Clutter!
By Diane Ako
I hate clutter. Hate, hate hate.
I like discarding and organizing. Editing, as it were. Words or stuff.
My house has never been more cluttered than after I had a child. It's partially that we have a third person who needs and generates possessions. It's also that my kid likes to collect stuff and we are often too tired to do a deep clean.
I have been thinking about this blog topic for, seriously, two years. Whenever I go to my garage to use the laundry machines, I often have to move all kinds of crap out of the way to get to one machine and then the other. If I have to get to the sink to hand wash, forget about it.
The collection is everyone's: Claus' bike gear, Olivia's scooter and stroller, our shoes, and lately, items intended for our dojo- taking up space in my garage.
For a couple weeks I was prepping for a kids' pool party and there were about 10 noodles, inflated rafts, and inflated rings piled in random spots waiting to be given away at this party. This, in a space that's like 10x4'. There's a small, narrow path one navigates to get around to the washer/dryer, and once there, one has to move items around based on what area one needs to get to.
My friend Noriko said she lives in such a small residence, she was very militant about discarding her daughter's unused toys. I have to admire that.
I discard things about twice a year but it seems like it regenerates automatically! I can't keep up.
I try to view it as the hallmark of a family with a young child, and that one day I'll miss seeing all the kid toys. I don't know... any suggestions on how to manage the STUFF?
Small Talk
August 6th, 2012 at 5:35 am
The Diane Ako blog for Monday September 26, 2011 was all about hoarding. See, there's this vast treasure-trove of source material about events and feelings in the life of Diane Ako (The Small Talk Archives). It's wonderful! And I'm a researcher.
Of course clutter is different from hoarding. Clutter is short-term and often accidental, whereas hoarding is long-term and deliberate. But they're related. [Putting on my Freudian psychotherapist hat now] They both stem from a desire for permanence, and a fear of loss, which are adult manifestations of childhood insecurity originating in the anal retentiveness that sometimes happens as a consequence of overly zealous toilet training by a Mom who regarded poop as a messy inconvenience rather than as a glorious product of creativity. So, like everything else, it all goes back to childhood. Blame your Mom. Whew! That was fun!
August 6th, 2012 at 6:44 am
Hello Diane, we have clutter too at our house. You can come over to my house to cleanup and organize after you done with yours.
August 6th, 2012 at 7:24 am
We have three kids (8,5 & 2 yo) and toys, games, puzzles and activity books pile up quickly. We make it a priority to get rid of a lot of toys that are either broken, missing pieces or parts or just sit at the bottom of the toy chest and no longer see the light of day. We started this by letting our kids decide what to keep and what to get rid of but this idea didn't work as they wanted to keep everything and get rid of nothing. We do it while the kids are asleep and make two piles, one to donate and one to throw away. The rest goes back for the kids to enjoy a little while longer. We try to do this at least 4 times a year because it piles up quickly. Toys seems to be our biggest area of clutter but not the only one. We try to organize things to make it easier to find and manage. I try anyway, my wife not so much.
August 6th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Hey Diane ... "taking up space in my garage."
... haha, I guess Claus didn't claim the garage as his domain ...
August 6th, 2012 at 10:02 am
yea, i have company. so much cheap stuff nowdays, hard to resist buying. funny though, hard to throw away.
August 8th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
OMG...should I tell you all my JUNK of crap....! I learn to have patience until I go into crazy mode put everything in garbage bag and yell at my moron husband not to fetch the junk back...I BREAK THE THINGS FIRST or it will come back inside for sure...OMG! I can tolerate junk but my husband testing my patience ..imagine MY LIFE FROM VINLYN to cassette..to vcr..to all sorts of big t.v junk galore...I GET SO MAD I was stuck in era of junk now everything is smaller and smaller and I still have all this old crap of cassette and old things my husband calls COLLECTION.... I try to be patient....oh imagine I tell my husband if his parents croack he better not bring crap to our house! HONESTLY CRAP.....! I be in raving lunatic rage living with a MORON GUY ...yes he has his bike his hockey crap I trip over.... .you think he take up tennis so no stinky gear and I wotn trip over things......OH then I tell myself just ignore the JUNK my boys will clean that crap up when I die....REVENGE LEAVE MY KIDS JUNK.... toys and junk..oh so ..OMG I LAUGH....!
August 10th, 2012 at 8:04 am
Rayboyjr-
Yeah. He has to endure the creep of me and Olivia's stuff too! Poor guy. Maybe just the guestroom toilet is his. Until we have guests.