The Un-Zen Master

To quote the Minister's Wife: "Ever since I can remember, I've been a mess." The Minister's Wife lives in North Carolina, I haven't actually met her. But I feel a kinship towards her. Indeed, I have been a mess ever since I can remember, too. I'm the Un-Zen Master in my realm, and I feel that I am helping to create two more; Offspring of the Un-Zen Master. I am looking around my little space right now at all the things that need tending to. Some of them mine, some of them not. I will eventually tend to them all, but not before more things pile up next to, or near them, making the mess a constant, pulsing presence in our lives. Clutter. Visual, audio, physical, emotional. It's all there, lots and lots of clutter. I aim to crush it where it stands. Perhaps I've said this before. I know I've said it out loud, maybe not so out loud as to actually publish it online...I need to minimize, cull, edit, reduce, remove, Zen-ify my space - our space.

I have been waiting for a copy of Simplicity Parenting to become available at the public library. Waiting and waiting. It isn't an excuse, mind you. I've got lots of books on decluttering and organizing. I even have a book on how to organize when you've got ADD. It seemed like a good purchase at the time, I never finished reading it. Anyhow. I have only to read the description of Simplicity Parenting on Amazon to glean what I will get out of it, and I need that, for starters:

• "...streamline your home environment. Reduce the amount of toys, books, and clutter - as well as the lights, sounds, and general sensory overload.
• Establish rhythms and rituals. Discover ways to ease daily tensions, create battle-free mealtimes and bedtimes, and tell if your child is overwhelmed.
• Schedule a break in the schedule. Establish intervals of calm and connection in oyour child's daily torrent of constant doing.
• Scale back on media and parental involvement. Manage your children's "screen time" to limit the endless deluge of information and stimulation.

A manifesto for protecting the grace of childhood, Simplicity Parenting is an eloquent guide to bringing new rhythms to bear on the lifelong art of raising children."






I've always wanted a manifesto of my very own. I figured I'd have to write it myself, though. Streamlining anything, other than a User Interface, that's tough for me. Somehow my life and the stuff that goes with it escapes my powers in the stream lined organization arena-which I used make a decent living at.

Back to The Mess: I have come up with a strategy, not on my own, but a fine strategy. It is called "Closet-Go-Round: Whole House Declutter". And it is going to be hard. For me and everyone else in the house, it is going to be hard. And it is going to take a number of days, consecutive days. Despite the modest 900 square feet of house, we've still got a robust 1,800 square feet of stuff, and some individuals in this house have attachments to that stuff. The date to embark on this journey is not yet on the calendar. That might be a good first step. Well that and I've got to pick a room to start with and then finish in there before I move on to pruning our enormous maple tree, I mean the next room.