Getting Unstuck

"Clutter is stuck energy. The word "clutter" derives from the Middle English word "clotter," which means to coagulate - and that's about as stuck as you can get."
Karen Kingston

Week 17

I’m not sure where a gal begins when she feels stuck because of the clutter in her life.   But I suppose, like all jobs that seem too big, I need to find somewhere small to begin the journey.

I’m a great believer in thinking that more containers will get me organized.  I should have bought a franchise to ‘The Container Store’.  I’m drawn to buckets, to plastic shelves, to baskets and even to ice cube trays.  Yes, ice cube trays.  I just like containers. And yet…my magazine racks, my end tables with shelves, my built in cabinets and my many baskets and containers don’t seem to get me organized, they just seem to allow me to collect more stuff.

Could it just be that I have too much stuff?  Too much stuff in my house, too much stuff in my office, and too much stuff in my car?   I guess one should come to the conclusion that to be better organized she needs to begin with dispensing with the clutter.  I’ll call it getting unstuck.

And since so much of the environment I live and work in is overcrowded with clutter, I think I’ll need to start somewhere that’s manageable; somewhere that’s small enough not to be to intimidating.  It sounds like my car is just the place to begin.

It’s been said that you can tell a lot about a person from how the inside of their car looks.  I would agree with that.  When my children were young the back seat looked a lot like an archeological dig.  It was filled with gum wrappers, cookie crumbs, toys and sports equipment.  If you dug deep enough you could find an extra change of clothes or a fruit bar.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.    Well, now the kids have grown and it’s really just me in that car 96% of the time.  So, you’d think the inside of my car would be a pristine environment….hmmm. 

I constantly remind my students in my public speaking class to think about the following?  What is the perception you want others to have of you? Once you decide what that is, talk and act accordingly.  I suppose that idea can extend to my car.  What do I want people to think about as they pass by and gaze into those tinted windows?  Do I want them to say,  “Now that person is organized, neat and professional”  or “Are you kidding me?  What old fart lives in there?”

I think my plan will be to take everything out and put back only what I need.  I’ll of course give it a good vacuuming and wash along the way.  Then once I de-clutter, I’ll do a weekly sweep to rid any stuff I collect along the way..  Once I have less to contend with, it should be a simple 4 minute task.  I’ll also take it for a monthly car wash to make the outside look as good as the inside. Our local car wash allows you to buy car washes in bunches…that will also motivate me to go more often, since I will have already paid for them. 

So that’s it.  My first phase of getting unstuck with all the clutter in my life is to begin small.  Start with my car.