Everything in its place

[susandennis]

I spent most of my life as a slob.  Tidy, I was not.  Not even close.  My house was always in the state where it was not very practical to vacuum the carpet because there was too much stuff on it.  Picking up that stuff would take for ev er.  My clothes lived in two piles - dirty and clean.  My bed was rarely made.   Even during the years I had a house cleaner every two weeks, the place was generally a mess.  A mess with a clean, cluttered kitchen and clean windows and the few uncluttered spots were vacuumed.  And the bed did get made once a month.  I never liked the mess but I didn't know how to not be that way.

Then I discovered the secret by accident. I got rid of everything and replaced only half of it and hired a designer to organize and make pretty the half that was left and that's all it took. 

I've been frighteningly tidy ever since.  And today was more of that.  Doing laundry and putting it away.  Walking by the shelves I did yesterday and getting an amazing rush of peace and calm and happy.  Putting more stuff away and loving the organization of it all.  It amazes me how little tolerance I have now for clutter and mess.  My bed is made every day before I leave for the gym.  Took me 55 years but I like it this way.  I think it's kind of interesting that life long habits can change so relatively easily.

Comments

[pisceandreamer.livejournal.com]

I still haven't gotten over my slob tendencies.

At this point, the only solution that I see is a new and different place, completely and utterly empty to start with, and then only take a very, very few select items with me.

In the meantime, I'm emptying the place out as best I can. The current project is completely emptying out the closet and vanity and then only putting back a very few things.

I hope someday I'm like you in the "tidy person" department. :)

[artisanal_xara]

At this point, the only solution that I see is a new and different place, completely and utterly empty to start with, and then only take a very, very few select items with me.

You're stealing my ideas. For as long as I've been with my husband we've moved at least every 2 years, sometimes every year. Up until we bought a house, that is. Now we are pretty setted in. My cleaning strategy was to wait until the place was too messy to stand, then move out. Moving forces a certain level of cleaning that I can't accomplish otherwise. And the extra stuff stayed in boxes for years, so that we had a few new unpacked boxes every time we moved, and we'd tote them around from place to place. Pile them in a corner wherever we settled, and ignore them.

We've been here now close to 4 years, and the forced move cleaning isn't happening. It's getting a bit out of control. Although I did learn this week that hiring carpret cleaners forces you to do something similar, and now my living room is now piled in the porch, hallway, etc. We haven't moved back into the LR since the Friday cleaning. Hrm... :(

[susandennis]

Give yourself time :)

[davmoo.livejournal.com]

My house was always in the state where it was not very practical to vacuum the carpet because there was too much stuff on it. Picking up that stuff would take for ev er. My clothes lived in two piles - dirty and clean. My bed was rarely made.

Damn...you live here too?!

[susandennis]

I used to live under the dirty clothes but eeewwww so I moved in under the clean ones.

[artisanal_xara]

Oh, and I also meant to say that what I get from your experience is that there is hope for me, however slim. Maybe one day I will learn how to tidy and organize.

[susandennis]

There is hope for sure. I, too, honed my lack of skills from moving every 18 months for many years. When I moved in here and never left, stuff just piled up for 13 years. Now it's way better. But, you have two males to pick up after in addition to yourself. I could not not that I don't think.

[fj.livejournal.com]

Some time in Boston I started watching home organization shows, and taking the ideas to heart. I didn't want to be weighed down by stuff. I always said stuff wasn't important, people were, so why were we storing and keeping so much crap? We organized one closet at a time, and I just went on and on until the Boston condo, according to a visitor, looked "like something from an organization/shelter-porn magazine". It did.

Then we moved to LA and found just how much crap we still had. I started creating storage around it. Then pinkfish left and took all his crap and a quarter of the furniture while I was still acquiring closets. I now have empty storage and The Loft looks amazing.

[susandennis]

I love having empty shelves and drawers. It's like having discretionery income.

[susandennis]

When I tell LJ I want spell check, I think LJ should listen to me. goddammit!

discretionary

[zeppo-marx.livejournal.com]

I got rid of half my stuff the old-fashioned way. The woman I lived with for a decade took most of it! Although, I can't confess that my house became cleaner at that point because she had suffered from OCD and kept the place meticulously clean prior to that. It did, however, get me into the habit of living in a non-slobish environment which I maintained therafter.

And then I had kids.....

At any given moment, about half the house is tidy (with the exception of small gatherings of carefuly dropped toys in odd locations (why the hell is there a familly of Lego people dancing in my orchid pot?), and the playroom I only have the energy to really clean once or twice a month. As to their bedrooms, they get a 15 minute warning prior to the arrival of the vacuum. We have an understanding that anything left on the floor may or may not still be there afterwards, depending on whether it will fit down the hose.

But the main living areas are pretty well kept up, and our bedroom - at least - is still a tidy retreat from chaos.

[susandennis]

In my Mother's house, children were only allowed in the living room if they had special permission.

But your entry reminded me of just how bad I was as a kid. Mom had a woman who came in a cleaned periodically. We were given a day's warning when it was time for our rooms to be cleaned. Everything was to be put away OR ELSE. The OR ELSE was... Mom would go in with a box and pick up anything that was left out and put it in the box. And take the box away. If we wanted anything out of the box, we had to pay for each item out of our allowance. I remember her doing that a lot so I'm thinking it was not an effective method for getting us (or at least me) to pick up my room!!