Clutter Contest
To celebrate our One Year Anniversary for our site, we are offering a contest. I want to see the clutter! We are giving away a copy of : For Packrats Only How to Clean Up, Clear Out and Dejunk Your Life Forever by Don Aslet for the worst clutter story or picture. Why? Well, if you win this contest, it will be because you really need the book!
Thank you for all the entries. Here are some of our entries so you can see the photos with me.
These are just the pictures we received. We also had some terrific essays sent without pictures. Everyone who entered gets a copy of our Audio mp3: Chaos to Order, Bringing Organization to Your Home. The winner will get a copy of Don’s book. I will send an email to all entrants. If you sent me an entry and I missed sending you an email, just drop me a note and remind me. We get tons of emails each month, and it is possible I missed one.
The essays received without pictures are listed below.
I can see based on this contest that this is a HUGE problem for many of our readers, and we will be addressing this in upcoming newsletters.
The winner of the Don Aslet book is: Jenn H. If you look carefully at her clutter picture you can see my website opened up to the clutter contest on her desk. Clever addition.
Jenn-send me your address via email and I will get your book right to you!
For details on our next contest “Setting Your Table” see here.
About the Author
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This article may be reprinted freely in your publications or on your website, provided it is reprinted in its entirety and the biographical information is kept intact. Thank you! We'd love to consider publishing your articles! Please send your submission to homemaking911@gmail.com with the subject Article Submission and we will be glad to review it for possible inclusion on our website! |
Dear Malia,
Not sure if our story about clutter in our house would win, but, since our two 23- and 24-1/2 year olds are off working for a ministry (edited for privacy) an extra week more than the two they’ve already been gone, we have no digital camera on hand, to take the photo of the “mess” we have here, for you to see. So, I will have to use words to describe it for you.
In our bedroom, we have stacks, no piles trying to be in a straight line, of cardboard moving boxes interspersed with large, plastic containers, meant to be underbed ones (they don’t fit under our bed; the bed frame was not designed to accommodate their height measurement!), about 6 feet high, along the wall at the end of the bed — just enough room to walk by to get to the closet. Then, we have containers and a box or two, all piled to the left of the door, all along the wall between the door and the one dresser in that bedroom, about 4 feet high. So, just enough room to walk from the door to the dresser. But that was not enough: we also have three sweater-size containers, stacked up along my side of the bed, so that I have to get into the bed from the end where my feet would go. Otherwise, I’d have to jump over those, to get in anywhere near where a normal person would sit down, and then lie down, to go to sleep. Of course, waking up is fun, because I get to sit straight up, and slide down and over, all in one move, so as to navigate myself over to the edge of the bed, so my feet will be able to touch the wood floor, so I can, then, stand up, to get out of the bed.
And the closet is also a stack of various types of boxes and containers, with the shelf piled all the way to the ceiling with boxes, sleeping bags rolled up and other containers, none neatly stacked, just various things there that are not so neat as they are just all there, filling up that space. And below the clothes, rubbing against them, because these also fill up the space up to and past the lower limit of any clothing hanging there on hangers, are the other boxes and large, plastic containers, that make me wonder if my clothing will ever get to hang straight down again, now that we’ve moved to this place. ;o) We also have, in the closet, a folding, back-porch type metal chair, for the person (it’s my husband’s) to lie back and relax in it, somewhat like a recliner. And there are some very large posters, a large box with large drawings in it, plus framed pictures, in a box standing on its end. It also rubs against our hanging clothing, along with some wrapping paper rolls, which try to fall over when I try to be quiet while I move something in the closet to get something out of a box.
And that’s only my bedroom. And, by the way, that bedroom is not a master bedroom. We have to let our 3 daughters have what would be called the master bedroom. This house is the smallest we 8 have ever lived in! My husband’s and my bedroom was meant for a small child, or maybe one under the age of 13, perhaps. It is in a mobile home. However, when we lived in a house at least 1/3 larger than this one, we had this same challenge — boxes all over, in our bedroom, and in our dining area, where we ate every day. Made for some stressful days, nights and weekends! I never wanted anyone to come over, because of the boxes everywhere! Most of the things in most of the boxes … we actually needed! That’s the odd thing. But when we had to downsize, before moving here, we did actually discover that there were plenty of things to get rid of — and we did get rid of (throw away), or give away, quite a bit more than two van fulls of stuff. So, maybe I can continue to downsize … eh?
