Living Without Chaos

In any given year, you will spend 150 hours looking for lost household items.  This is more time than most people have off from work for vacations. This is almost a full week of time, including sleeping time.  Worst of all, there is that feeling of frustration that comes with looking for lost things. Clutter affects our ability to focus. In other words, clutter and disorganization is bad for us. Most of us have a lot more “stuff” or “junque” as I like to call it. Too good to be junk but too much to make us comfortable in a home where it is stashed in every nook and cranny.

I’ve been the Chaos Queen since the last century – okay, that’s only 11 years – but it seems like a long time. One of the challenges during that time was having to downsize from a house big enough for previous owners to raise a dozen children in to a one-bedroom efficiency flat. I am good at sorting out the big things and thought that I was quite clever at choosing the best things to take and at maximizing the space in this home of mine.

Hah! I was wrong. Last fall, I did a big cleanup of the closets and storage boxes as part of the town’s Treasure Exchange, where we all cleaned out our messy areas and took the junque to the local hall to exchange for other people’s junque. I was quite pleased at hauling two carloads to the hall.

As October draws to a close, I am doing the same thing – I am getting my feng shui certification and applied those principles to decluttering my tiny home. This time it took a truck to get the first load out. I dumped some of the furniture. It is almost scary how redecorating the living room did not call for one additional item. It is fully furnished and functional with the things that were already here.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, short on time, and maybe a little bit cranky, take a look around you right now. Are the things in your home crowding you? Do you take hours to find things in any given week?

It might be time to think about asking the Chaos Queen for help.