Professional Organizer | Clearing Clutter | Motivational Speaker | Salt Lake City, Utah

“Life is hard by the yard, a cinch by the inch”.
—Wolfgang Mieda
I remember my mom used to tell me this when I would whine about doing something she had asked me to do (probably clean my room or get the dishes washed. I was so good at putting things off).

The quote today is from Wolfgang who is a professor at the University of Vermont according to Wikipedia.

Clearing clutter is hard to do all if we have the mindset that it all has to ALL be done right now!

When in truth when we do it a little at a time we don’t get burnt out and we look forward to clearing clutter another day. I’ve said it before and I am saying it again—set your timer when organizing and when it dings take a break and pat yourself on the back for what you have accomplished.

Is your arm tired from reaching back and patting yourself on the back? I hope so because I want you to constantly praise your efforts to clear clutter.

The last night I was at my daughter’s in Atlanta we had dinner with a couple of her friends. The conversation turned to clearing clutter as they knew I am an author of a book on clearing clutter and they talked about their dilemmas and successes.

One of the women shared the way she gets rid of clutter is to pick and chose what project or place is most important to her and to let the rest go until she has time to tackle it. She doesn’t feel sorry for herself or beat herself up for having clutter. She is super busy as a mother, graduate student and wife along with all the other things we as women tackle. Oh and she is also 7 months pregnant with a high risk pregnancy.

I thought what a great way to clear clutter—be choosy in the projects or places to clear clutter. When that is done, move on to another area.  And let go of the guilt for having clutter in the first place—life happens ya know.

That is our Monday challenge.  Thanks for sharing this idea with us Amy. What area are you going to tackle this week? I am going to continue to work on my in box on my desk.

“Success and failure are greatly overrated. But failure gives you a whole lot more to talk about”.

—Hildegard Kinef

Isn’t this the truth? When our homes are neat and tidy there is no need to chat about clearing clutter because there is no clutter to chat about. Which would you rather do chat about it or clear clutter?

Actually I think failure sounds final but mistakes are healthy when we learn from them. When I was a child I took a glass jar that had some hard olvaltine (this is a sweet drink when mixed in milk) in the bottom of it. I took a long butcher knife and was chipping away at it when the knife slipped and I cut my knuckle. Blood was streaming out (from my perspective) as I ran screaming and crying to my mom who was a couple of blocks away and she bandaged it. I remember her gasping and was quite horrified that I had done this. To this day I have a scar from that mistake—but I learned never to do that with a knife again.

Whether we talk about clearing clutter or we actually clear clutter in entirely up to us. What do you feel like doing today?