Does Your Clutter Define You?
What a question!
As I enter neighborhoods and people have their garage doors open I see
all sorts of different garages. In some I see building materials and tools
leading me to believe the owner might be a builder. I see garages jammed with all sorts of items
like bikes, garbage cans, and gardening tools telling me that they have a large
family and not enough room. And then I
see garages with very little in them telling me that maybe they just bought the
house or are minimalists. I will never know the truth about their garage unless
they are a client or I ask them. I am
probably not going to go around asking anyone about their garage, but I have
formed a guess.
The inside of
houses I visit yields the same result with every house being different. I have clients with paper in piles all over
their homes and they struggle to get through it all. I have clients with so many clothes they
cannot get it in their closets and drawers.
I have clients with toys everywhere and no room for furniture. I have clients with crafts in 2 or 3 rooms
and they cannot find anything and usually have multiples of many items and
there are the clients with just one room they have difficulty finding a place
for everything. Many have multiple
unfinished projects in all areas of their home.
So, does the clutter define them? The common denominator in all these is that
clutter is a delayed decision. They
cannot decide where to put it, what to do next, or what to purge, so the
clutter evolves. I believe their clutter
defines them as someone who is having difficulty making some decisions. As a member of the Institute of Chronic
Disorganization, I have learned that some struggle more than others and the
some individuals have been chronically disorganized their entire lives.
The answer to the question is sometimes your clutter
does define you. It might be situational
and your clutter goes away when your life returns to normal and in some cases
your clutter and lack of making decisions does define your work and home environment.