Decluttering is a state of mind

I've continued down the path of decluttering. Though it's a slow process for me. 

A hoarder's life 

I'm a hoarder and changing one's mindset from keeping everything to not is not an easy task. I do reuse or recycle or repurpose, so some things get a second life but a lot don't. So this begs the question, 'why is it kept?' 

Some are for sentiment reasons, others because i may use/ reuse in future, and many times because I haven't had a chance to sort out of its (or a replacement) is needed or not, and some need a home that hasn't been created yet. 

Daily tasks

I've stopped and started decluttering my office a few times over the last few years but thanks to family and volunteer commitments it always got put on the back burner. I'm trying to get it to become part of the daily cycle of my life where one day I may declutter paperwork or go through a box or bag, and other days I'm decluttering emails (yes they take up space too). The trick is not to leave either too long or you lose momentum. Or so I find. 

The beauty of digital 

In this day and age with digital photography, taking photos of items is a way of keeping the memory alive but not getting crowded with the physical items. This is the case with the Golden Book Encyclopaedia. I remember the hours spent perusing the books as a kid (they got tatty from overuse). I decided to take photos of the ones that sparked the nostalgic feeling of childhood and then recycle the books. It's been nice going down memory lane but it was time to let the actual items go. I'm almost done with these. I'm sure there's plenty of other items that can use the same treatment. 

 Before it becomes clutter

The best way is to not allow things to become clutter in the first place. This means having a system in place that works for me. There's no point having an in-tray if the items do not get sorted regularly. In times of great stress, this sorting has fallen behind but it adds to the stress when i can't find what I'm looking for easily. Making time at least a couple of times a week will help reduce the clutter for my future self.  And I know she will be most grateful. 😁

Until next time...

Yia!!

Decluttering and being ruthless - aka The Taverna is back!

A blast from the past. This used to be on my website.
It reminds me of writing dreams.
Under licence from Dreamstime

Yep, I'm still here in my cluttered office living day by day. I've still been trying to declutter my life - I think that's always going to be a process for me as I tend to take on more and more without realising - and have made a little headway. 

I'm still reading though since end of July not as much thanks to family illness and attending the RWA conference here in my hometown (I'll do a post about that soon).

I've been sporadic on Facebook and Twitter but around. 

I'm making writing plans! Yay.

One of them is to write on the blog more. I find it helps my writing - if I don't overdo it.

Starting to see a theme with me? 

Yep.

My limitations change from day to day, hence why it is a bit of a battle with tasks I take on, because I need to think of my bad days (this includes family health too) not the good days when I take something on. If I have a whole week of bad days then the task won't get done. And to protect my writing, I need to be more ruthless in what I do with my time. 

Ruthless Eleni. Sounds like a title of a suspense novel.

I'll be posting more beginning on the 4th September (tomorrow) with a special guest appearance by ex-Musa Publishing stable mate, Dusty Crabtree. She's on a re-release blog tour and dropping by in the Taverna.

So get your glasses filled with some wine, taste the meze on offer, sit back and relax.  

The Taverna is back!

Yia!!

~Eleni

De-cluttering....

I'm part of a BIAM  (Book in a Month) from last Sunday. The first 3 days I almost got my weekly total. Then I hit Wednesday. I had a lot of running around to do and then I came home, looked around the study.

Clutter zone.

My name is Eleni and I'm a hoarder...

I didn't make a conscious decision to start de-cluttering in a bigger chunk than my 15 minutes a day. But I did. I got rid of old magazines, keeping a picture here and there, or an article or short story. And it felt great to do that. I believe the clutter has been cluttering my creativity.

Yesterday, it was another errand day as well as my weekly Tai Chi (very new to me). Again it was more sorting paperwork into piles to find things easier.

And today, after a little writing session, I did some more de-cluttering. There's still a long way to go.  But I can SEE carpet. Yes it was that bad. Still in one way it looks worse as I'm arranging and rearranging as space becomes available.

I did wake up this morning with more of a freer feeling because of my progress.  And while it seems like procrastination- in a way it is- I'm keeping my story in the back of my mind. This morning's session for example threw another plot point at me out of the blue. So I've been letting it churn as I have gone about my de-cluttering.

Some of the hoarding is the 'maybe will need one day' but a lot of it is from feeling tired and not having energy at times to deal with it all.  The spoon theory of CFS. I'd rather write, so if I do, I have to 'let go' of other things to concentrate on it. The housework for example including the study's junk piles.  Hence the time and energy factor was why I started with the 15 minutes a day.

With having done such a good total at the beginning of the week with my writing, it has given me the breathing space I needed....

And yes, I am breathing a little freer....

Now to do some more writing.

~yia~