Site Changes and Upcoming Posts

After realizing just how crappy my blog looked on a mobile device, I decided to update its looks.  I was almost ready to just quit Typepad and move to Wordpress, but found a way to work through it on Typepad.  Typepad has some great support, too.  They were able to swiftly fix a problem I had with the "Search" feature.  So, hopefully all looks much better now.

Did I ever cure my clutter problem?  Well, I don't know if it's something that can be "cured" entirely.   Now please don't think for one second that I'm giving you the sort of line you hear from 12-step programs about alcohol for example being a "disease" and alcoholics remaining alcoholics for life. I don't buy that philosophy.  Like alcoholism, pack-ratism or hoarding are extreme human behaviors, and I do sincerely believe that behaviors can be exampled and reprogrammed.  No, what I mean by not being so sure that clutter has a cure, is that I've come to realize that this is something you just have to keep on top of every now and then.  Just like a good car needs to have its oil changed once in a while, a home needs to be decluttered once in a while.  So I'll continue to do what I've done before: document the progress, while telling silly stories and giving advice along the way.

Have I made any progress in the years since I've been doing this blog?  Have I learned anything?  You bet!  The photos speak for themselves.  As I recently updated the "About" page of this site to say, there's no way I would have been able to move out of my last apartment if I hadn't started taking action on this. 

I've also been able to change my behaviors and shake old habits that worked against me, such as buying a lot of stuff on impulse when I didn't really need it.  And again, I'm not anti-materialism.  I am shamelessly pro-materialism, and I don't take the pseudo-Buddhist stance that I see a lot of these anti-hoarding blogs and books take on.  But the catch, as I've said in the past, is that getting too focused on the excitement of acquiring new things can lead to not getting the full enjoyment out of the things you already have.  I have gotten better and better at looking at looking at things in a store and saying, "No, I'm not going to buy this.  I have something just like this at home that I haven't used yet, or haven't taken out and enjoyed in a long time.", and at leaving a store empty-handed.

Unfortunately, I've had lapses along the way.  Clutter has an odd way of creeping up invisibly.  The build-ups can happen so gradually that you don't always notice it until maybe you have a guest over the house, or trip on something, or can't find something important.  Then it's time for another full-on battle with the clutter.   So again, I'll be sharing some updates on this over the next few weeks.

Oh yeah, and I turned 40 this year.  With that, has come a mid-life crisis of sorts.  But in a good way.  I'm sure I'll make mentions of that here and there too.

As always, if you just want to read the posts that have to do with clutter clean-up, and not my rants and other blog posts, then you can just click on the "Clutter Combat" category tag.