the effect of clutter on happiness

Smiley

I recently read an article on Huffington Post by Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, called “Could Clutter Be Making You Unhappy?  Take Our Test”.  I had heard a little about Gretchen and her book before reading the article, but didn’t know much.  After reading the article, I did a little more research and found out that she took a year of her life to try all of the theories out there about what makes someone happy, to see if any of them really work.  It is a very intriguing idea to me.  Even though it is an sample size of 1, it seems that it would be sort of like the Consumer Reports ratings for happiness (and I am a huge fan of Consumer Reports).

While I haven’t yet read her book, from my perspective, she couldn’t be more spot-on about clutter.  She says what I have found to be true in my own life, that getting rid of clutter brings happiness.  She even argues from her experience that the ratio is not proportionate — she says you get a lot more happiness back vs. the amount of clutter you get rid of.  In the article, she lists many of the excuses we all give for holding onto things.  I have heard all of those and more — I might need it again, someone gave it to me, it may be worth something one day, etc.  I believe those phrases are our defense mechanism to keep from having to deal with the clutter and make some hard choices.  No one ever said that it would be easy to get rid of our clutter, but Gretchen says that once we do, we will be exponentially happier for the hard work.  Sometimes it can be hard to find motivation to do a difficult task, but with Gretchen’s finding, I would hope that greater happiness would be enough motivation to do the work.

Now I am off to order her book.  I can’t wait to see what else she learned!

the wisdom of ben franklin

my favorite picture of ben
courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin-Franklin-U.S.-$100-bill.jpg

I ran across a quote on the internet recently that was attributed to Benjamin Franklin.  It said, “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned”.  Now, I realize that you can’t believe every quote you see on the internet was actually said or written by the person to whom it is attributed.  And in a quick search of our copy of  Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, I  did not find this listed under Ben’s entry.  But it seems within the realm of possibility that someone who wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac and gave us other (verified) gems about the value of time such as, “Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of” or “Remember that time is money”  would say this.  So I am going to go with that.

While I (almost) always enjoy Ben’s quotes (as a night owl, I’m not a big fan of “early to bed, early to rise”), this quote about organizing is truly inspiring to me.  It goes right to the heart of why I love to organize things, be organized, and help others be more organized.  It saves time.  And when you save time on mundane tasks like doing laundry and finding things in your refrigerator, you gain time for important tasks, things like working a puzzle with your two-year-old, snuggling with your spouse while watching a sitcom on TV or reading the latest issue of Real Simple magazine.

I would add to Ben’s quote that every minute spent organizing also earns you peace of mind and clarity, both of which I will enjoy in those extra hours he is giving me.  I am far from being perfectly organized.  I have a magazine addiction, clutter in my home, and (minor) pack-rat tendencies.  But some areas of my home and life are well-organized.  And realizing the clarity, peace of mind and “found” time that comes from that encourages me to continue the quest.

my guru

I have to admit that, when it comes to organizing, I have a guru.  His name is Peter Walsh.  I first discovered Peter when he was on the first season of the TLC show, Clean Sweep.  In case you never saw the show, Peter would show up at a family’s home to help them de-clutter a room or two and bring along an interior designer and a carpenter to help completely makeover the space.  According to wikipedia, the show ran from 2003-2005 and I think I saw every episode.  I was addicted to the show, but especially to Peter and his spot-on analysis of the homeowners and the reasons for their clutter.

After the show had been on for about a year, I was chairing the training committee of a local women’s organization of which I am a member.  As we brainstormed ideas that year for training topics, I off-handedly suggested that we should do a training on clutter and organization and try to get Peter Walsh from Clean Sweep.  Well, my very fabulous, smart and capable committee member (and now dear friend), W, offered to try to get Peter for the event.  And she did it!  I only have very dark, grainy pictures from the event.  And for some reason, I didn’t get a picture of myself with Peter (what was I thinking?).  But here is the best image I could find, with a little light correction in Picasa:

Peter at the training event in Pasadena
January 2004

The really cool thing about Peter speaking at the event was that he wanted to de-clutter a space for one of our members as an example and tape it to show at the training event.  So I got to spent one whole Saturday at the home of the then-president of the organization, cleaning out her clothes closet, ASSISTING PETER WALSH!  It was fabulous!  I learned so much from him that day (in between pinching myself to see if it was really happening).   And he was very gracious to personally answer a couple of e-mails that I sent him a few weeks after the training.  All around a really class act and a very nice person.

After he spoke at our event, the trajectory of his career skyrocketed (not that I am linking the two…).  He continued on Clean Sweep and then became the resident organizing/clutter expert on The Oprah Show and in O Magazine.   When Oprah started OWN, she gave him his own show, now called Extreme Clutter.  He as also written several books, all of which I own, none of which I have read yet, but I will be reading them soon on the elliptical and will let you know what I think.  Stay tuned!

resolutions: past

my 2011 resolutions

Last year, I actually wrote down my New Year’s Resolutions and taped them to the front of my planner.  I hoped that by putting them in this very visible spot I would be reminded of them often and do a better job of keeping them.  As 2011 ended and I reflected on how well I did, I found that in one area I did really well for about half of the year, but in most of the other areas I fell flat.  Here was my 2o11 list:

• Walk as a family one time a week
• Read five books
• Exercise
• Pay off a credit card
• Make time for Albert and O every week (meaning do some significant, non-routine thing)
• Make time for myself every week (again, meaning do some significant, non-routine thing)
• Simplify
• Take a vacation

I have already “outed” myself on the book-reading resolution.  I failed miserably at that, as did I on the vacation resolution and the credit-card resolution.  Most of the rest I can say that I made a valiant effort and some weeks were better than others.  But the only one of these eight where I feel that I hit it out of the park was the exercise resolution.  I dabbled in regular exercise from January through early July, working out at the gym where I work and sometimes working with a trainer.  Then on July 11, I began a weight loss program via webinar that literally changed my life.  (I will write more about this whole program and the fabulous nutritionist who runs it in another post.)  I learned in this program that the definition of exercise is “planned physical activity” and I realized that if I was going to be successful at keeping the exercise resolution (and accomplish the unspoken, underlying need goal to lose about 20 pounds), I needed to be organized about it.  I made a commitment to myself to work out four times per week, every week, for thirty minutes each time.  Two days would be cardio, one day would be strength training on my own and one day would be strength training with my trainer.  I put the workouts in my Outlook at work, either at lunchtime or at the end of the day depending on each day’s schedule.  I worked with my trainer to get several different half-hour strength training workouts that were easy for me to do by myself but still challenged me.  Then it was up to me to keep my word to myself and do it and I did.  I worked out four times a week, almost every week from that point on, way more often than not, and I began to see and feel the results.  But the best thing was that very quickly, the exercise became part of my day, part of my routine.  I now can’t imagine my week without it.