Read Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight Online
Authors: Peter Walsh
Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight (65 page)
The same holds true if it's
your
collection and your spouse has complained that it's taking up too much space or too much of your attention. If your spouse is suffering from having to live with malignant clutter, it's going to affect your entire household.
Miscellaneous stuff.
Do you have a piece of furniture that you tried to refinish or re-cover, but you were never pleased with the results? That, too, might be malignant. If so, get rid of it (or give it another makeover). Did you or a family member have to convalesce in the living room after an injury because the bedroom was inconvenient? (Remember the story from earlier in the book about the family keeping part of dad's cancer-treatment equipment around? That's not an uncommon occurrence.) It's time to get rid of any leftover evidence that's still lying around.
You don't have to get this stuff out of the living room right now, but you do have to identify it and start coming up with a solution that moves it out of your
home or somewhere out of sight. As with each previous space, you'll return to this malignant clutter at the end of the week and decide what to do with it.
MEET IN THE MIDDLE
Malignant clutter doesn't have to be harmful; it may be stuff that's simply stupid.
I remember one family that had around 80 empty electronics boxes stacked on shelves and in the corners of their living room. It turned out that the husband saved the packaging from every electronic item they purchased just in case they needed to return the product or move to a new home.
His wife, to put it mildly, was not amused.
They had been arguing about this for 5 years when I started working with them. I asked the wife how many boxes she thought would be reasonable. She said, “Zero!” I looked calmly at her and replied, “Come on, be reasonable. How many do you think is a fair number?” She paused and said, “Ten.” When I asked the husband, he said, “Twenty.” Exercising the power vested in me as an organizing authority, I said, “Okay, it's settledâyou can keep 15 boxes.” Problem solved.
Remember, they had been fighting about this for 5 years! That's a lot of unrest poisoning their household for no reason whatsoever.
Task 3:
CLEAR OFF FLAT SURFACES
The living room is filled with flat surfacesâincluding shelves, tables, cabinets, and seatsâand these tend to become covered with stuff. In general, I think flat surfaces should stay clear of all objects. However, that standard can be relaxed a bit in the living room. It's okay, from a clutter standpoint, to keep some knickknacks and photos and entertainment materials on display in the living room, as long as you follow a few rules:
You have to mindfully look at each item and decide whether it
really
needs to be there.
You have to set limits for the amount of stuff you'll put on each table or shelf, or in each area of the living room, and be sure to keep your items from exceeding these limits.
Each area within your living room has to look tidy and well-organized.
So take a look at each space within your living room. Examine the entertainment center, each shelf, and each table. Take a fresh look at each wall and inspect the artwork and other wall hangings. How many DVDs will you keep on your TV stand? Will you ever actually watch them again (especially movies you can stream for free or for $3)? Do you still need to keep your '90s-era CD collection on a shelf now that you have either outgrown the music or have it stored on your MP3 player or computer?
If it's on a flat surface and you can't make a case for it to stay there, it needs to go away or, if you have room, into storage.
Task 4:
GET RID OF BENIGN ITEMS
You've now accounted for the malignant items and cleaned off the flat surfaces. Now do a sweep of the whole room and stow away, move, or get rid of everything else that doesn't belong out in the open.
All items that are hanging out in the living room that don't belong need to go. It's okay to keep a golf putter and a little putting green in the living room, if you've made a conscious decision to keep them there. But if you're simply too distracted (or lazy) to carry your bag of clubs to the garage where they belong, do so now.
If you enjoy crocheting in the living room and that's where you've decided to do it, that's fine. If your sewing basket has been untouched in the corner for weeks, overflowing with needles and thread, it's time to put it elsewhere. If you regularly use your gaming system in the living room, make sure the device, the games, and all wiring are tucked neatly out of sight when you're not playing with it.
Task 5:
COME UP WITH A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THE LEISURE AREAS OF YOUR HOME
If you're overweight, many of those extra pounds likely built up on your frame due to not moving your body enough. A recent study found that since 1988, people have been eating about the same number of calories daily, but the number of adults getting
no
leisure-time physical activity skyrocketed.
As you look around your living room, ask yourself: Is the way I use this room encouraging me to look and feel my best? Or is it the place where the calories I eat get turned into fat?
Let the Joneses next door sit nearly motionless in
their
living room for 4 hours per evening. This is definitely one of the areas where you don't want to keep up with them. Instead, refashion your living room from a place where you sit to a place where you burn calories. How you do this is up to you. One simple approach is to just spend less time in this room.
Decide that one night a week, you'll build your evening around an active family outing. Go to a park in your neighborhood or drive to a state park in a neighboring community, and have fun outdoors. Or go ice skating. Or make a family trip to the gym together.
Buy a pedometer or download a pedometer app for your phone and look at
it
instead of your TV. Instead of seeing how many episodes you can binge-watch from a streaming service in one night, make a goal of how many steps you can take in one evening. Try to beat it the following night.
Turn your back on labor-saving devices and celebrate the fact that the extra time you have to spend on tasks will help keep you fit. Instead of a leaf blower, clear your yard with a rake. Sell your riding mower and buy a push mower. Turn down the neighbor kid's offer of clearing the snow from your driveway and do it yourself (or tackle it as a team). You can find things to do year-round that improve your body and your home's appearance at the same time.
Or you can become more physically active while you're hanging out in the living room. You've already been doing exercises around your home for the past 4 weeks. Why not step it up? Use some of the money from selling your stuff (or a gift card if you found one in your office last week) to buy a few inexpensive workout videos. Vow that for every hour you watch TV, you'll spend 30 minutes working out. (You might also find an exercise video to watch on your TV for free on Netflix or Hulu, or one on YouTube to play on your computer. Remember, that's
in addition
to your usual exercise.)
You could also make at least one night each week a “no electronics” night. During this evening, no one watches TV or plays games on the phone or tablet. Play board games, talk, look at old family pictures, and take a little break to remind your brain that it can live without electronic stimulation.
Here are some other suggestions:
Have everyone in the family pile every single book in your home on the floor of the living room and sort them. For every four you keep, you have to take one to Goodwill or the used-book store. (Or more if you really want to weed out your collection!) After you box up the non-keepers and take them to your car, you'll have gotten several minutes of walking and lifting.