Ten Simple Rules to Help You Avoid Organized Living
September 10, 2008
I found a lovely post that suits my cantankerous mood today. Enjoy! 🙂
Do you think that all the hype about organized living is a big joke? Are you tired of the “clear the clutter” mantra? Would you like to just go on in your own disorganized way?
Follow these 10 guidelines for how NOT to clear the clutter and I can guarantee you will be able to get more and more clutter and disorganization in your life and avoid organized living altogether!
1. Shop ’til you Drop – be a good consumer and get out there and buy stuff, even stuff you do not need or want. When you think you have enough go and buy more. Better yet every time you feel emotionally upset or are having a bad day engage in shopping therapy to make yourself feel better. Just remember that in order to create more clutter you must always add to what you already have so if you buy duplicates of any item make sure you keep each and every one!
2. Do not plan – live in the moment and only deal with what is going on right now. Who cares if you cannot find your socks, your briefcase, or your keys tomorrow morning? You are happy right now and you should be able to do only what you want to do at this moment.
3. Assign the same level of importance to everything – this will make you feel truly overwhelmed and if you are feeling overwhelmed you can just go shopping!
4. Accept every free item that is offered to you – if it’s free it must be worthwhile and it must be worth having.
5. Never ever say no, to anyone or anything, not even to yourself – This method is guaranteed to win you friends because no one will ever be mad at you! and in addition you will likely be rich with clutter. Definitely a win/win situation for the clutter lover!
6. Procrastinate – why make a decision today when you can do it tomorrow, or the day after, or the year after that!
7. Create emotional attachments to your stuff – being emotionally attached to stuff is so much safer than forming relationships with people. Stuff will never abandon you, hurt your feelings, or be late for a lunch date! When your stuff has such wonderful emotions and memories attached why would anyone want to go out and create new memories??
8. Stay stuck in the past – the future is so uncertain but the past is a known entity. There are no uncertainties in the past! Actually moving forward in your life would mean that you have to clear the clutter (horrors). Better to stick with what you know than face an uncertain future.
9. Think emotionally not logically – use your emotions as the basis for every decision in your life and you are guaranteed to have more of what you already have!
10. Keep everything “just in case” – in order to keep your clutter you must assume that everything you have will have some usefulness in the future. You do not have to plan to use it tomorrow or even the next day just someday! You should not be planning to use it anyway or you are breaking rule #2!
So there you have it. Ten simple rules for how to avoid organized living and NOT clear the clutter.
Beverly Hansen OMalley invites you to view the information at organization-makes-sense.com Here you will find information that makes sense of the processes and decisions needed to achieve organized living, including 3 simple truths about organizing, information about what decisions are necessary to achieve clutter control, and positive attitude tips for leading a more organized life.
Article by Beverly OMalleyat ezinearticles.com.
yes, I might fix this broken toaster someday and even though I own a better toaster that actually works, this one was given to me by my grandma. yes, it is probably a fire hazard too, but I can’t throw something away from grandma. 😉
LOL, isn’t it funny what we do to ourselves?
~ ElizabethPW
Elizabeth Potts Weinstein’s last blog post..Ep #57 Put the Law of Attraction Into Action in Your Life & Business
I love it. I need to print this out to remind everyone in the house why I’m always nagging them to put things away and why something must go if you buy something new.
Everything should have a proper place so we can always find it. Even my 4 year old knows that.
lol! 🙂
Thanks for the comments, Ladies!
Thought you’d never get around to this post! This is for those who always blow against the wind.
Thanks.
I am so glad you took the opportunity to share these thoughts with others!
I think that sometimes we take ourselves too seriously which is why I wrote the article in the first place.
Even though I am passionate about organizing we have to make sure that we are in control of the organizing process and it is not controlling us, otherwise it would be an obsession!
I will take passion over obsession any day!
I am glad that you all enjoyed it!
Thank you, Beverly, for the post – it’s brilliant!
🙂 Eva
I agree. Sometimes we do take ourselves way too seriously. I love to organize and I love an organize space, but I was being controlled by “organizing”. I didn’t realize it until my daughter was born. Having a baby sure helped me. I still love organization but a toy or two out of place doesn’t really bother me. And I am not sure if I will ever part with my little sweetie’s first dress.
Kyna’s last blog post..15 Quick Tips For Effective Time Management
Gorgeous post, Beverley.
And Eva, I like it when you’re in a cantankerous mood 🙂
That was wonderful. Scary to admit this but you could have been describing me to a T up until about 1 year or so ago. I had so much useless stuff that was doing nothing more than creating an extremely congested & chaotic home. I started with a timer and worked for 15 minutes at a time and kept at it. It didn’t hurt that I was told about 5 months in that my apt was being repainted & carpeting (after 12 years). Then in February I downsized into a 1 bedroom apt. Needless to say that prompted more weeding out. I’m still a work in progress. paper clutter is still my biggest challenge but compared to my previous record of 5 years of not opening mail (& hanging onto it) other than the absolute essentials, I’ve come a long way. I thoroughly enjoy your posts & find some very helpful. keep them coming. Thank you.
haha, that’s one amusing post…
it’s funny, i just posted in my blog a short ramble on clutter (i actually posted a sketch, an ode, and a song on “ode to clutter)… and then played with google to find what other people said about clutter… and found this blog!
what a coincidence….
merlyna’s last blog post..Ode to Clutter
I love it, Merlyna!
thanks, Eva.
i love this posting too 🙂
merlyna’s last blog post..Ode to Clutter
This is hilarious, loved the tips! I know a some people that follow the advice in this. I know, scary isn’t it?
cyndi’s last blog post..Training for Professional Organizers