In my line of work the most common emotion I encounter in new clients is overwhelm–the feeling they are overrun and overtaken by their things and they don’t know how to deal with or address. My job is to assuage their fears by reducing the scary image of a mountain of stuff to bite-sized piles that we address one at a time.
Clutter is merely a collection of things amassed together
Clutter is nothing but a collection of things that have amassed into a greater pile of items. I divide and conquer by breaking up the mass into smaller sections and addressing one item at a time. Clutter is also unmade decisions and when each thing is addressed, looked at, examined and explored, the charge of its power begins to decrease. I dive head first into the most scary area for the client–whether its a roomful of papers, clothes all over the floor, a garage that has very little breathing room, and I walk the client through each bag, box and envelope as we begin the process of sorting and purging.
Bit by bit the piles begin to shrink. They start to fit into categories and some rhyme and reason starts to occur. A gradual sense of relief happens because the client doesn’t feel alone while facing her mysterious wall of things that is fraught with emotional charge and energy. She can see that I am fearless in my approach and that these items are not intimidating to me. I can conquer the piles because, in my mind, they are only stuff with no memories or history. I can prod the client to let go of stuff she doesn’t need and make decisions about stuff she wants to keep.
We then contain what we’ve kept and decide where it needs to live so that it can be easily found and retrieved as needed.When the client begins to see a clear floor or desk or closet and that stuff is going away while other things are being contained with labels, the overwhelm disappears and she feels relieved. She can now clearly see what she has, knows what she has and knows that it has a home. She can walk into her office or closet and there is space to move. The area can now function and the items lose their power to intimate.
Fear is just a feeling and it’s not a fact about the situation at hand. Clients move from fear to relief when working with me because I boldly move through their things to get to a place of clarity, order and peace of mind. By sticking with it through perseverance and consistency, we progress to achieve the organizing goals we’ve set out to achieve. My client Claudia had bins of paper in her office, piles around the room and 2-4 drawer filing cabinets filled with outdated paper. So we attacked each bin, one at a time, each pile and eventually all the paper had a home in a file and in a cabinet. Now she can find all her papers as needed easily and quickly.
If you are experiencing overwhelm and dread with your things, let Creative Space Organizing help you clear your space and put your mind at ease. Call today for a free phone consultation at 510.501.1213.