A lot of the time — believe it or not — people fill their lives with a lot of clutter to maladaptively fill, hide, or conceal some emotional problem. You might find living with such pristine, tabletop-clear conditions challenging because the part of you that wants to fill the void of hurt, emotional lacking, or emotional confusion with materialistic clutter. I urge you: Do not develop that habit! A lot of people can’t maintain cleanliness and clarity because of their inability to cope with the emotional baggage lurking in their life “underneath” the materialistic clutter! Take the heoric challenge: keep your life clean and clear and choose to embrace and actually deal with clutter that emerges in your life!

My three step solution to clutter

1. Lease a second storage unit
2. Purchase 20 large boxes and pack stuff
3. Hire movers to transport stuff to storage unit

Result = zero clutter in less than one week.

Bonus - List expensive items on craigslist to pay for local movers

I did this three weeks ago and now live clutter free.

I’ve got a few others queued up before I’ll get to this, but this is an area of my life that could use a refreshing. Between our human instinct to collect and our consumer culture’s incessant effort to make you feel that with just a bit more stuff (and the attendant status it promises) you’ll finally be a fulfilled human being, this is a tough one to cope with. There is no question in my mind that the more you own, the more you are owned. A thoughtful look at this question is important for we GTDers. Before we make the mistake of organizing a bunch of crap that really doesn’t serve our needs, it is a good idea to take a look at what should be on its way some where else. Reminds me of Covey’s old saw about making sure the ladder is on the right building before you go patting yourself on the back about how fast you are scurrying up it.

Merlin’s review on the page is superb. He’s got a way with words

I haven’t read It’s All Too Much yet, but a commenter mentioned it when I reviewed Julie Morgenstern’s new book, When Organizing Isn’t Enough. Her concept of clutter is more complete than what I’m used to coming across in decluttering literature. Her SHED methodology has the reader attack three types of clutter: physical clutter, schedule clutter (meetings), and habit clutter (excessive television watching and internet surfing).

Her premise is that the physical and emotion artifacts that we’ve accumulated over the years amount to a life theme, and that the way out is to define a new theme, keeping only the things in your life that support that theme.

I am wondering whether it is time to rethink how we use our time given all the productivity trends, tools, gadgets and communication technologies surrounding us rather than just trying to sort and organise everything that comes in. We have just published an article on this subject - happy to take your comments. http://www.whakate.com/lead-articles/how-to-become-more-time-conscious/