A lot of the clutter I encounter in clients’ homes consists of little jobs they have put off, and put up with.
Household annoyances – some examples
- A picture sitting on the floor waiting to be hung. It makes cleaning the floor more difficult.
- A blown light globe. This household annoyance is common and might mean preparing food or trying to read in a dim room.
- A collection of clothes that needs to be taken to the dry cleaner. They take up space on the dining table.
- A broken drawer handle, which means you no longer use the drawer and have forgotten what is in it. Household annoyance and waste of a drawer all in one.
- A sock with a tiny hole that needs darning or discarding. It means your toe goes through and causes discomfort. The sock sits there in the fruit bowl imploring you to act.
- A big cardboard box in the lounge room that needs collapsing. It is in the way.
- A dead battery in the TV remote. This household annoyance means you have to keep getting up to operate the device.
- A key on the bench which may or may not fit the windows. You can’t throw it away until you know for sure.
- A squeaky door that needs some oil on its hinges. It’s loud and annoying.
Often, the longer we put off these jobs, the less likely we are to do them. We acclimatise to the scenario.
And yet, the situation creates cognitive load and mental clutter, because every time we see the annoyance, our brains tell us “hmm, that needs to be done” or “I’ll do that later”.
Our mental processing capacity is a finite resource and we become cognitively fatigued.
YES, self-care and living in the moment are important, but so is getting organised so you can focus on the good stuff. Procrastination and self loathing can be a vicious cycle.
Have you heard of the Two Minute Rule? It states that if something will take less than two minutes, do it now. I wrote another post called Just Do It in a similar theme.
Don’t waste your brain power ruminating on quick tasks. Just do it. Your future self will thank you.
If you need help, The Decluttering Co is great at keeping you accountable, ticking off tasks with you and kickstarting your productivity.