Time may heal all wounds, but nothing is better than goin’ campin’ just to get away from all that clutter! Am thinkin’ of staging a bonfire, after I separate all “the stuff we truly do have to keep” from all the stuff that we “need” to get rid of. We have no insurance; so, we would not be able to claim it was an accident. I would feel relieved, to not have all that stuff “around.” And I know all of us would be able to breathe, rest more peacefully and feel less stressed, if only we did not have so many boxes sitting all around. Our main problem, now, is that we have not enough shelves, to organize things, and we have no income coming in (literally) to buy any, nor any money to get any new containers, to get rid of the messy-looking, top-caving-in moving boxes that are being pressed down by a heavier box on top of a stack of those. oh my!
If you can use this story, that’s great. If you plan to “print it” anywhere, please allow me to edit it. It is much too long, in the same way that I have too many boxes in every room in this house, and the last house, and the one before that. Am so glad God has moved us 3 times in the last 5 years, because He’s been forcin’ us to get rid of stuff. And you can tell, we are not rid of enough, yet. !!
God bless you, Malia!
If you need more details, such as how the other rooms in our house look, as I described only the bedroom I try to sleep in, … I could send you the description of at least one more. It sure takes more words to describe a cluttered room than it does to just take a photo from 2 or 3 angles! Next time our two income-earners go off to work in ministry, I will ask one of them to leave the camera here!!
Love to you, in The Lord!
Kathy
John 15: 1-5
p.s. I wonder if abiding in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ) means that where I live should have no feeling of uneasiness or anxiety due to lack of orderliness in the house!?? What if my house is cluttered with boxes, partly due to our running at least two businesses in the living room? — one is a sewing business, with fabric and other “needs” stored in boxes. We run a home-based ministry, and have 3 computers (for our other business) all on make-shift tables, that we can look at from the kitchen while we prepare meals (oh joy!). We have a printer on one 2-drawer metal filing cabinet that is where our telephone barely fits, in between the computer tables (that look more like a sturdy, larger version of those tv trays some folks used to eat on, way back in the 1960s). And one of our homeschool bookshelves is next to one of our computer tables (mine), with calligraphy quotes, not framed, propped along the wall on top of a metal box that used to be a wall heater, that is no longer being used (we rent this house).
And the best part may be the stuffed, dark-brown bear (mine!) that sits on top of a stack of boxes that have business files and papers in them. Where else would he fit? He did not like it in my closet! He likes to oversee the goings on in the business/ ministry / sewing work / educational videos being played on the tv / or our son playing piano / or to see who might be walking from area to area, within this small abode. … did I mention the other, taller stack of boxes, that fill the corner of the room, with an upside-down, 5-foot-long wall shelf (not yet mounted; mobile home walls seem to have no real support for pictures of hung shelves!) with pegs in it, on top of those boxes?? Altogether, the boxes “in the corner” of the living room give the impression that we are either getting ready to move, though we are not, or else that we just moved in, which we did not. We just have no other place to put them. We don’t!
Hope your day will be lacking in clutter! I have wished for that, for years! It’s either that someone else won’t get rid of their collections, or that I keep too many papers and “old things” that I could live without, … well, maybe. (hee hee!)
Maybe if God urges my husband that we need to go on the mission field, by 2009, then we might get motivated to really get rid of more stuff, this time around!!! Hallelujah! God has a way to accomplish what He wants! Wonder what method He’d like to use, to help us overcome this bad habit? (we actually have eliminated quite a bit; since we have no garage now, for the first time in about 7 years, we are having to rent a storage space, nearby, for some more stuff, like Christmas decor, and more, including our daughter’s hope chest, and garage tools, some of them. oh dear! (you thought I was done telling how much stuff we have, in boxes, didn’t you?)
