Can't see the wood for the trees, or tabletops for trinkets? Learn how de-cluttering your life might allow space for creative thinking...
When I started my writing journey, one of the first things I gleefully let go was the concept of a pristine house. Actually, I suspect I let go of that concept when I had kids… Be that as it may, as a writer I aggressively adopted the mantra of ‘words first, clean later,’ unless I was procrastinating in which case you’d find me scrubbing the bathroom with a toothbrush.
I often had a pristine bathroom…
Back to my house more generally. Now, whilst I may yearn for my place to be one of clean modern lines (who am I kidding, I’m all about country style clutter) it’s almost impossible to achieve. The problem is that two adults, two teenagers, pets and ‘stuff’ involves a lot of squish. I mean, there were clothes I’d made thirty years earlier which didn’t fit but I was hanging onto because it was something I’d sewed. Then the kids’ clothes they’d grown out of (because they were growing like a foot a day and eating as much as elephants – did I say I had teenagers?)
Cue…CLUTTER CATASTROPHE!!!
Yes, my place looked more like an episode of hoarders than home.
What has that got to do with writing, you ask?
Heaps. Studies have consistently shown clutter affects a person’s mental state. People talk about feeling drained, being weighed down. The word ‘suffocating’ was often used, and if you’re feeling like that there’s no mental space left for doing the things you love. And for me, that was creative thinking.
As the organising guru Peter Walsh said, 'If you have so much stuff it drags you into the past or pulls you into the future, you can’t live in the present.'
I was there. What to do about it? De-clutter of course.
So how to go about it? I tried the whole 'Does this spark joy?' question and it was a good start and kind of freeing, allowing me to dispose (to charity, mainly) of all sorts of things I’d been hanging on to because I didn’t want them to go to waste (a hangover from the lessons of my frugal Scottish Grandmother). But even then, I had a lot of "things” in my house that I still held onto, and knowing that it was there kept dragging me to the question, 'What do I do with all this stuff?'
This time, though, I decided to go hard-core after reading about dostadning, or Swedish Death Cleaning.
I understand a bit about this concept, having gone through my parents’ house after my father passed away. Dealing with all the things they'd collected over the years was an agonising emotional journey. What to do with it all, now they’d gone? How much better for them to have sorted it whilst they were alive, so difficult decisions wouldn’t have to be made by we kids?
It seems in Sweden, the process begins when a person is in their fifties (I’m CLEARLY overdue…) and it’s all about decluttering. Margareta Magnusson has written a book about it called, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Her motto is, 'If you don’t love it, lose it. If you don’t use it, lose it.' Perfect!
Apparently the first rule of Swedish Death Cleaning is to talk about Swedish Death Cleaning. I tried that on my husband, Mr A.
'Darling, you know when you die I’m just going to get a skip a throw out all your stuff?'
(He has lots of stuff. The 15 year old computer that was stored in our laundry is Exhibit A and if you’re old enough to remember and are Australian, he still has his Good Do Bee
certificate from Romper Room, awarded when he was five.)
Hubs didn’t even look up from his phone, 'Yeah, I know. But I sometimes store things in the pages of my books, so don’t chuck those.'*
I’m still learning new things about him, even after 17 years of marriage…
'When Dad dies, can I get a mouse?' asked our son from the lounge.
My husband and I were as one.
'NO MICE!!'
Not to be outdone, our daughter chimed in, 'Mum, when you die can I have your shoes and vintage clothes?'
Okay, once we’d sorted out the relevant succession and inheritance issues, and re-wrote the will, I got down to business.
My methods were a combination of Does this give me joy and Death Cleaning. I got rid of things that didn’t give me joy. If I didn’t use it, it was gone. My family scattered in terror because I was a human de-cluttering demon. They hid things from me. Admittedly, I ended up retrieving some items that had gone into charity bags because I was a touch overzealous, and had to claim back a doll of my daughter's that went to a local thrift store which I thought she didn't want but did, however overall, it seemed to go well with only a little angst.
A tidy house really did give my brain space to be creative again. I felt light. FREE, even! My imagination ran riot again. Decluttering for creative thinking worked! The clean was also a revelation for my wardrobe. Out went anything that was uncomfortable, with questionable fit, or I was keeping ‘just because’. I could see what I had, and some old faves I’d forgotten about. But I also learned a few things. Lots of my stuff gives me joy, so there’s a heap I couldn't get rid of. This still left me with a problem of where to store it?
Over a glass of wine at an exhausting job well done, I picked up the phone discuss my dilemma with a friend. Her husband's a carpenter. Hmmm. Perhaps I need more cupboards…
So, what about you? With a newish year, are you on a de-cluttering drive too? If so, what method are you using? I'd love to hear from you here or on social media.
Well, that's it for me. If you want more information about my books you can check out my newsletter. New subscribers get a copy of a stand alone romance novella, His Cinderella Princess, and I often hold great give-aways you don't want to miss. But for now, stay safe and sparkle! Love, Kali.
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*I will NEVER throw out books :)
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