Decluttering fail?
I’d like to think of it as a learning experience. But yes. Epic fail.
So I had a goal of doing the minimalist game in the month of January, and for the first half of the month it went pretty well. Every night after I got home from my various jobs, lessons, and obligations I went around my apartment, finding things that I no longer needed, used or wanted. Once collected I piled them all up, took a picture and uploaded it to Facebook and Instagram.
For the first couple of days this was fun, interesting and motivating. Then I started to get busy with life, things and stuff and quickly found that finding the time to do this when I got home from work when I was exhausted was hard. REALLY HARD. So half way through the month when I had missed multiple days of scrounging for things to toss,donate, or sell I said “fuck it.” Getting caught up would be too much of a chore (since I had missed 5 days in the last half of the month I would have needed to find at least 115 items), would take too much time and inevitably create a very large pile in my living room of junk that I needed to get rid of. It was just too much.
Let’s talk about the tea. Where did I go wrong?
Not enough time-
I think that where I went wrong was thinking that a daily challenge would work for me in my current busy schedule. Right now I currently work a 40 hour work week, plus 8-10 lessons a week, 2 out of town rehearsals, plus my side work on my blogs/ YouTube Channel. It was just too much all at once.
Not having a game plan-
So my thought was that I would just do this every day and take a picture and that would be that. Well I didn’t take into consideration that all the stuff would just accumulate somewhere until I got rid of it. So my living room became the dumping ground for bags and bags of clutter, making my living room even more cluttered, and myself more anxious and on edge about the state of my apartment.
Putting too much pressure on the process-
I was so excited at the beginning of the month to do this challenge. I even started #nerdypurge on Instagram, which no one used but me LOL, to track what I ended up decluttering. I think by doing this challenge so publicly on social media I put pressure on myself to do it perfectly, to take Instagram worthy pictures and to keep up on the daily challenge. It was just too much.
What’s the next step?
Even though this challenge didn’t pan out like I wanted or expected I think that I still learned something very valuable.
I have too much stuff.
Way too much stuff.
Like Marie Kondo or the show Hoarders should come over to my house, too much stuff. It’s bad.
So much stuff that this challenge got overwhelming real quick. Every time I went to find something to declutter I found things that needed to be washed, put away, cleaned, repaired, or otherwise not in it’s home. I got so overwhelmed at times that I just wanted to set my apartment on fire.
Ok… that’s a bit extreme. Not to mention a class A felony since there are other people and pets living in my apartment complex, but I digress.
So now that I know that daily challenges like this don’t work for me right now (maybe in the future I would do better) I think I need to find a different way to work toward my goals for this year.
My goal of purging everything in my life that doesn’t bring me joy or sentiment is still going strong. Even thought this decluttering challenge was an epic fail I have still been successful in this area. I have been putting up clearer boundaries with people that bring me stress, creating a safer space for interactions with them that will cause me less stress, anxiety and create more positive interactions with them.
My goal of curating a nerd community is still in progress. I’m up to 62 subscribers on my YouTube Channel and have been putting out videos consistently whether they be haul videos, planning videos, or other nerd related videos. I’m also excited to be helping my cousin vend at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle next month and I’m hoping to attend the Asian Celebration here in Eugene in a couple weeks. I’m hoping that these events will help me meet new people in the nerd community and foster that sense of connection i’m hoping to create with the Nerdy Cat Mom brand.
My last goal of creating a space at home and at work that brings me joy is a work in progress. I think that I would say my work space is what brings me the most joy right now. It’s not as “mess free” as I would like but I love all my toys and figurines, my Doctor Who posters, and all of the emoji poo pens that cover my cubicle. When I look around I feel like my nerdiness is accurately represented here. My apartment is getting there. Just needs more organizing!
So even though I didn’t get through the entire month of nerdy purge at least I learned something.
Hopefully your goals are going well this year and you’re on your way to a great 2019.
Stay weird and nerdy!
Sara
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