about how reorganizing the home at first will assist in a safe situation. After that discussion you can begin the talk about removing items
- Agree that the items are important– Everything in the home down to the old toilet paper rolls and cigarette boxes have emotional connections to the hoarder. Baffled? What about something that you saved in your home that would seem odd to others? Look around your home and you will be surprised.
- Talk about keeping everything confidential– Hoarders realize to some degree that this is not normal to the average society. The goal to keep the hoarder on your side is to promise not to talk about anything related to their situation to anyone without their permission. You can however contact a certified hoarding clean up company that has been
- Ask the question of WHY? Why are they keeping these items, many hoarders have had a dramatic experience such as a death in the family, a loved one leaving them, or an abusive past which has led to this hoarding situation.
- Promote the Donate– Everyone loves to help the needy, so let the hoarder know their stuff will go to better use with someone who needs it rather than sitting in their house under other items.
- Getting Impatient– Don’t get impatient with them, it has to be taken one step at a time. The hoarder needs to realize first that their living condition is below standard. After this is realized, the hardest part of getting rid of certain items has come.
- Hire a Professional– Hiring a professional service will not only help with the relationship between you and the hoarder but it will allow someone (if hiring the right company) who knows items of value and can help to organize the house in a way that will help the hoarder coup with their feelings and loss of connect with the items.
The DON’TS
- Make a fun with the hoarder’s situation– You’d be amazed what comes of people’s mouths. Prepare all who enter a hoarding home that this is a serious mental issue and that the hoarder is feeling very low and embarrassed when you enter the home.
- Say let’s get rid of all this “stuff “- To you the mountains of hoarded items may be useless “stuff”, but to a hoarder there is sentimental emotional connections to the “stuff “. For example they may have saved a menu from a restaurant that is still in business today. But the menu may remind them of a dinner with their late father.
- Get Angry– If you’re a loved one your first reaction will be to start getting upset. This emotion will get you nowhere and will actual scare the hoarder who is very sensitive a the time to close up with your request to take care of the situation.
- Try to reason with the hoarder right away- Remember they have been living like this for years and have created a sense of normalcy at the moment. The first thing you want to say is that you are not judging the person and be as compassionate as possible.
- Touch the hoarder’s items at first– Research has shown that some piles are considered ” dirty ” while some piles are not. Working with the hoarder will determine what you can assist now and what may need to be negotiated later.
- Treat the hoarder like a child– Hoarder’s are very intelligent and educated and can tell when you are talking down to them. Treat them as the adults that they are.
- Treat hoarders like criminals– There are times when the authorities get involved. Authority organizations tend to create a greater anxiety that is not necessary and make the hoarder feel like they have broken a major crime. With reasonable level tone, giving the hoarder a reasonable amount of time to take care of the situation will be better situation.
- Make a list of all of the tasks to the hoarder at once– As a non-hoarder we understand your need to create a plan of attack and begin immediately. Knowing hoarders as we do, we find that separating out the tasks and talking about the tasks individually make the project go smoother. For example we explain to the client that there first concern is finding “homes” for the hoarded items is the first and only thing to think about now. Once that task has been completed can we talk about cleaning, sanitizing, deodorizing and repairs to the home.
- Ask why they hoard– In most cases they don’t know why themselves. If you are interested in knowing read hoarding books by Randy Frost and Gail Stekenkede.
- Let this hoarding situation stress you out.-Hoarding is usually a result of a traumatic situation in the hoarders life. Better hoarding than the hoarder going to drugs and alcohol. Although there is no positive treatment or solution creating a livable condition and periodic monitoring of the hoarding situation will make life enjoyable for both you and the hoarder.
Photo Credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paintedbooklady/2901885054/