Yes, I think when your house is cluttered your lives are cluttered with things you don't need either. At least I have been finding that true for me. I have been hiding behind the clutter because I need to get it done. In reality if I get it done I don't have an excuse to do other things that I would like to. My house isn't that cluttered and if I wanted I could get it all done in a week, but somehow I just don't do it. I need to make other decisions in my life and if I keep that in focus I don't think about the other changes. Don't know if that makes any sense.

dd50...are you saying the clutter and the excuse of needing to declutter allows you to hide behind it and not make other decisions?
That is something for me to look at too, using clutter to hide behind.

I think sometimes people save everything because the feelings called up by sorting, judging, remembering and discarding are so painful. If you throw away childhood stuff, you have to recall the painful moments, which intrude on the rosier version we tell ourselves.

I used to work on TV show about yard sales, and a number of the homeowners couldn't bring themselves to acknowledge the reality of their lives--like women my age with Barbie collections who were desperately clinging to the vision of the Barbie dreamhouse life or guys with Harley memorabilia who weren't going to get the bike and ride into the sunset.

On the decorating forum, people are always being reminded to decorate for the life they have, not the life they dream about. Same with our clutter (I bounce back and forth between tossing everything! and then snatching it back from the Goodwill box.)

Posted by brugloverz9 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 4, 08 at 13:18

dd50...are you saying the clutter and the excuse of needing to declutter allows you to hide behind it and not make other decisions?
That is something for me to look at too, using clutter to hide behind.

Yes, in my case that is it. It took me a few years to figure it out and have just done that in the last 6 months or so. If I make all the decisions on what to do with the things I don't need and find the correct place for the things I do then I have to move on to other things. Other decisions I need to make overwhelm me so I stay focused on getting rid of clutter and getting the house really clean. I know how to declutter because it is only the last 10 years that I have had any and my house use to be super clean. Now it is not really clean but not really dirty on the surface. I was always the one that helped all my other friends get rid of clutter and clean all the stuff that we put off. I still can help them do it and it doesn't bother me and we can get it done in a timely manner.

Clutter limits my options, confuses and complicates my decisions, and masks what is truly important to me (even from myself :(). I have spent time organizing collections of things and then looked at the neater results and wondered why I bothered. I would be happier not having the things at all, neat or untidy! Its still clutter. Simple is better for me. Paring down to what I need and what represents my interests is better. Too many things makes me feel like my house has become unhealthy and obese! What a lot of junk in the trunk - hehe.
Elizabeth