Clutter — Friend or Foe?

Clutter

How do you define it? How many things do you have in your creating space or comfort space? Do objects make you feel more creative? My dream (someday) is to have a writing studio with an ergonomic desk and chair and a shelf that goes around the room with my antique typewriters. And all my clutter gone! Or Martha Stewart organized!

But honestly, I have always had clutter around my creating space.  This photo below is from my “Art Room” when I lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The Art Room (I have always called the room I write in the “Art Room.”)

I had just moved in with my boyfriend (who is now my husband).  The house I lived in was small and cozy.  It was my great-aunt Margie’s house. My parents owned it. I rented it from them for a reduced fee. Prior to moving in, it was the storage unit for their flea market and garage sale findings.  My parents had crazy amounts of flea market finds, ranging from expensive antiques to Goodwill goodies.  It was a little crazy.  Not quite Hoarders, but definitely Storage Wars!

I have always loved stuff.  When we were little kids, my sister and I had a lemonade stand we would operate during my parents’ weekend garage sales.   We raised enough money one summer to take our whole family to Great America amusement park.

My sister and I working the garage sale crowd at our lemonade stand

I am at a stage now, with a toddler and all his things in our home, that I just want Zen. I want to get rid of everything.  Truth be told, I have always collected trinkets and I certainly am a pack rat.  Things have emotional meaning for me.

My antique typewriter collection is something I would like to use as inspiration.  I envision a room that only has my computer, with a great storage system for files, and a shelf that goes around the room with my typewriters displayed.

For now, I am working on getting rid of things I don’t need.  I would have to say I can create wherever and I find the most solace in nature.  Nature is beautifully ordered.

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The photos in the slideshow are from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. The photo of the beach is Lake Yellowstone; the photo of the car is me at the Grand Tetons in Wyoming; the photo of the mountains is near Jackson Hole in the Teton National Forest.

How do you define clutter? How many things do you have in your creating space or comfort space? Do objects make you feel more creative?

Writing Addiction

I would prefer to write than shower.  Seriously.  I know I am gross. I have been ordered to shower by my husband.  I can’t remember the last time I showered, but please know that I have mommy brain so I can’t remember what I had for lunch.  Oh, I didn’t eat lunch because I wrote.  I get so caught up in the creative process that I will take any free moment I have to myself to write, take photos, blog, create, or organize my little create-o-sphere.  I wouldn’t call my create-o-sphere too organized these days as there are so many piles of journals, papers, and junk all over my desk.

I am just going to name ten things on my desk:

1.  A bottle of calamine lotion (I used this recently to make a hand print with my son for his father’s birthday card)

2. A photo of a church door taken in Vermont in 2000

3. A pair of scissors with an orange handle

4. A Little Tikes plastic sander

5. The book:  Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published

6. A Patriots jersey — size 18 months with Brady written on the back, turned inside out,

7. A soup spoon

8. A binder with typewritten journal entries from a summer camp I worked at in 2000, and a journal made of construction paper — knot bracelets and friendship bracelets create a makeshift binding — the entry facing me says, “Dear Meg, I don’t think I know a freer spirit than you.  I admire your intellect and heart of gold.  The world needs more people like you.  Stay sweet & don’t forget about me. Love Always, Madeline.”

9. A roll of Dollar General clear tape

10. One flourescent green sticky note: blank

I am not sure how to get this mess organized. It seems I just put stuff on my desk after taking it out of my toddler’s hands. He recently ripped a photo of my grandmother from the 1920′s.  I am living in a state of chaos.

My Little Wonder Boy and Chaos Creator

I am reading Natalie Goldberg’s, Writing Down the Bones – on page 101 – 102, chapter titled Write Anyplace:

Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write.  In the middle of the world, make one positive step.  In the center of chaos, make one definitive act.  Just write.  Say yes, stay alive, be awake.  Just write.  Just write.  Just write.

Finally, there is no perfection.  If you want to write, you have to cut through and write.  There is no perfect atmosphere, notebook, pen, or desk, so train yourself to be flexible.  Try writing under different circumstances and in different places.  Try trains, buses, at kitchen tables, alone in the woods leaning against a tree, by a stream with your feet in the water, in the desert sitting on a rock, on the curb in front of your house, on a porch, a stoop, in the back seat of a car, in the library…in Texas, Kansas, or Guatemala, while sipping a Coke…

It wasn’t the physical accommodations that were perfect, but when we are in the heart of writing it doesn’t matter where we are: it is perfect.  There is a great sense of automony and security to know we can write anyplace.  If you want to write, finally you’ll find a way no matter what.”

