Cover via Amazon

I have collections of books which I piled on my wooden shelf. Most of them I haven’t even read yet. Simply because I really have a hard time to read them all. There are other priorities (perhaps the word ‘priorities’ is just an exaggeration) that I need to do than being an aloof on my room reading books. I could not just even meet some of my personal targets. Anyways, going back to books… I decided to make something out it, something that might be useful to other people as well.

One of my collections is entitled “Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff”. This book is edited by Lori Baird. I find it very suited to me because it talks about clutter and how to keep from being a clutter person. When I first scanned some pages, I laughed at myself. I could certainly relate to it. It seems like the author personally dedicated this book to me.

According to Baird, there are five steps to help conquer clutter. To easily memorize it, she made an acronym Q.U.I.C.K. for these simple steps. This means:

Q – Quantify or inventory your clutter

U – Unload what you don’t want and what you don’t need

I – Isolate the rest into categories that make sense to you

C – Contain it with appropriate storage systems

K – Keep it up.

But before you get overwhelmed with these steps, you must first identify what is your clutter type. There are 4 types of clutter – the collector, the concealer, the accumulator and the tosser.

No single type perfectly suits me. The reason is that I am both a collector and an accumulator. My simplest vivid reason is my huge shelf packed with untouched books. I have this kind of obsessive-ness about books. So, everytime I come to visit the nearest mall, I make it a point to come to its available bookstore to pick at least one book of my favourite authors. Now, I just realized I have accumulated quite a few collections.  Being an accumulator, I have this tendency to keep on storing items that are no longer needed. I have in my drawers with piles of empty bottles of shampoo, wine, deodorant or even Mentos chewing gum. At least I have them neatly piled.

And this statement triggers me; it says “being an accumulator is associated with certain emotional problems.” Perhaps it does root from some deep emotional reasons. But whatever it is, all I need to do is to “de-clutterize”. I need to commit to have housekeeping schedules. To start with, I put everything in its proper places. I have some plastic containers to keep my ‘precious’ little stuff from scattering. This is my first step to my little achievement to de-clutter!