Starting to De-clutter

My progress ( at de-hoarding ) has been at doing one area first, and keeping it clear.
So far, it is the 3 - 4 foot wide space on my desk/drawing board. It serves as the place I read mail and pay bills and write personal letters..
.............................. And I have accomplished it !!! ................................... Took me a coupla weeks, but, I did it !

I'm bipolar and that definitely contributes to my hoarding. In a manic phase, I acquire and sometimes purge. In a depressive phase, I lack energy to clean or organize.

I am more hopeless in the dark of winter and more anxious, panicky, depressed, all at once. I feel like I would be hurting someone if I discarded anything that was given to me. I feel villainous if I throw out actual garbage if I have not processed it to its most considerate state, separating deposit containers from recyclables from compostables from landfill, but my entire home looks like a dumpster.

I am most motivated in the morning. After 2 or 3pm, I'm pretty much done. Paper de-cluttering is the worst. I have to go through and unfold every paper, to see if it's my son's school papers, coupons, fliers of things I will forget I want, receipts, etc.

I went through some clothes yesterday. They are overflowing my dresser and were folded on a wire shelf I bought. Now, the shelf is empty, and I can't seem to throw it away. It would be a great laundry folding station, a great shoe rack.

All in all, I know what you mean. I am trying to beat this monster, too.

I take it a section of a room at a time. It's also hard for me to see my living space with 'new eyes'. I'm so used to seeing the clutter, that it's difficult to pick the 'hot spots'.

Decluttering can seem scary sometimes especially if you've got a LOT of stuff to organize.



There were times when I didn't even know where to start.



But there are good resources on the subject



http://renovatehowto.com/home-improvement/how-to-declutter-your-home/



etc. If you know the best way to approach the project it's much easier and takes half the time. Procrastination is my biggest enemy. =(

Well I just now found supa's storey and comments and seems like I ended up in the right place !!

I can find myself in everything about the story and the comments. I've got to find me again, I hate disorder and it's all around me!! I don't know where to start and I'm overwhelmed!! and sometimes

it does'nt bother me at all. I'm with you, is it a group????I want to join! Or did I?I've got to find out!!!

I cant push myself too, but I put too much on my plate so then I get no where really, only ant step at turtle speed

I am such a hoarder and can't get motivated. HELP!!!

Baby steps...



It's helped me to categorize my possessions. You may want to delete some things during this first step. Then go through each category and decide how important is each item. The hard part is when you still have a ton and everything is important. Then you've got to delete categories. This is really hard. Choose the category that's the least important not the one that has the most or least stuff. Though once you delete a category then most everything connected with that section is purged. Then you have less stuff to go through next time.



Wouldn't it be nice to spend your free time doing something fun rather than going through your over accumulated stuff?



This is what has helped me. I haven't purged everything yet, no not even. Though no one else has to wade through my things either.