29 Sep 2020

Combating complacency

Complacency and clutter

APDO member Marie Bateson, owner of Cut The Clutter in Lancashire, has been thinking about complacency, and the role it plays in our decluttering. She shares her thoughts with us in this blog post. Headshot of Marie Bateson

During a recent virtual organising session, my client showed me a clock which had been sitting on the floor of her spare room for about a year. It was too big for her new home, which has lower ceilings than her previous house. She said she didn't want to part with it, but that she had got complacent about it living on the floor and didn't really notice it anymore. The short-term solution for this clock was storing it in the attic, but it got me thinking:

How many of us leave pictures, clocks and mirrors hanging in places where they don't really look right or are not shown to their best advantage?
Do we have any that we don't really like but we simply leave them up due to complacency?
As we are currently spending more time than ever in our homes, have we started to look at things a little more closely?

Does complacent mean lazy? No, it means you are satisfied with your situation and you don't feel that any change is necessary. But a change may not actually be a bad thing. So, I started by looking around my own home and decided to move two pictures to different and better spots. I asked friends if they had similar experiences to share - any sudden epiphanies - and was pleasantly surprised to learn that one had taken down two pictures and a chalkboard, moved a shelving unit and liked the feeling of space this had given him. Another had removed some ornaments, admitting that they had never liked them but had stopped seeing them. A fellow organiser had put a couple of bags of donations on the landing and had been stepping over them for ages. They have now been taken to the charity shop! I know many of you have decluttered during lockdown, but have you also taken the time to investigate the things which live in a permanent spot and you never really consider? Look again at that pile of papers on the chair in the corner, notice the position of that plant, could you move the furniture around to get a more convenient layout?

Working with a professional organiser could help you look at your space with fresh eyes, and help you to overcome your complacency. You can find your nearest APDO professional organiser on our Find An Organiser database.

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