Success?

Well, I did it. I cleared all of the clutter out of our guest room. It is fully functioning and even occupied by a guest (thank you Steven). The framed photos that I hid under the bed for the past couple of years are even hanging on the wall. It's all good.

So why does it feel so anti-climactic?

Is it because the photo wall that I finally created is not quite finished? I ran out of hooks with three photos to go. I bought more today but didn't get them up. In the meantime, I already want to re-position a few of the photos that I hung yesterday. And add more photos of friends and family. It's not just incomplete, it's bound to evolve. I think that's a good thing.

Or maybe it's because I deferred sorting through the clothes and the boxes from my old office that I had stashed in the guest room. That was a reasonable decision, but having carved those tasks off from my guest room project, I'm both itching to get them done and dreading the process.

Indeed, after this tip-of-the-iceberg de-clutter, I'm getting a better sense of how much lies ahead; how much slows me down; and how many other things I want to do with my time too. I see my resistance to leaving a task unfinished (like this late-night post!); procrastination; and self-doubt.

Despite longing to de-clutter for years, today I found myself wondering whether this is a good use of my time! I believe that it is; it will simplify our lives for years to come. But "cleaning my room" (now my house) feels so childish. Is this how little progress I've made? If it remains to be done, I suppose that it remains to be done.

Now what? Enjoy my accomplishments and make a plan. On the de-cluttering front, I'm going to tackle the closets next, to create storage spaces. More broadly, I'm going to organize my time, to better balance my priorities and values. After all, de-cluttering is a worthy objective but it's not my only priority.