Sally’s Resolution – Sacred Space

 

Last edition I pointed out that I am not only trying to turn around my abysmal financial state, I also had a complete lack of organisational skills and a serious problem with clutter. I also suggested that these may all be symptoms of the same problem.

I would like to thank all those people who agreed with me, with varying degrees of niceness. For those that weren’t very nice, please insert raspberry sound to you here.

I would especially like to thank those nice people who made constructive suggestions, gave me tips and shared their ideas about their particular area of messiness.

Here is a clutter busting plan courtesy of Claire from Sydney, Australia.

Claire called her solution ‘Sacred Space’ and as it involved clearing the clutter from the house, especially organising her bedroom, it seems quite appropriate. It is very good for large areas or where the job seems so big it’s overwhelming and you don’t know where to start.

For an example let’s begin in the ubiquitous junk room.  You know, that room that you always plan to use as a workroom but found it collected sporting equipment, unwanted presents, clothes you don’t wear so much anymore. You get the idea.

This plan is something like the joke; how do you eat an elephant? The answer being; one bite at a time.

Allocate some time for you to do this every day because you are not going to knock it all off in one day, or you would have done it by now. Don’t get too ambitious because if you make it too hard or laborious you will find you will forget or something more important will come up. Half an hour would be great but if you feel you can’t do that every day, fifteen or ten minutes will do, it will all add up.

 If you can spend more time on it on a particular day then do so but don’t make it too much of a burden by trying to keep it up when it’s not practical.

Claire also suggests using a kitchen timer so you won’t be wasting time watching the clock. You can make it part of the challenge to race the timer and your previous days efforts by improving on the amount accomplished in the time allocated. You will also be less likely to get lost in old magazines or checking that an old Reader’s Digest is worth keeping.

Allocate a spot in the room to start. Don’t make it too big, just big enough for you to handle in one sitting. If you can’t divide the clutter easily into doable chunks then find some way to mark it off for yourself. Claire would use her daughter’s hula hoop, or you could use string, ribbon or pieces of wooden dowel.

Now set your timer and clear as much as you can in the spot you marked off. If you were unable to clear that spot completely, then you made the spot too big for the amount of time you allowed, so you will have to revise that for the next day.

The idea is that spot will be completely cleared and organised in that one session, then that spot will become sacred, in other words, no more putting anything in that spot that doesn’t belong there and always in a neat, tidy and organised way.

The next day you allocate a new spot, usually adjacent to the one you just made and when it is cleared of the clutter, it too will become sacred. So your sacred spot will get bigger every day until the whole room becomes sacred. Voila, you now have your workroom back.

Another variation incorporates an idea submitted by Judy from Telford, Shropshire, England. Judy suggested taking everything from the space being cleared up and putting it somewhere else to be sorted, then only putting back things that actually belong there. In this case she was referring to a child’s bedroom but the idea can be applied anywhere.

For example if Judy wanted her son to tidy up the bottom of his wardrobe, she would take everything from the bottom of the wardrobe and put it on his bed or out into the hallway, so the whole area being tidied up was completely clear. Then they would go through all the stuff and put back only those things that belonged in the bottom of the wardrobe. Everything else was either placed where they belonged, put in a bag to take to the charity bin or thrown in the rubbish. There was no stopping until everything in the pile was sorted and nothing was allowed to be moved to another area of clutter. Them’s the rules.

Speaking of wardrobes, Claire suggested the best way to mark off the hanging space in your wardrobe, if you find doing the whole lot too daunting, is to use a high-heel shoe.

Start from one end of your wardrobe, work out how much of the hanging space you can sort in your allocated time, then hang your shoe at that point. I would suggest it wouldn’t be from a pair you intend to wear for a couple of days at least and wedges would be definitely out of the question. If you don’t have a high-heel shoe then you can use a piece of ribbon or a scarf; it will need to be something obvious so you don’t accidently muck up the space you have already sorted.

Okay, so now I have no excuse, time to roll up my sleeves and get started on my clutter. I will let you know how I do.

Now for an update of my finances, which no doubt is why you are reading this. Since the last edition I took a small holiday down the coast with my Mother and Sister.

Shared accommodation, using discount voucher so didn’t cost too much, check.

Spent time ogling the guys on the beach for free, avoiding shopping centres, particularly shoe shops and clothing store; credit card still frozen in freezer, check.

Ate out ninety percent of the time, yikes! That put a hole in my wallet.

Okay, I wasn’t perfect but it was a lot better than in the past, besides, no one felt like cooking. I will have to be more diligent about my spending in the next few weeks to make up for it.

My bank balance is still nothing to write home about but it is looking a bit better, there are three numbers before the decimal point instead of just two at the end of the pay period. When I see four numbers before the decimal point I might shout myself a glass of bubbly, oh hang it, I may shout myself a whole bottle and drink it with a friend.

By next edition I hope to have at least some of my clutter sorted and started to get a handle on time management. With a little help from my friends who sent some NICE suggestions, I just might get to update my tweets a bit more often.

So follow me on twitter to see how I go. Until next time, a penny saved is a penny .. not spent. Who uses a penny anymore anyway?

Sal

To follow me on Twitter go to: http://twitter.com/SalsResolution