October 13, 2014
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A cluttered home, a cluttered mine
These past few days have found me working late into the night with work and cleaning. I have relatives coming over and one of them is staying at my condo. I like them which eases the pain but my condo seems to be in a state of perpetual mess. I just never seem to have time to fix and clean up my place. My siblings worship at the temple of Martha Stewart. Everything is prim and proper. They have the Thanksgiving decorations up. My brother tells me his wife will sometimes wake up early in the morning to redecorate because she just thought of something interesting. We’re talking 3 AM in the morning.
So far, I’ve thrown out a bunch of stuff that I don’t need – everything from old food containers, jars, magazines, receipts and stuff. I have several boxes of invoices, statements etc.. that I need to file. I think I inherited this need to save stuff (I can’t use the term hoarding yet) from my parents. To them, everything that could be reused was saved. My sister has spent the past few months clearing the stuff from the house. She would text or call me with another “interesting” thing she found from decades ago. “Why would our parents keep this stuff?”. Hopefully my place won’t look so bad when my relatives come.
An update from my previous entry. I suspect a lot of this is stress related. No matter how much I plan out my day, we get a lot of last minute request. It has to go out to the client asap. So I have to drop everything. We’re just a small team and everyone has more our fair share of work. Budget cuts have not helped. I still work 2 to 4 hours each evening and part of my weekend. It’s not a great life. Maybe I have this phobia of change. Or inertia is a more powerful force than I realize.
Comments (7)
I am going through that stage of my life too Matt, where the house has too many things. I collected antiques, and I have so many things from home and God knows not all of them are worth saving. I have beautiful ivory laid furniture pieces. I ask my children to take some home. they look at me and say, “Mom, where will we put it in our home? Or, our home décor will not allow for such things!” Huh! I need to de-clutter and get rid of things. I definitely do not want my children to have to spend their precious time going through the things and grumbling about all the unnecessary things I have accumulated at home.
You have to take care of yourself first, before you can take care of others Matt. Please take some time to de-stress yourself. Even if it be for one hour a day. meditation is a good way to get rid of some noxious elements we hoard in our selves. Love and hugs.
My mom has some very nice Chinese painting that she did. My house is too dry and dusty to hang them. They are gorgeous and I know we have to deal with this problem soon. I should give meditation another try. My mind is too restless after a few minutes.
What I find more relaxing when my mind gets restless and starts winding like a movie reel, I pretend to empty my brain, just keep ignoring the thoughts that keep crowding, and tell myself, “empty your brain out Zakiah, get rid of all the thoughts. no time for this now.” and after a few seconds, (like ten or fifteen) I am able to relax and meditate. Sometimes I have to do this more than once. I learned that from a yoga teacher.
woah woah… take it easy, matt. breath deep and exhale. sounds like you got so much on your plate to deal with. just take things one day at a time and one thing at a time. don’t feel so overwhelmed about the many stuff you wanted to do or achieve. you can keep planning, but one should always need to be flexible, to be able to just skip a plan and do something else that’s in need of your attention. it’s ok. it’s normal. it happens to us all.
I do have a lot of things on my mind. It’s hard for me to relax.
I trend to gather a lot of stuff. But if I can’t give it away or sell it, off to the trash it goes…..
For example a led flash light seemed to be too broken and I finally checked it out and got it repaired (with electrical tape) it will not go in the trash and hopefully I will use it often or give it away.
I like it when people can use stuff I give them. If they pay for it then I know it is useful to them or they are being kind to me….
Hard to decide what should be saved or stored away. Literally a lot of people pay to store stuff they think they will want later. Often I have my ruthless brother throw as much junk that I have to the trash….
We can’t keep everything and I suppose what we can’t use should either be donated or reused. It’s too bad we are constantly “persuaded” to buy things even when we don’t need them.