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Mucking - That's why it's important and that's how it works
Mucking is not easy. We depend on the things collected. The apartment is the mirror of the soul. When we feel a certain atmosphere in houses, there is nothing supernatural about it. Even if a person moves out, his "invisible imprint" remains. This also applies to their own visitors, to the things guests leave behind, and to the items they stack themselves.
contents
- Spaces as symbols
- Mucking is difficult
- memories
- Others disappoint
- Afraid of the risk?
- Tips for proper mucking
- What can go?
- Why are we hanging on superfluous?
- Mucking Out: A checklist
- Mental preparation
- Mucking Plan
- What you should avoid
- Disorder equals Creative Chaos?
- prevention
Mucking not only clears out the apartment, but also the psyche. Because most of the time it has psychological causes, if we do not let go of things that we do not need. The late capitalist commodity production urges us to constantly buy new things. If we do not dispose of them soon, the mountain of objects we hoard will rise incessantly. Anyone who buys a new smartphone, laptop and tablet every year is automatically faced with the question: Do I keep the "old", which I no longer use, but what works?
A lot of clothes we do not wear anymore. It's time to muck! Image: Daniela Stärk - fotolia If I throw it away, I dispose of a useful object. If I keep it, ballast accumulates. This contradiction can hardly be resolved - unless I renounce new electronics.
Spaces as symbols
The rooms of the apartment are aspects of our lives in the light of depth psychology. The cellar stands for the past and the unconscious. When our basement is overflowing, it can be pure laziness. The "laziness", however, is usually for carrying around unresolved tasks of past phases of life.
Are there old bicycle parts of a university friend, with whom you have no contact for a long time? First of all, this indicates that the relationship is not clarified internally, and secondly, that you have not broken away from this objectively past lifetime.
Such ballast in the basement affects directly on her psyche. It promotes depression, melancholy and paralyzes their drive.
Not all things from past phases of life are meaningless. The cellar, for example, is an excellent place for old journals and letters, personal treasures you should not throw away, but in which you do not scroll around in it daily. There is also space for things they rarely use: the tent, the diving suit or the chainsaw.
The entrance area is our invitation to guests. If you lock it up with waste paper, jacket collections or large cupboards, this is a hurdle for a visit that must be overcome. This also applies to doors. When their doors squeak or open hard, it affects their mental work.
The living room stands for their self-expression. If it is very dirty, it indicates that you do not keep your inner life "clean". On the other hand, if it is sterile, it will discourage others and reveal a disturbed access to your body.
The kitchen stands for her stomach and her digestion. The dishes are used several times a day, cleaned and sorted again.
Mucking is difficult
Anyone who has trouble eliminating it will best begin to admit these problems and explore their cause. Is it because I do not want to give away presents? Did you spend a lot of money on something that you do not like or use? Do you associate items with memories? Is anyone else lying to this thing that just takes away space?
So before you put it out, you can become aware of your own beliefs and ask yourself if they are appropriate or if you can drop them. Have you learned from your grandparents, who grew up in a time of want, that you do not throw away anything that you can use again? Have friends of a past stage of life put their CDs with them, and feel scruples about putting things of others in the bin?
Do you recognize your own beliefs as meaningless? Then you deliberately violate it. If a functional dry shaver lies in the bathroom while you are shaving wet and says her "inner grandmother": "He is still good for something." Throw him away.
Write down your feelings and try other items that have a similar "bad conscience".
What about the money you spent? Are the expensive things there from the beginning, because you never used them? Then it was a bad buy, and the money was thrown out anyway. Or have things lost their value? Ten years ago, a ten-year-old PC whose keys responded only with massive fingering might have been of value and service. Today he does not do it anymore and with that he has lost his value.
On the other hand, the value of throwing things away is that they no longer divert attention, they do not block space for other items, you can look out the window, etc ...
Elderly things can be "trained". Buy something they really want, like new sports shoes and throw something old: the oversized jeans, or the plastic lamp that steals the room from under the desk.
This replacement can even become a rule so as not to hoard too many items. With every new book, every new piece of clothing, or every new DVD, think about which old counterpart you can give away. So the stocks refresh themselves automatically without overloading.
memories
We do not throw away many old things because we associate them with memories. Often these are positive, but we do not detach ourselves from objects whose memories burden us: In the basement there is a cardboard box of the ex-girlfriend, with whom it went unlovely apart. Or relationships remained unanswered. Or we store the legacy of a friend who took his own life. Or the son we ran into left his room without tidying up.
Do you have the advantage of picking up things because they have memories - positive or negative?