So, here I am writing.  Trying to absorb the chaos as motivation, as muse, and something to get me going.  But really, all I want to do is tell my husband –”Why don’t you take Ben to Grampy and Grammy’s house.  I’ll get cleaned up and meet you over there.”

I love time alone.  I can be surrounded by a million things, and I will make a space of 12 inches by 12 inches and write.  But noise, and toddler tantrums, and splitting my mind in ten second fragments doesn’t work for me.  So I write on the weekends and at night, when my husband can watch our son.  I just am being flexible.  What other choice do I have?

I should really shower — seriously.  But I think I will write some more, since I have the house to myself (the dogs are outside and my boys are at my in-laws) and a fan on my desk in the room I call the Art Room, where I write.  I was once mobile, but my laptop crashed.  The Art Room is not air-conditioned, but I have a fan on my desk.  I think I could place a cat on my desk and it would blend into my desk, which  is such a mess.

What things are you doing to overcome your difficulties to make time and space in your life to write and create?

What doorway do you walk through to overcome your struggle to find space and time to write?  (door metaphor — since I really want to share the photo of the church door in Vermont — #2 in messy desk list)

What difficulties do you walk through to get to your creative space?

10 Things a Day

I am going to try to get rid of ten things a day so I can simplify my life.  Who knows, perhaps I will whiddle away all my earthly possessions. This should be interesting as I pursue this activity this year.  I would like to get rid of things I have not used in the last year to start with.  I am pack rat as I have art I created from elementary school.  I will try my best to post some of the items I get rid of each day.  No promises as I have many irons in the fire, but this is something I have been thinking about for quite some time.  There is a juvenile literature novel about this same concept.  I will post the title when I find out the name.

What are some things you just can’t seem to get rid of but realize they are just cluttering your mind and space?  Note:  some of the items I choose to get rid of can be intangible items such as guilt over a specific event, feeling insecure, etc. etc.

There is such joy when I take a bag of stuff to Goodwill or Salvation  Army and get rid of it!!!!

Here is my list for today (I promise these items went into the bag marked for drop off!)

1. November 2008 county area phone book – going to the recycle bin (I never throw paper away in the regular trash) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!  Why do I need a phone book when I have a computer to look up numbers on the on-line white pages.

2.  A stuffed animal (a fox in a black velvet  tuxedo holding a red rose with white hearts on red satin pants) that says something when you press the button that says, “press here.”  I am getting rid of this, but it is going to school with me as a prize for my students to use with our reward system.  If it leaves the house, it counts. I make the rules for my decluttering process!

3.  A cloth snowman bag

4.  Machavelli The Prince book tape.  I haven’t read it yet, and don’t plan on it. Someone else can enjoy a book on tape.

5. Colored poster board (royal blue, pink,  purple, light blue) that I laminated for school use for my students to use like white boards. I found that whiteboard markers do not work the same way on laminated poster board as they do on whiteboard. I am wondering if I can recycle the poster board since it was laminated.  I am going to stick it in the recycle bin.

6.   A black wool scarf.  Who needs wool in the South! Plus wool makes my skin itch.

7.  A 100% wool J. Crew roll neck sweater that I used to love when I lived in Wyoming where it was always cold.  But I live in the South now and wool is not needed for winter here.  Plus it was shrunk in the washer and dryer, as my husband was not aware that you can not wash wool.  I don’t care; he does laundry and that is awesome!

8.  A stackable snowman pencil that is missing about four of the lead pencil stacks. I ordered them from Oriental Trader for prizes for my students.  It is in my desk at home and needs to be tossed.  I try to be as eco-conscious as possible, so do I throw it away, give it to my students, or Goodwill.  I think I am going to trash the pencil.

9.  A yellow ghost pencil top eraser. I will put it in the freebie box in my classroom. 

10.  Last one – this is going to be a good one!  A wind chime that in its glory was a beautiful wind chime that make beautiful music. Now it is weathered and falling apart.  I put it in a plastic bag and hopefully a Goodwill shopper who is crafty will piece it back together. All it needs is some fresh string and a simple paint job. But it is leaving the house today.

11. My intangible bonus item – the need to have material possessions.  I get rid of that need. 

Good job! 

So if I skip a day, I have to get rid of twenty items the next day.  I will post a list at least once a week. This is kind of fun. Have a happy de-cluttered day!