Ever notice how every day there is a new decluttering method? The “fork method,” “Swedish death cleaning,” “pretend like you’re moving,” “spark joy,” minimalism, moderation, take everything out, put everything away, be like a bug, do it in a weekend, do it over a month, compounding toss outs… Can we just binge watch Hoarders and hope for motivation?

Sparking Joy was probably the most helpful so far, but when I got to my clothes nothing sparked. Like old granny drawers do nothing for me, and my endless supply of oversized sweats don’t exactly send me. But I’m not going to run around nekkid. You’re welcome.

My life is not curated enough to choose joy and ditch the rest. I have tons of clothes but not a joyful capsule wardrobe. I also have 17 loads of dirty laundry waiting to be washed. Maybe that’s where the joy is?

Can you use a fixed system and apply it to unadulterated chaos in every room? Not one room. Not a cabinet, closet or a dresser. But feral chaos where dust bunnies are humping mismatched socks in the hallway? Could be happening in the kitchen too. I just don’t know.

No one really talks about what to do when you get this far behind. I’m not TLC-level hoarder but I’m so far beyond Pinterest solutions and CleanTok. 

I start. 

I get overwhelmed. 

I quit.

The next time I start the great dehoard of “pick a day/month/year”, I inevitably find a box that says  “sorted junk.” 

What the hell was my plan here? Does this mean, I sorted it because I thought it was important to keep or is this just another delayed decision in matching plastic totes? Does this need a label or action? 

Inevitably it becomes, “I did work and somehow made it worse because I don’t remember what I was thinking and I definitely don’t remember what is in here.” Do I go through the same box again? Or create a new box and label it “sorted junk-parte deux?”

Which feels like the most honest label I’ve ever made. Because that’s what a lot of this is. Not treasures. Not joy. Not even decisions. Just… stuff I sorted and couldn’t decide what to do with. Again. So I put it back in a different container. Again.

Maybe if I keep sorting stuff into boxes of sorted stuff, I will eventually have only boxes od stuff that is sorted and no mystery boxes. Is that actual progress?

I don’t know. 

I need to go fold my t-shirts with a clipboard now. Because apparently that does count as progress. 🙄