Extra Organizing Tips: Monica Ricci

Yesterday's mail. Your shoes. The kids' toys, catalogs, magazines, and all those decorative items that you simply couldn't resist. They take up your space, and whether you realize it or not, they steal your energy and creativity.

Clutter is all around you and you don't even realize it because your brain has gotten so accustomed to seeing it that it has very effectively tuned it out.

Have you ever lost your sunglasses only to discover they were on your head? Your head feels them up there, until they are up there so often that it begins to not notice anymore. Your brain works the same way with clutter, or anything that it sees on a regular basis in your environment. Anything it sees repeatedly, it learns to ignore, and that includes your clutter.

When you reach the point where you are unhappy with your physical environment, and have decided to declutter, you'll have to make some changes, both mentally and physically. You'll need to change the way you think about material possessions, space, and accumulation. You'll also need to physically change your space to accommodate your new way of thinking. To change your thinking, take a look at what is causing your clutter in the first place.

Sport Shopping

Were you indulged as a child with all the new toys you could have ever dreamed of? Are you bored with your life and trying to spice things up by shopping for new things? Are you addicted to "new"? Shopping is one of the biggest contributors to clutter that exists today. I refer to shopping out of boredom as "sport shopping" because it is literally used as a sport by many people.

Imagine that you live in a 12 by 12-foot cube, and everything you own has to stay in that cube with you. How careful would you be about accumulating things? Would your shopping habits change (and yes, they are habits)? Would you think twice before buying something simply because it was "a bargain" or it was "cute"? I'd be willing to bet that you would not only be careful about not accumulating things, but you would be almost obsessive about it, because you would realize that every item you accumulated took up more of your precious little space.

You'd be firm with your friends and family about not giving you gifts, you'd be diligent about only shopping for the things you really needed, and you'd probably be inclined to declutter a lot more often, living in such a small space. You'd also be acutely aware of everything you owned because if you live in such a small space, each item inside it needs to offer you value or it wouldn't deserve to stay there, right?

One other thing would happen if you lived in a 12 by 12-foot cube? You would always know where to find just what you needed at a moment's notice. So living in a cube does have its up sides.

What does the cube illustration have to do with your life, you ask? Well the truth is that you DO live in a cube, albeit not that small of one. Your home is a finite amount of space, just like that cube, and right now you have too much stuff living with you for it to be a happy and peaceful retreat for yourself.

So if you want to declutter your life, you must look at your shopping habits first. You must accept responsibility for the state of your home, and you must be willing to change your actions to change your life, starting with shopping.

The first step is to notice when you shop and what you are tempted to buy. For a sport shopper, noticing when you shop is akin to a compulsive overeater noticing when they crave food. Are you bored? Are you lonely? Are you depressed? What is causing you to want to shop as a distracting activity when in truth, you really don't need anything new at all?

Secondly, you will have to change the way you think about shopping. You must realize that shopping is not a sport, it is a necessity in life for those times when you are either out of a consumable item that you regularly use, such as food or toiletries, or you are genuinely in need of something that you don't presently own. That's it.

When you are out on a shopping trip, it is important that you look into the future before you choose to plunk down your hard-earned money for something. You should have some criteria for each object to meet before you spend your money on it.

For example, you should ask yourself, "Is my life really difficult without this item?" and "Is there something I already have which will give me the same result as this item?" You can also ask yourself, "Where will this item live?" and "What am I willing to get rid of to make room for this thing?" Asking yourself these questions before you choose to part with your money can save you a lot of clutter down the road.