MY EPIC ADVENTURE IN THE LAND OF CLUTTER
Where on Earth did that giant pile of magazines come from?!?!
Now, I’m not the gossip mag type… when I buy magazines (which is a lot, apparently! Who knew?!) I like to get ones about home furnishings, gardening, cooking, scrapbooking, etc, ones that can supposedly serve a practical purpose in my life. So I can justify the spend. And instantly fill a void with glossy papered goodness. Too good to be true, really.
Any good de-clutterer (yep, I just made that word up) will tell you to throw that crap right out the door, when was the last time I read any of them anyway? They look DREADFUL on the shelf, AND there’s no space for them in the cupboard (I’m determined to not put any dust collectors back in there anyway…) AND you’ve survived this long without even giving them a second thought AND you just don’t need them at all.
So chuck them out already… what are you waiting for?!
ARG!!! I JUST CAN’T DO IT!!!!!
I LOVE my magazines, they are so pretty and there are so many ideas in them that I want to cut out and put in a safe place until the time will come when I say “aahh yes that is exactly what I want! Thankyou, Better Homes and Gardens / Scrapbooking Memories / recipes + / etc, I knew you weren't a waste of money!!”. And then that de-cluttering voice comes back:
“You friggin idiot! You can’t have it both ways! The sooner you chuck those old crappy magazines out, the happier you’ll be! Less really is more, can’t you bloody see that!!”
She’s really quite rude, isn’t she?
I have to find a compromise. I need that shelf space for other things (that come from the “don’t you dare chuck this out” pile). What is really important?! Why did I even buy those magazines in the first place? WHY?!!!
*Thinking*
There was something in it that I liked, wasn’t there? Something I either wanted to cook, to make, to scrap, to read… something in it caught my eye while waiting at the checkout in between saying no to the kids to buy whatever rubbish they had in their hands, and yes to whatever rubbish I had in mine. And I have to say, I haven’t succeeded in many of those tasks really… I bought it, so step one is complete, flicked through and earmarked what I wanted out of it, that’s step two, but then shelved it… and what I wanted to accomplish was never accomplished. The thing that’s stopping me from an express-chuck-out is that I still want to accomplish those things! So here is the compromise:
On top of the pile was my Scrapbooking Memories magazines. So I opened up the first one, and my eyes lit up! I just remembered why I love craft so damn much. Every page was covered in wonderful creative ideas, and I couldn’t possibly cull these. One of the best things about de-cluttering is realising what you LOVE doing, and NOT de-cluttering that stuff just for the sake of it. These Scrapbooking magazines weren’t going anywhere.
Next in the pile was a whole bunch of Better Homes and Gardens magazines. You know you’re domesticated when your Friday nights are taken up by an hour of great ideas with that show, followed by Friday night football. Yep, I’m livin’ the life. I see something on the show that interests me and it usually ends up with a trip to the shops to pick up the latest edition. Sucker!! I’m proof that advertising works. So I’m usually only interested in a couple of articles from each one, and yet there’s a ginormous (there’s that word inventing again!) pile of useless goodness sitting there staring at me. So, as I did with my scrapbooking mags, I got the top one down and started to flick through.
Crap, crap, crap, nuh, nope, no deal, nada… oohh this looks good… RRRRIIIIIIPPPPPP… crap, rubbish, gross, crap, crap…
I think you get the idea! A few projects from each one, and some select pictures to go in my “Ideas file” (because I’m an Ideas Man! AND I refuse to change it to Ideas Woman, because it just doesn’t have the same effect!), and the rest was recycling.
The rest of them are those GLORIOUS cooking mags: Super Food Ideas, Good Taste, Recipes + and all those free ones from Coles and Woolies (PLEASE take one, they say to me… although I did discover I had taken 3 or 4 over the different shopping times!!). I can afford to be a bit more merciless with these ones, because I have that many cookbooks, and access to so many recipe sites online that only the best recipes from within the pages will make it out alive. Out of a king-sized pile, I’ve narrowed it down to about 30 or so favourites (single recipes that is, not whole mags!), and they’re going to be written up in my lovely recipe book and then THROWN OUT!
In place of the three piles of magazines that were on the top shelf in the office, is a small pile of Scrapbooking Magazines sitting on top of my Cardstock collection (paper for scrapbooking, absolutely essential thankyou very much!), and in another pile is the album I am currently working on, with my box of ribbons, embellishments and letter-writing packs on top. From what it was before, I think it looks amazing!! And besides, I have to start somewhere, it’s the little things that make a big difference after all…
Eat well, drink water, live life with Love, laugh a lot, smile at strangers, God Bless
Emily xxx
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