Minimalist mind, hoarder at heart

Hello lovely lot.  I hope you are getting into the swing of this new year ok?

I have finally been able to shake off the cosy fug of the festivities and have emerged fresh and fighting into this bright new week of the bright new year.  As I mentioned in my Happy 2018! post, I have indeed thrown myself into the cleaning like a woman possessed.  I haven't quite touched all the deep dark recesses of the home just yet, but I'm getting there.

The thing I haven't really started upon in earnest, is the sorting and de-cluttering of the tremendous amount of stuff we seem to constantly accumulate.  I mean, I de-clutter quite a lot.  Most years I have a bit of a go, at least once, if not twice, and yet still we have too much.  How can this be?

It doesn't help that I have daughter who hates to part with anything, literally any blooming thing!  Not even clothes that don't fit her anymore, let alone toys she doesn't use.  Sorting her room is a big task and it's quite hard to stop it turning into a bit of a battle ground really.  Which is unfortunate because the birthday and Christmas presents are so much more plentiful when you are a child and finding places to put them... Well, you get the idea.

But that's not really the point.  The point is, the rest of the house.  The point is my de-cluttering.

And I have to admit, I'm having problems.  I had a tentative go up in my crafty little house the other day and I can't say things went well.  As is usual with unsuccessful attempts in this area of sorting, I mostly managed to simply move things around, and achieve very little.  I only selected about three tiny items which I no longer need.  Oh dear.

I always struggle a bit with the task of going through things and clearing out.  I love the idea of having less, my organising brain yearns for a house which has 'a place for everything and everything in it's place.  Everything neat and tidy, easy to find when needed and easy to put away.  Can you imagine?  How joyous that would be!  In my mind I am a minimalist.  Think how much easier the cleaning would be.  (I'm lazy too!)

But, in my heart, I fear I am a hoarder.  There are so many things that I really want to keep, if only I had the space to.  So many things that I feel might come in handy, one day.  And the trouble is, I've been bitten before.  There has been more than one occasion when, a few days/weeks/months after a vigorous clearing out session, a time rolls around when I really could do with just that yarn/fabric/top/kitchen gadget that I decided not to keep.  I don't blame myself for making the choice to throw it away, I can't keep everything, but oh man, it is so annoying!

So this is why I always find the job hard.  But this year, it seems harder still.

Maybe because of the years gone by and the previous pruning and re-fining that has already taken place, but this year I really don't know what can and should go.  Although, once again I feel almost oppressed by shear weight of things in the place.  Something needs to go.  On that point I am sure.  I just don't know how to select which ones.

I've always tried to keep in mind the wise words of William Morris whilst I attempt the de-cluttering...

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

Well actually, to give myself a little more wiggle room, I tend to follow this adapted version from Anthea Turner...

"There’s only a place in the house for things which are useful, beautiful or seriously sentimental."

But it seems this time, these words just don't help.  At least, not in the craft room they didn't.  Obviously, it's full of beautiful things.  It's my lovely, lovely crafty place, that's the point.  It's also full of quite useful things, storage, sewing machine, desk etc.  And there's a fair chunk of sentiment up there too.  Lots of precious and treasured gifts from friends are kept in that special place.

So if everything seems to fall into one of these categories already how do I ever slim things down?  Which beautiful thing is beautiful enough and which isn't.  Which sentimental thing is precious enough?  I really didn't know.  If you've got any ideas, or good 'de-cluttering' words of wisdom please do feel free to advise below.  Help appreciated and much needed at this stage I think!

In the meantime, I'm going to have a go at clothes.

Much easier to know what I've worn or am likely to wear, much less sentimental.

I'll have to build up to the rest!

: :

Read the follow-up post: De-cluttering... An update!

S x

♥

PS... Commenting Problems

I'm afraid I've been having a few problems with comments lately.
For some reason I think mobile/tablet users might be unable to leave comments.
(Unless you are signed in to Blogger, Goggle, or one of the allowed accounts.)
But, there's nothing to say the comment hasn't worked, the comment just doesn't appear.

If your comment has been sent to me, you should get a message saying...
'your comment will appear after it has been approved.'

I've changed the comments set up, to see if that helps, but if are on a phone or tablet and you still have problems, I'd love it if you could let me know. (You can use the contact me page)

Thank you!

#CherryHeart