Does it need to be organized or is it Clutter?

Do you look around a room that has an odd mish-mash of items strewn through it and wonder 'Where did it all come from?' The first thing to remember and own is that you, yourself are the one that probably brought it into your home and put it there. The second thing to remember and own is that making the decision to bring something into your world is not set in stone, you can change your mind and release those items also.

Things that you are interested in and take enjoyment from are collections. I have 76 decks of cards downstairs displayed on a bookcase. Each of the decks has different pictures on the playing side of the cards and I enjoy taking them out and showing them to friends and discussing card games through the ages. I also have a box of playing cards that we pull out to use when we actually play cards. When those decks get worn, crumpled or bent, they get thrown away. Keeping them around just because they're a deck of cards, even with my interest in different cards would be accumulating clutter. And I have enough of that already.

How can you tell the difference? There are a couple of ways, the first is the emotional feeling that you get when you see, touch or work with an item. You want items that give you a lift, not bring you down when you see them. I have a friend that has 412 t-shirts. He's proud of his collection of t-shirts, he has built up a system that allows him to rotate the wearing of the t-shirts so each time you see him the shirt is funny, political, historical, or beautiful, depending upon where he is in the rotation. Each shirt gets a wearing and his collection is admired by the people that know about it. He loves his collection and has a story about each shirt in it and enjoys telling them to people. He is sad when a t-shirt wears out and has to be discarded. I have a drawer full of t-shirts that are useful to me but I have no emotional attachment to them. If a t-shirt tears, gets a stain on it or gets a hole in it I can happily use it as a cleaning rag and discard it with no problem whatsoever. So if you have items that you call a collection but they don't give you the warm, fuzzies when you work with or talk about them, is it really a collection or a bunch of stuff that resides at your domicile?

Another way to tell is where did it come from? Is this something that you brought into your life because of an interest or did someone give it to you because they thought you'd like it? This can snowball on you either way. My sister in law decided she wanted to do the main bathroom in her house in ducks. You know, little yellow duckies. And the items that she chose were just right. The shower curtain, the towels, the little bathroom accessories....there was just the right number of ducks. Unfortunately, because it was so cute, people started giving her ducks, you know, to add to the collection. The meaning was well intentioned but adding any more to the room would have detracted from it. It would have gone from a cute decorating scheme to a clutter catch-all with all the ducks that she received. Her choice was not to display any of the items she received. Her usual response if someone is gauche enough to ask is 'I'm saving that for the remodel on our private bath.' I had a similar almost event. I had just moved into my home and a woman who likes to do this kind of thing decided she was going to give me a flamingo shower curtain and tell everyone that we both knew to give me flamingos as house-warming prezzies. Suffice to say I wouldn't even have a flamingo on my lawn let alone a collection in my home for any reason. Happily, at the event where she presented me with the shower curtain, another woman had just moved into an unfurnished apartment and was in need of basic household items. I graciously gave the shower curtain to her and apparently upset the giver enough that she decided not to follow-up on the second part of the house-warming plan. So it was a win-win-win situation at the end. Keep in mind, just because someone gives you something doesn't mean you have to keep it. That is, of course, entirely dependant upon how you want your future relationship with that person to proceed. Items that I receive from my mother are carefully packed away being saved for 'special' occasions, usually her visits.

The last piece of information to consider is how do you care for it? My friend with the t-shirt collection is very careful of his shirts. He washes them on gentle cycle, turned inside out and they never, ever are put in the clothes dryer. I have my packs of cards displayed in the boxes and some are set on little stands on the bookcases but I haven't gone so far as to get a mat cut to display the cards on the wall, even though I've thought about it. My card collection can be kept available and clean where it is. I was in the home of a couple that were interested in a great many areas. And their home reflected their different interests. There were items everywhere throughout the house. In the living room I noticed a small unicorn figure laying on it's side. I went to set it upright and found that one of it's legs had broken off which is why he was laying on his side. I joked about how he was going to have to be shot now that he had a broken leg and her response was that she was going to glue him back together so he could run free with the rest of the herd. We laughed and moved on but when I had touched the figurine to move it I had left tracks in the thick layer of dust on the figurine and the shelf it was on. That broken figurine was clutter, it was broken, it was not cared for and when I asked there was no emotional attachment to it, she had been interested in unicorns for a bit so she had picked up some figurines.

So those questions combined – How do I feel about this item? where did it come from? and is it cared for? can give you the answer of whether an item should stay in your home. Don't even bring into the discussion 'But I might need this someday....' work with what you're doing and interested in today.

You home is a place where you care for yourself and your family, the things you have in there should be items that you love and that help to recharge your batteries before facing the world outside. If you have items in your home that drain you emotionally just by existing or having to care for them, then you should rethink why they are there.

And once you get the clutter cleared out you'll find that organizing the items you choose to keep is a lot easier when you have the space.