Sorting the bones

Whose clutter is it anyway?

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting at an event with a super lady who helps people declutter and organise their homes. I popped my details into her ‘win three hours with me’ box. I was delighted this week to receive an email informing me that I had won that prize. And, of course, I’m now thinking how I might best use those three hours with her - a great opportunity to really sort through what is important to me and what can or needs to go.

I’m also planning the two-hour workshop that I’ll be delivering on the March 27 with the Land Art Collective, which is all about sorting through and discerning the ‘bones’ that are crucial to our creative life. The irony is not lost on me!

My house is not full of clutter, but neither is it as simplified or organised as I would like it to be. I have many books (too many? Is there such a thing?) and not enough bookshelf space. I have loads of notebooks and sketchbooks of different sizes, some of which I’m working in and some are new. And some I’ve started working in and then stopped, and some I have filled but do I really need to keep them now because they are years old? Is there anything in them worth mining or harvesting? I’m not the same woman now that I was when I filled them. How does that change things?

I definitely have a storage issue. Not enough bookshelf space and furniture that is great for storage but maybe not so good for easy access to the stuff I need to store.

Then there are the things that I have kept from my parents’ and godmother’s houses when I cleared them out. Some are things I didn’t want to let go of at the time, but maybe I can let go of them now. Some are things that I just didn’t know what to do with at the time and now that time has passed maybe I can have more clarity on these.

I have been sorting out and selling the horse rugs and tack that I’ve not had the heart to do before now. But without a horse, these things are just taking up space (maybe space that can be used for the overflow of books?) and need to find a new home.

I know that lurking in a box under the stairs are letters that my mum and my best friend wrote to me in 1995 when I was on my three month sabbatical touring Africa and Australia. I think that is definitely one for the decluttering lady’s assistance!

And this leads me to the bigger questions behind the whole process of decluttering. It isn’t just a question of storage, it’s also a question of story. What stories am I attaching to the items that I am loathe to release? What stories am I attaching to the items I want to keep. Which items really fulfil my values today and what am I keeping that fulfil the values of who I was, but am not now?

And whose clutter is this anyway? Am I hanging on to the ‘bones’ (not literal) of my deceased father and godmother through items that were important to them but don’t actually fill me with joy?

Decluttering is rarely about the item itself, it’s really about the emotions and the stories we have to face, release, transmute or embrace.

Jeeps! Watch this (transforming) space…