I’ve always struggled with clutter. Sometimes it gets worse, sometimes gets better, but it’s always been a challenge for me.
Over the years I have made some progress and I have gained some wisdom. I’ve also had some help due to my acquaintance with Gayle Goddard, aka The Clutter Fairy.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have never engaged the professional services of Ms. Goddard. Gayle is a personal friend, but this is not a plug for her business; it’s a testimonial to her expertise. She is so good that the wisdom which positively oozes from her in simple conversation has been enough to help keep me on track with my own small problems over the years.
Of all the insights she has offered me, one of the most useful has been the 10-minute strategy. This is how you break the inability to address a huge challenge like a piled-up junk room, an overstuffed garage or a mountain of mail and papers. You take a kitchen timer, set it for 10 minutes, and do whatever little parts of the task that lie near at hand until the timer goes off. Then you stop.
You can repeat this as frequently as you please. It’s not really about what you accomplish in that short time, it’s about redirecting your attention to the achievable piece instead of letting it get mired in the daunting size of the overall task. At some point in the process, you stop working for the clock and start seeing your way to the bottom of the pile. This is its own reward, and provides all the energy you need to finish the task.
I still have clutter. You can find it in every room. I realized long ago that the clutter in my environment wasn’t all about my inability to address it. It was more an outer manifestation of my inner chaos. This idea helped me transform cleanup from a chore to a meditation: as I clear out the stuff around me, I sort out something internal as well. And conversely, when the internal chaos abates a bit, it becomes easier to put energy into my surroundings.
These days things are moving in the right direction. The cleanup goes on, and the piles grow fewer and thinner. In this journey toward the conquest of clutter, inner and outer, another lesson has emerged: A cleaner house produces a calmer mind and a more joyous spirit.
And that’s worth 10 minutes any time.