A few thoughts on overwhelm – taming the paper monster

This photograph is from Einstein's office in Princeton 

from Life magazine in 1955.

I’ve noticed that the amount of overwhelm I feel at any given point in my life is directly proportional to the state of my office. As in the piles (paper, books, notebooks, receipts, etc.).  I like to tell myself the piles are a symptom of my busyness, and that when things settle down (you know, that mysterious point in the future when everything will fall into place, a magical rhythm will assert itself and all your affairs will be in order). Ha! 

I realize that’s just not going to miraculously happen. The problem is, there are SO many other things I’d rather be doing than sorting and filing my piles of paper. So I tell myself I’ll wait for a rainy day. Well, we just had a whole weekend of rainy days, and somehow my office still looks the same. Hmmm, something needs to change.

I suppose I could just carry on and let the piles be the piles. Recently, I saw a picture of Einstein’s desk the day he died– and he made mine look like the pinnacle of neatness.  So I am in excellent company, I tell myself.

The truth of the matter is though, that I plain just don’t like a messy desk. I feel disorganized. I feel cluttered. I can’t find things when I need them. I can’t think clearly. And so…. What to do? I turn once again to Marie Kondo’s little gem of a book The life-changing magic of tidying up.

So, armed with a stack of new file folders and a fresh roll of tape for my trusty labeller, I am ready.  Deep breath, OK, I’m just going to tackle it.

Here we go. Page 95.

“Sorting papers

Rule of thumb – discard everything.”

Page 96.

”My basic principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away.”

“What?”  I say to myself in stunned disbelief. “But…… surely that can’t be right.”  “What if I need it?”

Well, it turns out there are a couple of key things you really do need to keep – you know, like tax receipts. Beyond that, Kondo claims, you really don’t need it.

Wow – that gave me pause. Certainly not what I was expecting. But you know how they say that stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results? Well, I have been going through decades of periodic sorting and filing, and yet here I am again. So, I will trade in my file folders for a large recycling bin.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

De-cluttering magic – letting go of the stuff of life

Last week on the blogging trail I chucked out a load of burdensome mindsets from my back pack.  This week, I decided, it’s time to tackle the actual physical stuff that clutters my desk, my shelves and my drawers – and hence my mindset.

I’d say I am a pretty organized person – I have my neatly labeled files, my tidily arranged storage boxes, in theory a place for everything… but the reality is, that despite my best efforts, it just gets out of hand. A few days of busyness, and lo and behold, the inevitable piles of paper, the stacks of books, the this’s and that’s, mushroom like magic, like mutant viruses intent on conquering my space.

Now, I know it’s me… only me who prints the paper and buys the books and acquires all this stuff and brings it in to my space….. and believe me I have tried almost every known system for dealing with it. Over the years I have probably purchased at least a dozen books on organizing your life, de cluttering, feng shui, etc., and yet wherever I look, office, living room, bedroom closet, and of course my sock drawer… there is always just way too much STUFF!  And did I say books? 

Speaking of books, I happened upon this little gem over the weekend – The life-changing magic of tidying up – the Japanese art of de cluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. Her revolutionary method, which challenges the conventional little-by-little approach to de-cluttering, advocates a once and for all system that, she promises, leads to lasting results.

This caught my attention. Although I came to the conclusion that lightening my metaphorical backpack on the blogging trail was a daily practice, I’m not so sure that de -cluttering as a daily practice actually works. It really hasn’t worked for me, and judging by the fact that Marie Kondo’s book has sold over 2 million copies, I don’t think it works for most of us either.

So, I’ve decided to set my sights this week on liberating myself from the too much stuff of life, for once and for all. Sound unrealistic or overly ambitious?  Perhaps. Yet I know from past experience with short lived de-cluttering results, that it feels so freeing, so spacious, so fresh…. to have a clean desk and a minimal amount of stuff.

So starting today, until I’m done, I’m following Marie Kondo’s advice. “Start by discarding, all at once, intensely and completely.”

It will be interesting to see where this leads. Want to join me dear reader?