Victory - as in conquest, triumph, accomplishment, clean sweep.  What do all of these synonyms mean?   They mean you are winning.  I don’t mean the Hollywood win where everyone cheers and acknowledges your strides.  I mean the daily process of gaining the upper hand.  Disorganization, clutter, dirt, projects etc are all areas of our life that we continually work with and sometimes feel we work for. 
 
What keeps you going in your constant circular process of trying to keep a reasonable level of order in your home or life?  Do you switch off and approach it robotically therefore only able to keep up with the daily grind?  Sometimes that’s the best thing we can do. 
 
But don’t let it become your new comfort zone.  As you are well aware the rest of the house (and you by extension) then suffers.  We live everyday, eat everyday, wash everyday and therefore need to declutter everyday.  It’s not like you do it once and it stays that way.  Sorry to say. 
 
Decide on a reasonable time chunk of 10 minutes or half an hour – according to your schedule and dive into a life changing decluttering session.  Life changing in the sense that over time it will have an effect.  We are all very accustomed to immediate gratification so to approach a project that will take consistent determination may be uncomfortable at first.  Think of it this way – is it better then to do nothing?!
 
This is where we must celebrate our victories.  The victory of not stopping.  The victory of dealing with 3 pieces of paper on that pile.  The victory of getting rid of an extra bag of rubbish.  The victory of actually dropping off the donation bag and not just leaving it at the front door or in the car.  The victory of doing or paying for one of those ‘jobs’ to get done.  The victory of not buying something on a whim and actually putting it back on the shelf because you don’t really have a purpose for it.  The victory of not stopping.
 
All of these daily, perpetual victories need to be applauded and celebrated.  Throw yourself a bone and say, BRAVO!  Find a clutter buddy to cheer you on and share in your triumphs.  It does a body good to share positive, however small, coups.

Viewableness
 
Is that even a word?!  No.  But it does conjure up words that promote like meanings.  To behold, observe, perceive, see, discern, to be visible.  All good ways of saying the same thing – things need to be viewable. 
 
To a certain extent, this may be a necessity to only some of us.  I find it incredibly helpful to see what I have in front of me.  Very clearly available.  Otherwise I forget what I have.  In speaking and working with different ones I have found this is very common.  You usually remember that you actually have the perfect handbag, jewellery, hammer, paintbrush etc. after the fact so you didn’t really need to re buy one for that special evening or project.  This kind of thing can be very frustrating and not to mention financially sabotaging. 

So, in theory, this is fine - keep things visible.  But what happens when everything is visible?  If you have no interests, projects or variety of belongings this may work.  In reality though this is not a recipe for success.  Everything out in the open will give you visual clutter syndrome.  Then you will shut down and be no better off.  

If you want this luxury of visibility in what I’m assuming is a limited space then the key is – wait for it... HAVE LESS.  

I will be starting a bookshelf challenge today - watch my daily progress on instagram, serenitynoworganising.

​It has been quite a week for me.  Nothing particularly earth shattering in the grand scheme of things but very satisfying for me in my world.  In this part of the world it is the week after spring break.  So I have 5 hours a day to decide how I want or need to spend my time.  I have recently been thinking about how the current go to excuse is ‘I’m too busy’.  While of course it is true that we are all busy – we are all only busy in our own way.  That in itself gives us a relative freedom as far as what our busy is.  In my experience being busy is often a pseudonym for ‘I don’t want to’.  I can hear your gasp of indignation.  I must stick to my guns on this one though.  I am a fan of the ‘I don’t want to’ excuse as I think we as a society spend the majority of our time pleasing others and by default neglecting ourselves.  This being said, balance is an ever hovering goal.  There also exists a large demographic that is exclusively devoted to the me-ism culture.  BALANCE. 
 
This week I decided to sort out my house aka possessions as I see them.  I thought, why is this ever present desire to stream line still so elusively out of reach?  Because sometimes I’m just going through the motions.  Imagine that, me, going through the motions.  Ha! I laugh at the thought! (sarky)
Sometimes you just have to really have a talk with yourself (inside voice) and decide honestly if you mean it or not.
Of course we all want to downsize, organize, label, donate etc.  You know what?  NOT.  Let’s be real here, our actions speak louder than our thoughts.  The gaping chasm between intention and execution is still just that – a chasm.  I do not say this as judge and jury but as peer and fellow striver.
 
This week I made a list of what I wanted to accomplish in a perfect world.  Then, what I tried to be very strict about how I allowed my time to be used.  Notice, how I allowed my time to be used.  Not how I wanted to use my time.  Now, this was a challenge but I talked myself through it.  Success.  Not 100% and not immediately but surely a success.  Donated to families in need charity, binned a lot of superfluous items, sorted and put away other vagrant objects and donated books to the school as well as the diabetes clothing drive.  Actually, a lot of determined effort but such a feeling of buoyancy that regret has dissipated into oblivion.