Clear the Deck

@5:05pm

Arrrgggghhhh…
Working in my office. Paperwork from my desktop is now spread all over the floor. Sometimes it feels like I just endlessly move the papers from one stack to another. I logged in partly to take a break and partly to make an entry on 43-Places of a place that I’d like to visit someday, Palm Key. The magazine with the little article about this place has been sitting here in my office for over a month.

Aaaahhhhhh…
Palm Key:

No wonder I am procrastinating. Two weeks ago I was feeling like I had made some progress in bringing order out of chaos. But for the past two weeks, I had the excuse of being sick, and used it to allow everything to slide right back into chaos. Stacks of mail and paper in the kitchen, in the dining room, here in my office. It looks like I need to spend some time this afternoon clearing the deck.

• Return to kitchen.
• Set timer for half hour.
• Sort old mail that is still on the kitchen counter. Mindfully. Returning to the task at hand after each distraction.

Ready, set, go!

(Ignore any last-minute cheers or other temptations until 1/2 hour from NOW!)

Update:
I couldn’t ignore the phone and was interrupted by a phone call. But I did make progress. I can see at least part of the kitchen counter now.

2nd Update:
I did it. The stack is gone, and it’s time for dinner. I got another round tuit today! Cheers!

Set the kitchen timer and spend a half-hour going through mail stacked on the kitchen counter.

Update:
Cheers! I did it! I got a round tuit!

because he was doing some painting in my office here. So, I cleaned up all the papers still on the floor in this room, and took them downstairs to get them out of his way. So, now my office floor is completely cleared of papers for the first time in months!

Also, I felt like I needed to be here while he was here. So, I couldn’t go off to church or the flea market, and I couldn’t work waste time up here. So, I just spent 4 hours downstairs, (not 4 minutes, but 4 hours), sitting at my kitchen table and dealing with papers. It’s not done, but at least I’ve made some real, visible progress. I have a little more hope that I can eventually succeed.

And, the painter is coming back tomorrow. Thank-you! Hurray! :D

I confess that while I’ve been making my attempts to clear the upper deck here in my office, the piles of paper have been growing downstairs in the kitchen like tumors. And, like tumors, the piles grow unseen and unnoticed, because I have developed a blindness to them. I just keep dumping all the incoming stuff down there, while I’m trying to deal with the old stuff up here.

But they’re big enough today that I have to go deal with them.

I think I just may have a hoarding disorder

(This is not my mess. Photo is from the article referenced. I don’t have a camera yet.)

My mess is not as bad as my grandmother’s—stuff stacked floor to ceiling everywhere, with little pathways through the mess. But I could be headed that way if I don’t change. Right now the problem is limited mostly to the 2 rooms in the house, my old office and my current office. My file cabinets are full, and the recent paper is stacked on the floor.

The article says that, if I have this disorder, then my decision-making skills are not functioning well, which sounds about right. I really struggle with what to do with each piece of paper, and I have a lot of trouble throwing stuff away.