Hoarding – the Ultimate Cluttering. Summary of Conquer the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding by Elaine Birchall, Suzanne Cronkwright

Posted on 02/12/2019 by Jan Cisek – Feng Shui Consultant

Conquer the Clutter- Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding

Conquer the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Manage, and Overcome Hoarding by Elaine Birchall, Suzanne Cronkwright offers hope to anyone affected by hoarding. Real-life vignettes, combined with easy-to-use assessment and intervention tools, support those who hoard―and those who care about them. Written by Elaine Birchall, a social worker dedicated to helping people declutter and achieve long-term control over their belongings, the book

• provides an overview of hoarding, defining what it is―and is not
• explains the difference between clutter and hoarding
• describes different types of hoarding in detail, including impulse shopping, “closet” hoarding, and animal hoarding
• debunks myths about hoarding and hoarders
• explores the effects that hoarding has on relationships, on work, and on physical and financial health
• presents a practical, step-by-step plan of action for decluttering
• contains dedicated advice from individuals who have successfully overcome their hoarding disorder

Continue reading →

What Your Clutter Is Trying to Tell You: Uncover the Message in the Mess and Reclaim Your Life by Kerri Richardson

Posted on 23/08/2017 by Jan Cisek – Feng Shui Consultant

What Your Clutter Is Trying to Tell You: Uncover the Message in the Mess and Reclaim Your Life by Kerri Richardson

What Your Clutter Is Trying to Tell You- Uncover the Message in the Mess and Reclaim Your Life by Kerri Richardson

What does your clutter say about you? It all depends on where you hide your hoard, says an intriguing new book by Kerri Richardson. This new book suggests how gaining control of mess can help to reclaim life. It also suggests that wardrobe clutter often means you’re holding on to a fantasy self, whilst attic clutter suggests that you feel like your betraying your loved ones!

What is clutter

Let’s start with what is clutter. If you use it on regular basis and it makes you smile when you see it, it’s not clutter. For example, your mementoes have been sitting in a box for the last five years, they can’t mean much to you. Re-evaluate their worth and either say goodbye or make them a daily part of your life.

YOUR WARDROBE

Emotional issue: nostalgia
What this means: Wardrobe clutter often means you’re holding on to a fantasy self — one that was more youthful, thinner, or happier. Maybe your old dresses remind you of a time when you felt as if anything was possible. Struggling to get rid of them is more about your desire to feel that way again than actually wanting to wear those dresses.

When you look at your skinny jeans, they may remind you of your ideal weight, or times when you and your friends would go out and have fun.

The real question is, how can you have the same fulfilment in your current life that those old clothes represent?

What to do about it: See if you can find five items you haven’t worn for six months. Now ask yourself why you keep each piece of clothing. Is it a just-in-case item? Do you still love it? Maybe you can throw out the jeans but plan a girls’ night out, or a romantic dinner with your partner, to recapture the feelings stirred up by the clothes.

Continue reading →

Clutter Clearing Tips and Feng Shui

Posted on 16/09/2009 by Jan Cisek – Feng Shui Consultant

What is clutter?

Dr. Sherry Bourg Carter, in an article for Psychology Today writes, “Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces and ourselves. Messy homes and workplaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless and overwhelmed.” Even more, than the stress that comes from not being able to immediately find things when it’s needed, clutter creates stress by just being there. Dr. Carter also notes that clutter causes distraction and that’s the last thing we need in your home or workplace.

Clutter and the state of your mind
“People waste up to three hours a week finding things that are lost in the clutter on their desk.” says Joseph Ferrari, a psychologist at DePaul University in Chicago. His research into clutter suggests that people with lots of clutter in their homes or workplaces are less likely to get things done, and are more likely to be stressed and unhappy than people with less clutter. A neuroscientist at Princeton University (Sabine Kastner) suggests that when an object in our field of view is surrounded by clutter, the brain receives weaker signals from whatever people are trying to look at. Kastner suggests that people who are highly distractable need to reduce clutter but for people with a strong attention system clutter might be beneficial because it stimulates that system.

Martha Steward strategy for clutter clearing of your wardrobe

If you have to decide what things you’re going to keep in your wardrobe and what things you’re going to throw away or give away Martha Steward has a clutter clearing strategy.

Ask yourself four questions:
1) How long have I had it?
2) Does it still function?
3) Is it a duplicate of something that I already own?
4) When was the last time I wore it or used it?

Continue reading →