Decluttered house, decluttered head.

I’m starting my Spring cleaning early.

I’ve been busy! I decided that as soon as the kids returned to school after the Christmas holidays I would commence a massive tidying and decluttering offensive. This is absolutely essential in the aftermath of the four month extension project we completed last summer.

The decluttered head.

My extensive decluttering programme is now in full swing and the scary thing is, I’m really enjoying it. Even now, a couple of weeks into this epic task, my enthusiasm doesn’t show any signs of waning. You see, I have my eyes firmly fixed on the prize: a tidy and organised house. I always feel so much more relaxed in those beautiful hours following a thorough cleaning and sorting exercise when the house is an oasis of neatness and order. In my personal experience a decluttered house always, always leads to a decluttered head!

This is certainly a bonus these days as my brain seems to be bursting at the seams and unable to retain any additional information.  In fact, every now and again I have a bit of a wobble and have to reassure myself that my forgetfulness and looking ‘like a rabbit in headlights’ when someone asks me a straightforward question is because I am multi-tasking to the max and my brain is crammed full of stuff not because I have dementia…

Is it just my brain that seems reluctant to hold on to vital and essential information as the years advance? It thinks nothing of expunging anything that might come in handy but seems perfectly capable of regurgitating totally useless snippets of trivia and fluff from decades ago? See, I would much prefer my brain to give me a prompt so I can get to the end of term without forgetting to pick up a child from school rather than equip me with the ability to sing all of the rivers in England and recite a poem I learned when I was eight called ‘The Hippopotamus’s birthday.’

The Hippapotamus’s Birthday: He had opened all his parcels but the largest and the last; His hopes are at their highest and his heart is beating fast. O happy hippopotamus what lovely gift is here? He cuts the string. The world stands still. A pair of boots appear!…

Why can’t my brain be more like the Microsoft Outlook inbox at work? At least it warned me when it was reaching it’s ‘size limit’ and it was courteous enough to ask for my permission before it deleted anything? Instead, my brain just deletes stuff…But, more importantly, it seems unable to differentiate between totally useless trivia (that I can live without) and absolutely vital facts that I need to retain…If only to give people the impression that I know what I am doing!

Did anyone else start start the New Year with a decluttering mission? I’d love to hear about your experiences and pick up some tips.

Coming soon: ‘Do’s and Don’ts of Decluttering.’