I have always been a clutterer/messy person. I have a work area that is being over taken by toys, books spilling allover, paper and binders everywhere;bills that have been paid and need to be filed. There is not much space on the desk to write or type most of the time. I have to unbury my phone when I am in my office area. There are a mountain of toys by my desk and they just get thrown back into the pile and the toy basket sits empty. I also have a clothset that is full of craft supplies, books and clothing that is everywhere-the kids don’t put things back on the shelves just throw them in there. My house usually looks like a tornado hit it. Hopefully that is detailed enough. Thanks for entering me and for the great site.
Melissa
I spend most of my time trying to hide this but it actually feels a little bit of a catharsis to allow someone that isn’t a family member or close friend (nothing can be hidden from them) to see it.
I know I am a packrat (I grew up in a family of packrats with a hoarder for a mother) and I yearn to be neat, and tidy and organized like I see so many families doing around me but it always seems just out of reach.
We are a family of students. Both my husband and I are full time students (my husband at a major University and me on a distance course for an associates degree) and our four children are 6 (being homeschooled in a living books rich education). We live in the University’s family housing and it is small which is you may imagine is not very forgiving to my proclivities. I have had people come in and try to help me and we would get the place clean but I could never maintain it. Slowly but inexorably, it would slide downhill again. In the end, I have realized that while they helped me clean, they never helped the problem itself which is that I have too much stuff and I need to get rid of about half of it. And therein starts my dilemma. It’s as if there are two of me and there is a constant struggle.
On the one side, I want a super simple life where I can just enjoy my little ones and watch as they grow and learn. I want to be able to say yes when they want to play a game, or read a book with them, etc. I am attracted to the simpler times when most of our clothing was made at home on your mother’s sewing machine (sewing is one of my passions but rarely done) or on your mother’s knitting/crochet needles (something else I love). Most food was eaten straight from the garden or made fresh at home, nothing from bags and boxes. Even soaps and healing balms & salves were made at home (something else I enjoy doing). I love to cook so we often make everything ourselves even down to the bread, when I’m not fighting a kitchen that’s grown it’s own personality and can be quite scary to deal with. We’re moving to less is better such as low energy consumption (all clothing is hung out to dry), less waste (reuse and recycle), a worm bin, and my youngest little one is completely diaper free at only 26 months, even at night. I am only organized in some areas of my life and the rest is a disaster.
And then there’s my Hyde. This is the side I’m ashamed about and the side that I spend most of my energy trying to hide and ignore. This is the side that could care less that the table is stacked up and hasn’t been used by the family in two months or that my husband has to go to work with the same pair of socks he’s worn for the last three days. Or that there’s no room to play with the new marble run because the floor is hiding under it’s own creation of books, toys, clothing, shoes and even bits of trash. The dust bunnies have their own personalities and thrive on thwarting the brooms and rags and seem to multiply at ever increasing rates.
One side just wants to grab every article of clothing & shoes (of which is there is an overabundance) and get rid of it all. Just completely start anew. But the other side balks at getting rid of perfectly good clothing and spending MONEY when we have perfectly good clothing. So the laundry piles up, my stress levels skyrocket and I don’t have the time to spend it as I wish. I spend most of it in vicious circles of cleaning, the children pulling it all out again, fighting with said children to get it put away and finally giving up in exhaustion and letting it all pile up before I get the energy to start it all again.
The crux of the matter is that I really hate myself over this battle because I know I can do it. Years ago, when my oldest was a baby I completely turned everything around and had a spotless house for a few short, blissfull months; there were no laundry piles, I learned how to sew, dinner was on the table within a few minutes of the same time every night, and I still spent a lot of time on a MORPG, Ever Quest. But that bubble was quickly popped due to some personal problems stemming from my husband and I’ve never had the energy (or the heart) to catch it again.
But now I’m lost and sinking fast. I feel guilty that I don’t have the energy or patience to spend the time with my children as I would like. More and more I’m seeing more of my mother in me and I feel that the prison is getting tighter. Now that I’m an adult, I realize that my mother spent most of my childhood in a state of depression and I understand now that she’d given up. She spent more time pursuing her own thing (painting, cross stitch and when I was older, the computer) then tending to us or our father and it was quite evident that she thought it more important than any of us. I want to change that tendency in myself. After all, it’s all I’ve ever known but wanting to change it is a lot different than taking the first step when one doesn’t even know where to begin.