First, make a list of items that remind you of old times. Then write what you associate with them. Often the writing already clarifies the symbolic meaning of these things. But if this is stored in the memory, many of these things lose their meaning.
If items recall a life phase they want to remember, select them. If it is "only" to keep an eye on this time, you could search out the most important items: the shoe box with photos probably reminds you of the old flat, but you do not need the collected leaflets from the ASTA; To think about their beloved grandfather, the two or three novels that you will read again are enough, the complete bookshelf with titles that they know in and out are ballast.
If things are too valuable for them to throw in the dust, but have no room for them, there is a third way: to give them away to people who can do something with them.
In many cities today there are public bookcases in which they can read books that others enjoy. Or you can put your old books (in good condition) in a second-hand bookshop. Clothing, furniture or technical equipment can be purchased from Oxfam, Fairkauf and other social department stores.
You do not have to throw everything away. When you sort them out, focus on the real value these commemorative signs have for you: from old newspapers, you can cut out the article that matters.
Nomadic Indians in North America no doubt carried no truckloads of stuff. They had a personal medicine bag, which they hung on the belt. Likewise, you could create a treasure box that contains the most important piece of her childlike coin collection, a photograph of her grandmother or the lock of her first girlfriend. For collections that have a symbolic value, a symbol is enough to keep the memory alive.
Others disappoint
Do you have any gifts that are of no value to you? Are you afraid of disappointing other people by throwing away their grandmother's never-worn sweater? Or the cheesy clown character you got from her best friend for her birthday?
It's time to clear out. If you are overwhelmed, you should seek help for mucking out. Picture: animaflora - fotolia Do you just want to move these things and stack them in the basement, where you take their seats again? Or will you resort to a white lie when the donor asks where the good piece is??
How does it feel to tell the truth? "I do not want it."
Afraid of the risk?
Are you afraid to throw something away and regret it afterwards? Where does this fear come from? Are you worried that the item has value that you overlook? Could he be useful again??
If this is your fear, make a note of all disposable candidates and confront their advantages and disadvantages as rationally as possible. You can, for example, sort out some boxes, put them in the basement, but with the way throw something else.
Are you afraid of a decision? Decisions always mean risk. There can always be something that turns things back into value, for example, if the relationship fails and you could use your second dishwasher right now.
They can illuminate this risk. Imagine the worst case, if you stand there without these things.
Tips for proper mucking
Help makes work easier.
1. First empty the floor. Then you better recognize what you have at all objects.
Secondly, give away items that you do not use.
Thirdly, make sure that every thing has its place.
Fourth, consider where you can store items without taking their place but not becoming "invisible".
5. Clean up fifth.
6. Ask your friends and relatives for advice.
7. Set up a fixed time each day for tidying up.
What can go?
1. Does this thing work? Can, will or will I fix it? The loud CD player, which has been dusty for years, because I thought at some point someone could fix it?
2. Is this item still timely? Do I need the old PC, which takes up as much room as a living room chair while I write on my new laptop??
3. Am I (!) The type to fix such a thing? For a bicycle screwdriver, a basement with five old frames may make sense - if I do not mend a hole at all, not.
4. Do I still need this thing? If I need something in the future, it makes more sense to acquire it.
5. Do I like this thing? The apartment is our intimate area, and items that we do not feel comfortable with are not there.
6. Do I use this item? We buy a lot because it is cheap because we are bored or for a certain situation.
7. The key question is: would I miss this item?
Why are we hanging on superfluous?
When we clarify what can go, we also clarify internal conflicts.
1.) Mis-buying. We buy things we do not like or use. A dress is not ours, the new espresso machine is too cumbersome and the champagne cooler was for a bar that we never set up.
Giving away these things means admitting a mistake. This is difficult, but leads to inner maturity.
2.) It was expensive. We have invested something and feel it is a loss to part with this investment. In fact, we already lost the money when we bought this thing without using it.
3) Do you feel better with this thing? Really? Ballast are status symbols with which we value ourselves. This does not have to be the super-pressure cooker that expert visitors know costs $ 200. Our DVD collection of films that we know by heart, or our bookshelf with German classics, serve the same purpose. If we need such status symbols, that indicates a mental problem. We should tackle that.
Are these personal pieces that we associate with pleasant feelings, but take away too much space? Banish these things for a while in the basement and watch their sensations. Are they a useful support or a block on the leg?
Mucking Out: A checklist
For many things, you can be sure you will not need them in the future:
1) Clothing that is broken, too small or too large, does not suit them or served a special purpose like the football boots from their long-lost time in the club.
2) Kitchen utensils that you never use can get away. As a rule of thumb: What you have not used for more than a year, you will not use next year, whether pizza knife or egg peeler. Special equipment can be stored in an extra box.
