Clutter Creeps

It's back. I am so frustrated with the clutter that has recolonized every surface in my home.

I have Christmas cards on the bar; I have wrapping materials on the floor; I have actual gifts in the living room. Schoolbooks and mending and shopping bags and unfolded laundry are scattered around everywhere else.

When life gets busy (and I am beginning the busiest week of my year, bar none) I leave clutter around as anxious little gifts to myself. In addition to having very little time to myself, I also get to enjoy constant reminders of the things I need to do when I'm done with what I'm doing.

So today will be dedicated to getting clutter busted. I will fold the laundry and write my Christmas letter and shove the wrapping box out of the way. (I'm not ready to start wrapping yet!)

Physical clutter on top of a breakneck schedule is a recipe for a crabby, grumpy, non-festive attitude. Which will make me feel guilty about disrupting everyone else's mood.

And I will ask others to pitch in with tasks like addressing envelopes. I don't have to micromanage every task, especially the ones that are important to other people.

I will declutter my mind as well as my environment.

Daily Declutter

I have a jar problem. I hang onto jars because they're "cute," or they "might be useful." So today, I tackled a bit of that problem. I pulled out all the "cute" jars I've been hanging onto for so long, and told them exactly how things are going to be from now on: they'll either hold Christmas presents, or out they go.

After all, if I don't have a use for them this time of year, I'm not going to suddenly need them in mid-February.

I also mailed off a box for a cousin. It contains some avocados, a chocolate bar, teabags, and a re-gifted teacup. I know some people don't approve of regifting, but this way I can give a gift to a lovely person (who I happen to know is a tea drinker and a generous hostess) without creating a demand for more stuff to be manufactured just for gifting. If she decides to donate it, or passes it along to someone else, I'm fine with that. Maybe this cup's destiny lies elsewhere. But it's also clutter that has been sitting around, waiting, for quite a while now.

This is how it goes around here lately. Not the dramatic changes I was making a year ago, but things are improving at a slower rate, and that's what happens when I've gotten rid of the top layers of clutter.