And all of this is topped of with my health problems. Due to these problems, I am perpetually anemic and have even less energy to deal with the ever increasing problems of my STUFF. I am fighting the fact that I have to wean my youngest daughter before either of us is ready just for the fact that too much energy is going to the milk and that little extra bit could mean a big difference. I have lost all control of my life and am in the process of losing my children’s trust as well. My oldest has developmental delays and other assorted problems and I have to deal with him with a certain parenting style. A style that I love and am attracted to simply because it’s completely opposite to everything I’ve ever known as I child myself; a style of connection, love, trust, respect. And I find it harder every day not because I don’t want to do it, but because I don’t have the energy to force myself to remember to do that instead of falling back on my programming. All of my energy is going to trying to get through the day and just survive the multitude of tasks that I have interspersed with the daily lives of four small children let alone anything that I want to do, enjoy doing, such as knitting or sewing or even the basic tasks of clean clothes and fresh wholesome food.
As I write this, two of my children are playing quietly (for once) and actually sharing a small sticker book among themselves. They’re looking for hidden pictures and placing the stickers on them as they find them. One is off with his grandmother for swimming lessons and then speech therapy and the other one is still in the blessed land of sleep. And while I have the satisfaction of having a clean kitchen with a small pot of soup bubbling for lunch, I have it thanks only to my husbands help. I still quail at the fact that the rest of my house has a mountain of tests and resolutions before me and that I’m not sure how well I’m going to do. I’m saddened at the fact that just yesterday my tiny, warm, inviting living area was actually clean and today it’s once again scattered with the aforementioned marble run and it’s assorted marbles, the pile of laundry that was dumped so the basket could be a boat, the huge bag of books bought only yesterday at a yard sale that’s now scattered about after the children spent an enjoyable hour looking at them, the TV/computer cabinet that’s covered in the daily offcasts of mail, books set aside, and other assorted items. I don’t know where to start but still, as I ponder that I’m glad that I’ve told you my story. I have attached pictures of some of the better areas of my home because even though I’m glad to be getting this off my shoulders, I’m still embarrassed and saddened at the state of my home and I’m not ready to show all of it yet.
Ami
My entry is a blog pic…is that okay? Here’s the link: http://whitetrashmama.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post.html
Congrats on your first anniversary!! I’m enjoying your website, downloads, organization helps, blog. Someday I will be organized, I hope!!
Here’s my picture. (Actually, I guess I shouldn’t send the picture, as it’s not my house, and I’d hate for someone to send in a picture of my house without my knowledge or consent!)
So here’s the word picture:
My “parent” collects one particular species of bird (stuffed animals, figurines, and toys). In this room I count:
on the couch: 25 birds
between the couch and the coffee table: 9 (I can’t count the number on the coffee table, as it is obscured by other toys.)
in the display cabinet: 28
on the display cabinet: 5
on or under the table between the couch and the display cabinet: 7 (and 11 other figurines)
on the bookshelf: 43 (and I can only count those on the top three shelves, as the bottom shelves are obscured by an electronic keyboard that is in front of it.)
on the electronic keyboard: 2
on the curtain rod: 5
So, basically, this is one whole room that is totally devoted to this particular bird. It isn’t possible to sit on the couch without moving the birds. (Actually, it’s hard to get to the couch, because of the birds!) There are small ones and large ones (several are about 2 feet tall!) They are all different color variations. They are standing and sitting and lying down. Their wings are outstretched or down by their sides. They are smiling or frowning; some don’t have a mouth. Some have hats or scarves or other clothes. A few are still in the plastic bag or cardboard box in which they were purchased.
So, why do I need this book? Because this is my inheritance!! Not the birds, necessarily, but the mindset that “I need more! I can’t get rid of this or this or this! I can’t live without these!!”
I am fighting the battle of clutter in my house daily. Most days it seems the clutter is winning. It doesn’t help that we home school and have stuff that we “need” or “can’t live without” for teaching our children.
Thanks! and here’s hoping your business grows many years to come.