Inappropriate dishes can be sorted out.
3) On shoes, you should have about 3 to 4 pairs in daily life for different occasions. The others can be stored in a special shoe box. Are the shoes bleached? away with it.
4) Periodically clear away your paper mountains. Invoices and documents that are time-bound, you can collect in an extra compartment and throw away when they are out of date. The same applies to newspapers, magazines and magazines.
5) For completed projects you can collect the folders in a storage room and decide at the end of the year if you still need the documents. For pending projects you also create an extra folder.
6) Keep the to-do list in a separate place. Cross out every completed point.
7) Do not accept advertising and / or throw leaflets directly into the trash.
Mental preparation
Ask yourself what you need in practice and what is important to you. Imagine you are moving to the US and can only carry 20 kilos of luggage. What would that be? Which things do you want, which ones you have to constantly have around you?
From this basic list you can go out, draw it as an inner circle and therefore draw a second circle, with things that are not quite as important to them, but still have a value, a third with less important, etc. Quickly come into the " outer areas "with things that have no one, so are superfluous. They can go.
Mucking Plan
Did you decide to stamp out? Then you develop a plan.
1) Begin with a corner, a room, or even just a table.
2) When cleaning up, sort into things that should go away and things they want to keep.
3) Prepare yourself by having suitable garbage bags handy.
4) Once you have "made it", sit back, take a deep breath, and see how the "empty space" affects you. Then move on.
5) Create empty spaces. For example, in the future, always leave a tray of your desk empty.
6) Prepare containers in advance, where you store your assorted treasures. Baskets, boxes and boxes structure the space, and they at least roughly know what's inside.
7) Dispose of furniture that you do not use much, instead of getting more and more spacious cabinets for your collections.
8) Reward yourself with meaningful objects. For example, if I disposed of the pile of dishes on the shelf above the kitchen door, I'll treat myself to a new coffee machine.
What you should avoid
1) Do not store unnecessary items in drawers. That just shifts the problem.
2) Do not think long about each item. Then you can reminisce hours in the attic, and nothing changes. On the contrary, it is increasingly difficult for them to separate.
3) Delete the words "somehow, somewhere, sometime ..." and "maybe ..." from their repertoire. Instead, follow a fixed schedule: Friday the garden, Saturday the study ...
4) Make nails with heads before mucking so you can not go back. Clarify an appointment with the bulky waste, tell the antiquarian when you come over with their book collection.
Why is clearing important?
1) Even if you have no messie problem: clearing out means gaining an overview. They not only clear their homes, but also clear their heads of unnecessary ballast. The clearer their four walls are, the more time you have for the occupations that are important to them.
2) When clearing out you will find something important again. Among the 100 DVDs that can go to the garbage, there is probably one that they always wanted to watch, but did not know where it is.
3) Decluttering changes the view of her life. With objects, we always set up a symbolic coordinate system to orient ourselves. If we change this, we set the course for new thoughts.
4) They break away from the past. Things bind us. Every heroes' journey in mythology begins with the hero making (as good as) nothing on the way. The memories stay in the head anyway, but without the objects that focus them, it is easier to change perspective.
Disorder equals Creative Chaos?
Creative people are putting more into action: anyone who gets inspiration from ten books has more lying around than someone staring at the wall at home. Anyone who sees the raw material for a sculpture in a stone, who has fabric for a T-shirt or three canvases with colors in an old cleaning rag looks "wilder" than someone who only watches television in his free time.
Creative chaos. Image: Tinatin - fotolia That's why creative people are well advised to rearrange their material: Which of the ten tree roots is best for carving? The others can go away.
When a work, painting, text or sculpture is completed, enjoy the moment and dispose of all the materials you no longer need.
Store the materials and tools for your creative work in a special location and return them to the factory after work.
prevention
Have you cleared out successfully? Then make sure you keep track. For example, you can set rules such as: For every book I buy, I give away an old one. The same applies to T-shirts, CDs and general knick-knacks.
Dispose of things immediately that you do not need. Put a trash can in each room and make it a habit to throw in the news of the allotment garden association, the free local newspaper, and the next week's TV news paper.
Clean up your desk everyday. Bring bulky waste to the recycling center before it collects.
Tell your friends and relatives clearly what kind of gifts you do not need.
Select when traveling already when buying: A finely crafted vase from Crete as a living room jewelry is a better souvenir than a backpack full of souvenirs that clog the corners. Enjoy the daily disposal of "little things" as a daily ritual. Breathe in deeply every night when you get rid of a load again. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)