Are You Like Angel Hair Pasta?

Spreading yourself too thin. I see it all the time from the busy, successful people that I work with. You’re smart, talented people with big hearts and you try to do too much! When you do too much, you don’t leave any time for yourself which results in not weeding out your own garden of stuff!

I recently started working with a client who is retired but volunteers for so many activities that she hasn’t had time for herself. She has the potential to be an organized, clutter free person but she’s so involved with helping others, that her personal life has suffered. She has a very active social life, volunteer activities, grandchildren, husband, the whole nine yards but no time for tune ups of her office, den, or other places that she spends her time. Once I identified this for her, she realized it was time to step down from one or two of her major responsibilities, let someone else take it on, and spend more time on herself.

I saw her today for our second appointment and I was pleased and impressed to learn that she had given her “notice” to one volunteer activity and was considering a second. She was relieved and excited at the possibilities that will bring and her new found time. She even wants to pursue a new interest that will involve less time but be more personally fulfilling. She had already cleaned out years of recipe accumulation, books, articles, and things she just didn’t need anymore just since our first appointment and she was energized! Just knowing that she could pass on the accumulation of years on one committee was liberating in itself!

So, before you say yes to that next committee, consider what else you have going on in your life and allow time for some weeding of your own.

Jan Davis
ClutterBye
www.ClutterBye.com

The Drawers of My Dreams

It’s Memorial Day weekend and I’m taking a whole three days off (WhooHoo) but one of the things on my To Do List is to clean out the drawers in my bedroom. That might take me about an hour so I certainly can take an hour to create the drawers of my dreams! One of the cool things about clearing clutter and getting more organized is that the more you do it, the more you can do! It’s not a one time event but an ongoing process that you get better and better at once you develop the good habits. It’s like cleaning. You can clean but eventually you’ll have to clean again, right?

I love poking through my old stuff every so often and deciding that I don’t need this “thing” anymore. It’s almost like a measuring stick of my life’s progress. I look at it with a fresh eye and suddenly realize that I don’t “need” this thing anymore and I can let go of it. For example, I bought a box of those funny little “40” confetti that you throw in cards or on a table for someone’s 40th birthday. No matter how many 40th birthdays have passed since then, I never remember to use them so this weekend, out they go. It’s a small box but I don’t need it anymore so I can let it go so that something I DO use can take its place.

I’m excited about cleaning out my drawers but then I’m an organizer so that’s what floats my boat!

Jan Davis
ClutterBye
www.ClutterBye.com