Over the weekend, some of the surfaces in our house become a little
cluttered. But once in a while, the clutter catches my eye, like in this
instant. The colors all look like I put them together intentionally. I
think I'll leave it for a bit before cleaning up the yarn and
magazines...
Then I realized that this it the first time we have lived in one house for longer than three years. We have moved a lot and loved it, lived in many different places and even sometimes moved within the same town, first renting and then buying a house once we knew the area.
That meant that every three years there was a natural decluttering as we were getting ready to move and then a natural reorganizing as we put everything in its new place. Now I've got to come up with a different system. How do you stay ahead of clutter and do you have a system for organizing things? Would you mind sharing if you do?!
Tomorrow I'll share a few photos from Hunting Island State Park, where we spent the day yesterday. But for now I wish you all a great start to your week!
ORGANIZED???
ReplyDeleteMy Lord Silke....I just bought three books on decluttering and organizing, in the hopes that ONE of them (or a combination of them! LOL!) will help!
I did find that I hang onto things for sentimental reasons, and have spent the weekend working on cleaning the studio and planning on how to best use the space.
I am going to have to make some hard purges; I don't want to, but it's time, and someone else will get the goodies and be happy! That is a factor that keeps me moving forward.
I think with artists, we tend to keep a lot of things for visual stimulation, but it does hit critical mass.
Love the colors in the photo~~see? We can put anything together and make it look good....
XXOO~~♥
Anne
Liebe Silke,
ReplyDeletedie Sonne scheint. Ich hoffe, dass sie bei euch
auch noch scheint. Sonst schicke ich einige
Strahlen zu euch.
Sonnige Grüße
Elisabeth
Oh Silke, unfortunately, I'm like an old bag lady...I hold on to entirely too much, but even I have my breaking points. Usually, when I de-clutter I end up throwing most things away. I recall many years ago a friend telling me that it won't matter in a 100 years!! LOL However, I'm not thinking that much a head of time, my question to myself is, "Will I ever need it?" then think of ways that it could be used, but usually not. There have been those times when I throw or give something away and within a short length of time, I could have used it...hate when things like that mess with your head!! LOL
ReplyDeleteSo just let it go. Purging one's home is also purging ones soul...the open spaces give a warm feeling of solace. Have a great week.
xxoo,
Georigna
I'm a de-clutter as you go kinda gal. If I don't need it or don't know anybody who will need it right now, out it goes!...Anything that's collectible...well, that's a different story! ^_^ I put them in a certain place and label them so that I know exactly what they are, and that they're nice looking...My hubby is a clutterbug though...so I have to progressively de-clutter him too! LOL
ReplyDeleteLOL - you call that clutter! And NO Dust! But you are correct, the color combinations cry out to be remembered.
ReplyDeletemy Mother says just deal with a wall at a time, never the whole room. when she dusted, she'd just dust the furniture in front of the wall she was working on.
ReplyDeleteit's helped me enormously.
love
kj
Oh Silke, how I wish I had a way of staying ahead of clutter to pass on to you. I've read the books but that just gave me a collection of them to just add to it!
ReplyDeletePoetessWug - I love the expression clutterbug. That's one I'll use in my blog sometime soon!
I wonder if Anne has a point. I think maybe artistic people tend to keep things more than non-artistic ones. Thinking about my relatives that seems to be the case.
Dear Silke, you are right, moving often is the perfect way to keep your life (and household) relatively clutter-free :-)
ReplyDeleteFor me, knowing that I do not use or need many things is protection - I simply don't buy anything if I am not really sure I'll wear/use/need it.
I just like my clean empty surfaces too much, so I never fill them with lots of things. It makes cleaning my place so much quicker, too!
Silke,,,
ReplyDeleteMoving didn't help me at all with getting rid of clutter. I've moved 23 times in my life and I packed every single item every time. It makes for a lot of extra work and extra money to move it. Since I have my consignment space for almost 2 years now, I've been going through things and selling things I no longer need or want. It is helping.
Now my studio! That is a story in itself. It looks a little like I'm a horder. Very hard to let go of ANYTHING (no matter how big or small) that might possibly be used in art in some way. And, I see things at tag sales that scream "Audrey, you could use that in a mixed media piece", and I give in and purchase it. So, I guess to some extent I will live with a little clutter for the rest of my life. Of course, if I would get busy and make some art I would be decluttering a little. hahaha
Good luck. (:
♥ audrey
A couple of ideas from someone who lives in a very small (tiny) space (me lol)
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't used it in the last 6 months or 1 year, get rid of it.
For every new thing you buy you must get rid of something old.
This helps; but I still tend to collect too much stuff for my small apt., most of this stuff is art related naturally. lol.
If you haven't worn those old clothes for X number of months/years, give them to the Good Will people.
Just some thoughts. Have a good day. I don't comment much; but I do love your artwork.