The self-imposed rule I most fear

I enacted one rule yesterday that I didn’t mention at all. That’s because I’m scared of it and so I chickened out on posting it knowing that if I didn’t post it, I’d have an easier time backing out of it. I didn’t do this deliberately and consciously, but once I recognized that I hadn’t posted it, this motivation was clear. I refuse to follow that course of behavior. The only way I can hope to be compliant with this program and my self-imposed requirements is to be absolutely honest. I recognized this in describing the current position and posting the baseline pictures, but I let this omission slip by and only now am rectifying it.

The rule: no buying any organizational products, excluding a label maker, for four weeks.

This may sound odd, but I really feel it is crucial to developing and maintaining an organizational system. I tend to use organizational products as crutches and instead of really understanding whatever space I’m trying to manage, I simply clasp on to a product to solve my woes. While this sometimes solves the issue, it often doesn’t and can even be negative in that the solution actually ADDS to the clutter. So, I’m going to deal within our current parameters first and get a grip on what we have in place and what issues we are facing before buying so much as a plastic bin for jams in the fridge.

I’m not arguing that we need no products. I think there are definitely things that would be highly beneficial to our situation: pot lid organizer, garage room storage, etc. It’s just I don’t want to run headlong into getting things. We have enough things to deal with and enough problems with just getting a handle on what is in our spaces to even be thinking about developing the idea solutions.

The exception for the labelmaker is because we don’t have one and it really is so useful in getting things sorted and organized. Also, I’m positive that we will need one as we progress and as we do not own one, this will not add to our clutter factor.

So, my apologies, chiefly to myself, for abstaining from mentioning this rule as a part of my intended process. I wish I could say that it will be the last time that I try to shirk something in this Clutter Diet process, but instead I can just pledge that I will note and rectify other similar shortcomings in this same way.