My decluttering experiment: Unveiling the plans!
I am a living proof that depression and an accumulation of clutter go hand in hand. I was admired from my early childhood for my natural abilities to make any space organised and clutter-free in no time at all. I had no problems in brief evaluations and confident decisions in regards to what should stay and what should go. My personal space was always tidy, organised and clutter-free.
This has changed. Not overnight, but slowly and surely. My low mood turned into depression over the years, and at the beginning I did not even notice the total chaos in my home. I was falling apart and so did the order in my environment.
Creeping out of depression was not an easy journey. Discovering that I was no longer capable to manage my ‘stuff’ and my home amplified my stress and pain.
Before I knew it, I was on a battlefield. I tried to win the battle by ignoring my clutter and chaos. This strategy did not work and I found myself a casualty of this war.
I tried to convince myself that focusing on decluttering is not important or urgent. Increased stress followed, prompting me to begin addressing my problems…
Then came a shock! I knew my boyfriend was moving in, but somehow I managed to ignore the fact that he was turning up with a load of HIS ‘stuff’!
I still remember the delivery truck driver asking me ‘ Where shall we put the mattress?’ I wanted to scream: ‘I already have a king-size bed and a mattress! Take it away!’
For the next couple of years we were sleeping on a ‘Triple-Decker mattress’. Finally we had to dispose my bed, as getting in and out of it was bordering with competing for the Olympics, especially taking into account my heavily pregnant tummy.
Mike and I have been living together over five years now and the state of our home is causing me lots of stress each and every day. Even though I am no longer feeling depressed, I have this constant feeling of being stuck. Having clutter drains my energy!
So, I have decided to conduct this experiment to investigate whether decluttering can bring you the benefits it claims to bring.
What I am planning to do?
1. Let go of all my useless stuff.
2. Let go of all the stuff that has negative associations in my brain or drains my energy.
3. Let go of all the stuff that I no longer need and that does not resonate with my new life and my goals.
4. Let go or fix all the broken stuff.
5. Let go or finish all my unfinished projects.
6. Give away all the ‘good quality’ stuff, mentioned above, to good causes.
7. Discover what stuff lifts my spirits and improves my moods, and make it available for me to use often.
8. Develop new habits and routines to support me in winning this clutter game.
9. Complete all the above before the autumn equinox.
That’s it for now. You are more than welcome to come back and check my progress.
Any comments, advice and suggestions will be met with kind gratitude. I truly need it!
Hello Kat,
My name is Steve and I fell victim to depression last October,and of course it was only the tip of the iceberg when i finally realised what was going on I knew i had suffered this cluttering in my life for years before.In a sort of ever decreasing circles it had crept up on me over a long period of time and throttled me when I least expected it !
I would go to clear a huge drawer of bills and correspondance and four or five hours later I would have thrown nothing away and even when my sister came to stay with me from New Zealand she bullied me into tidying up and I could only cry.
So it was like this untill one day I crashed out with depression big time,I have only just got back in the game and I started to tidy up a month ago.I went for the bare minimalist look and I have felt so much better since then.I shredded five big bin liners full of council tax and other letters from fourteen years worth and twenty two years worth of wage slips and birthday cards and letters from friends pre-e-mail.
There were hundreds of pages worth ! Even when I was doing it i felt so much better and it was the best thing I have done in ages to soothe my mind,wierd but true.... sorry to crash in on your work but I felt i had to add my bit,all the best,Steve Clarke.
Nice to hear from you, Steve!
Thank you for sharing your experiences. You are a true inspiration in how to do a proper decluttering, as I don’t feel energised by my decluttering just yet. I am about to write an update to my experiment and share it with our community.
You made me smile talking about shredding. When I started to recover from depression I had this huge need to acquire two types of shredders: one for paper and one for the garden. I just had this huge urge to shred things, as though I was trying to show the world how committed I was to change. Sadly, now that I have both shredders, I don’t really use them. I must schedule some therapeutic shredding time, as it does feel good! Talk soon….
Oh wow! I cannot beleive the timeliness of your message and the value of what you wrote.
We were in the home of a good friend the other day, and I was stunned by the amount of clutter in her home. The walls and shelves and display cabinets were loaded with things.
There are a few different kinds of clutter. There is unintentional "wow..where did that come from" clutter. And, there is the deliberate clutter of a collector. The third kind of clutter that I can think of of is the messy clutter which surrounds me as I paint.
The third kind of clutter is more a bye product of my intense focus on my art, and when I finish my painting I always tidy up my surroundings.
When I left this person's home and was driving along I reflected on the clutter and quietly mused whether there was a relationship between her struggle with depression and the degree of clutter in her life.
There is a sense of despair which surrounds depression and despair can come from a lack of control in our environment.
Thanks for the good posting and your thoughtful blog. I have bookmarked it and will return.
Hello Artlover,
Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you for your comment. I like your thought that ‘There is a sense of despair which surrounds depression and despair can come from a lack of control in our environment’.
Not being able to control our personal environments has an affect on our self-esteem. ‘Black and white’ thinking, which is common during depression, may lead to the thought that ‘nothing is under my control’. That is a dangerous thought!
See you soon,
Kat
Hello Kat,
Just had to pop over here after you left a comment on my blog, and I am so glad I did!
I applaud you in taking the declutter challenge and I will pray for you to have the strength to follow through. I plan to come back and see how you are doing!
I am a declutter addict in a way. Getting rid of stuff is a high for me. Oh how I love filling my car with boxes and bags of stuff and dropping it all off at our local thrift shop. I feel pounds lighter and I get a big kick out of looking at the amount of space that has been cleared as a result.
If you need proof that order is better than chaos, look at nature. The sun always comes up in the east and sets in the west. Rain always comes down, it doesn't go up. The seasons come in the same order every year.
Order can bring some kind of stability and for a person who lives with the challenges of depression, that is a welcomed thing....stability!
I don't have any suggestions, yet. But if becomes overwhelming, I would love to help out!
I'll be back!
Wendy Love
Thank you, Wendy!
I am pleased to say that I am making some progress already!
However, I might take you up on your offer to help with inspiration if I get stuck!
See you soon,
Kat