great book, spinning area (results added)

I know I said I wasn't going to even look at, much less buy, any new books on getting organized but the other day I bought three. Right now I'm only going to write about one of them.




It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys by Marilyn Paul

This book is definitely for me and the journey that I envisioned for myself when I began this blog to document it. I even read the introduction (which is entitled Organizing as a Path to Growth.) I am also underlining and making marginal notes, something I rarely do. That means that the book is truly mine.

You can get a zillion books on how to clean and how to sort Stuff and how to throw it away and how to organize. But it's the rare book that helps you discover why you amass so much Stuff, why you are messy and disorganized, and how you can change those things.

The first thing Paul suggests is to fully understand your compelling purpose for getting organized. She writes, "When you create order not for the sake of order alone, but to manifest something that is deeply important to you, you get the fuel for change."
She provides very simple written exercises that get to the essentials of one's longings and purpose.

Then, to help reinforce your will to change, she offers an exercise based on an Anthony Robbins declaration that '....one essential ingredient of creating change is to associate enormous pain with the way you are living now, and enormous pleasure with the way you want to live."

After doing that, it's time to make a commitment to getting organized and changing the behaviors that have created the clutter and mess and disorganization. And that is at the end of Chapter 2, which is where I am.

I actually made the commitment a week ago when I started this blog and I am really delighted to discover this book - I believe will be a valuable companion in helping me to keep that commitment.

Doing this blog and having the comments and encouragement of people who are reading it is equally as valuable. Thanks!!!!!

Time to declutter my spinning area- two compelling reasons: it's right there by the front entryway and the clutter is absolutely affecting my enjoyment of spinning there.

This is going to be tough, as one of my biggest clutter/storage problems is with my art materials, my fiber stash, my yarn stash and all the tools that go along with these creative urges of mine.

02.12.06
Before I post results, I want to add another view of the table where I spin. I took it just before I embarked on the task. It's pretty horrifying....



I've been working all afternoon on this. Behold:

I am pleased to say that I dealt with the horrifying table clutter most honorably. Everything on it was either thrown away or put away properly, nothing went to create another pile o'clutter.

I cannot say the same for the bags and bags of fiber, spun yarn, unfinished knitting projects, bags of knitting needles, etc., that were lined up behind the sofa. They moved over to what I am thinking of as the Hearth of Clutter, over where the Christmas tree box and ornaments await their putting away. But that was the only way I could really sort things out (and they are all sorted out, really just need to be stored now ) and get some semblance of organization. So I would say I am only half finished with this task and I shall post a picture of Hearth of Clutter tomorrow and make that my next task.

Meanwhile, I am going to feel real good about the order I've restored to my spinning area!!
'zann