The Boxes of What Ifs

Posted byThe Autistic ComposterPosted inFascinating MusingsTags:, , ,
Fascinating Musings
Season 1 – Tuesday – 17/01/23
The Boxes of What Ifs
Since The Many Situations of Modern-Day Life! was published just over a week ago, the decluttering project has been on a partial hold due to volunteering, gardening, or carting stuff backwards and forwards to the allotment. 

However, that changed yesterday morning and will continue for most of today. Tomorrow morning l will be working in the Gazen Salts reserve, and then we both will be in the client’s garden in the afternoon. The client’s garden will also be worked on Thursday and Friday to Sunday Suze and l will be down at the allotment. So it’s another busy week in hand to be had.

How do you begin to gather and, in some ways, hoard clutter? It’s not like it is a deliberate move on anyone’s part, yet it seemingly happens magically. 

I was reading an interesting article last week about decluttering. It looked at the two significant reasons people hoard clutter without intention. 

1] – How it begins as a slight error of judgement about buying/ using something, to not needing it in everyday life, to becoming confused as to why you had it and then storing it because you think you need it because of what ifs in life.

2] – Failure to let it go!

2a] – Holding onto something out of guilt.

2b] – Holding on to memories of loved ones or wishing to return to an earlier time in your life.

I think it failed to address a third possibility which could be found in items 1 and 2, and that was putting something away because of the what if and then forgetting you have put the what if away and then after you have unintentionally hoarded hundreds of what ifs that they start to make their presence known in the form of clutter.

That is how my clutter forms, although Suze’s clutter bombs might be different. It is easier to put that little what-if into a drawer, a box, a hidey hole and whatever through modern-day convenience.

Who knows? What l do know is that yesterday l wish l hadn’t started decluttering. Because the loungeroom fast became the room no one wanted to be in! Suze had a similar morning upstairs in the spare room. We started the decluttering project around nineish in the morning and were still going at it until ten that night!

Here l am Tuesday morning, just putting together a quick post for today, and l will restart. I made huge moves yesterday and implemented significant changes, and the area that was storing clutter looks better. My office desk, for starters, is way clearer and smoother to the eye. The areas around me are tidier as well.

But there is still a way to go, and if l looked at the overall picture equating to 100% like a lake, then the splash l made was a big splash for sure, BUT still a ripple in some respects. So therefore, the impact of day one for me was 20% only. Suze tells me her splash percentage was only around 5%. But she had more emotional baggage to go through – her parent’s photograph albums.

I had all sorts of things, mostly paperwork and small bits l had somehow accumulated, from magazines to the last boxes of my dad’s belongings, to photographs before digitalisation and items that had been collected for whatever reasons.

One of the other prime reasons that cause clutter hoarding, l think, is that which ties into 2a of sorts and not so much a case of wanting to return to the person we once were, although that could be thrown at me when l first moved into Willow after Suze and l split and l was searching for my identity. 

But that we change as people. So a lot of my stuff isn’t cluttered. It is more a case of no longer being that person, finding a new identity, and realising that you must journey to pinpoint the clarity by ridding yourself of the clutter.

Of course, then you have to ask yourself, is your clutter or collection of unwanted you going to be seen as trash or treasure by another person?

Today l have the joy of photographing the more treasury clutter items to see if they can be sold. Suze and l already have several bags to go to the charity stores.

I will be glad to see the loungeroom tidy again.
All the What Ifs of Life!

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19 thoughts on “The Boxes of What Ifs”

  3. I need to do this every few years in my office. As a matter of fact, it is a bit over due. Part of that is due to the plants that have just been moved in because Archie has taken to eating my plants when I am gone. But I try to take care of my clutter every little while. I start to get piles here and there but I make myself go through them. It is just an ongoing process.

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  4. 🤔 Okay, Rory, I see it like this: a hoarder is not necessarily a clutterer (Even though many of them are).

    For example, a person can have a huge quantity of pens neatly packed inside a desk drawer.

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    1. Hey Renard 🙂

      l am also not a hoarder, and having lived with one some years back, you are quite right. There is a considerable difference 🙂
      She was my girlfriend in 2007, but she hoarded animals and was an absolute nightmare, so we split in 2009. Then l think about my ex-wife, who was messy as well. Yeah, she was seriously untidy and a serious clutterer who became a hoarder. She couldn’t let go of anything.

      I am, however, an unwitting hoarder of assorted clutter bombs.

      Suppose l was to use the pens you mention here as an example. I can relate to the specific thing you say. I have many assorted pens in my office desk drawer, no longer mixed but tidied up into elastic banded bundles. I have to ask myself how many anyone needs to keep – l have pencils, pens and pens for whiteboards.

      Will l use them in the future? Probably not, meaning l could quickly lose 75% of them on the next shuffle.

      The second issue with pens is a box of 300 Snifty Pens and three boxes of 300 bubblewrap padded envelopes for me to send out the Snifty pens. You may recall that a few years ago, on the Guy blog, l sent the Snifty pens out to readers who requested them.

      I have still got loads of each. Not a hoarder situation either; l bought them for promotions and marketing, and along came covid, and the pen promo had to stop. So l put the pens away in a drawer and then just remembered about them recently …

      So l will have to see what l do about offloading 300 scented pens hahaha 🙂

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  6. I’m pretty good about decluttering and in fact, I just loaded up a box for Goodwill. My hubby is a borderline hoarder. He decluttered (sort of) a year ago but still has a ton of “stuff”! IMO, it’s fulfilling to declutter. I feel like I can breathe. Have a great day, Rory!

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