The Perfectionist and Clutter

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

29 May 2009 11:55 AM

When people think of someone who tends to be a perfectionist, they don't dream that this same person could be hiding mounds of clutter in her or his home. In fact, clutter isn't the bane of just a hoarding personality. Perfectionists can be just as likely to have clutter, although for different reasons.

Earlier today, I had about forty minutes to do laundry and attack and area of the basement that is just piled with clutter. When we moved into our home two years ago, the basement became the sort of staging area for things that didn't yet have a home. As we slowly get the house fixed up, most of the items will have a place. But there are also items that have either been collected since then or were moved just because we didn't have enough time to actually sort them all out before packing (to my excuse on this last point, I had a five-year-old, a two-year-old and an infant at the time of our move, and I did not have any outside help for packing).

One of the problems I face whenever I face that clutter is that I don't seem to be able to dedicate the time necessary to do a proper job. I want to be able to remove everything from the basement at once, sort through it and then return what is being kept in an organized fashion. And here is where that desire or that perfectionism for the task takes its toll.

Because perfectionists can't always devote 100 percent to the task, they tend to devote nothing at all, letting things slip until it is all truly out of control. Since a perfectionist can't deal with doing a less than perfect job, she or he promises to attack it later, when the time and all of the organizing containers are in place.

Although I wasn't happy with my accomplishments, I did manage to clear some clutter. My rational to myself was that if I cut out the obvious clutter, it will be easier to actually organize it later, maybe even with the help of a friend.

What is your clutter style?

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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thequeenofthecastle (413) 21 Aug 2009 11:43 AM

This article is me to a tee. I am learning to cut up all projects into manageable littler jobs that I can start and finish to my satisfactory standards. I am also just having to learn to let go of some of my unreasonable standards and I have to remind myself that I can always organize later, or just give up and throw all my junk away, but the time I am devoting to being mommy to my preschoolers, will NEVER come back to me. Thanks for the article.