The Future of STUFFology 101

January 10, 2022/in News 'n Views/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

In the book Chrysalis, coach and author, Ann Vanino writes about cocooning. The caterpillar knows nothing of what the future holds and yet, prepares a cocoon for a metamorphosis into a beautiful creature that takes flight.

Fifty Years of Clutter Awareness

For over fifty years, since I was a pre-teen, I have been aware of clutter due to my parents’ penchant for saying “yes” to anything that was free and then not being able to let go. Forty-five years later, after my mother died and my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I cleared their home. We’ve all read the stories of apartment-sized dumpsters of possessions being discarded. That was my experience. Forty years after those childhood experiences, and in my fifties, I realized I had a talent for helping others release their own life cocoons created by physical, mental, and temporal clutter.

Eric Riddle joined me, and together we have written articles about decluttering and a book, STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter. We advocate the process of S.T.U.F.F.—that is, Start. Trust. Understand. Focus. Finish.

Success Requires Commitment

The truth is, many of us need stronger faith and commitment to the task we set our minds to. Consider all the New Year’s resolutions that are broken long before the change of seasons.

To be able to stand back and truly marvel at one’s success is often the result of dedicated and focused effort. Like the caterpillar, our unyielding effort magnifies into an unexpected magical creation.

Larger Impact for Limited Time

We need to have a larger impact if we want to ensure our limited time is well-invested.

Late last year, I posted, We NEED Your HELP – Please Read and Comment. Surprisingly, we did not receive a single comment or email answering the questions I posed in the article. We did receive one heartfelt and thought-provoking email, which still warms my heart.

While the clutter world is filled with extremes—Marie Kondo’s anthropomorphic approach of imbuing life-energy to possessions before letting go of those that don’t spark joy to the tough love and therapeutic approach with extreme hoarders—STUFFology 101 continues to urge clutter bugs to define an area of clutter and to take the S.T.U.F.F. steps in letting go.

Time passes more quickly, the older I grow. How I invest my time is more important, because it is time I can never get back. The same is true for you.

I know what it means to live without a lot of STUFF. I feel lighter after working through an area of accumulated clutter. I feel JOY after gifting someone with something I no longer need. I find pleasure knowing I have no desire to accumulate possessions.

Do I share these experiences in weekly articles on STUFFology101.com? Bi-weekly articles? Monthly articles? Do I work on another book? Do I totally reconfigure the website? These are some of the questions I will begin asking as I take time to enter a STUFFology cocoon.

In the interim, look for a major announcement Eric will be sharing this month.

Understand Your Clutter

December 6, 2021/in S.T.U.F.F./by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Clutter builds up over time. We use the acronym S.T.U.F.F. to help deal with that clutter. Today I’ll discus the ‘U’ in S.T.U.F.F., which is UNDERSTAND.

One definition I like for our acronym in STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind out of the Clutter is “to know how (something) works or happens.” In other words, how did I accumulate all this clutter?

Using myself as an example, I have generational clutter in my garage. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes not. Small amounts of my deceased parents’ stuff, small amounts of my kids’ stuff, and variable amounts of my own stuff are in my garage.

While I have made progress, there remain setbacks. The Holiday Season in the United States causes our family to rearrange portions of the house for Thanksgiving guests, Christmas decorations, and so on. Random stuff invariably ends up in my garage until after the New Year.

Since I understand this process, I am not frustrated. I know when we pack away the Holiday Season, we will declutter garage items before returning them inside the house. I am thankful for the clutter in this case. Why?
Because it reminds me of a poem I read by Mary Stuber:

Thank God For Dirty Dishes

Thank God for dirty dishes;
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
We’re eating very well
With home, health, and happiness,
I shouldn’t want to fuss;
By the stack of evidence,
God’s been very good to us.

I understand the clutter because it reminds me that we have home, health, and happiness to share with family and friends. That is, I know how the Holiday Season works for our family.

Clearing the clutter in the New Year is a process not an event.

Avadian

The Process of S.T.U.F.F. is Pure Magic

August 30, 2021/in S.T.U.F.F./by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

Want to know a secret?

Overnight success takes years. Honestly. You’ve got to do the work.

You’ve got to Start. Somewhere. Move forward step by step.

You need to Trust yourself to keep going. The elite marathon runner trains one step at a time and completes 26.2 miles on foot. The lowly carpenter ant will destroy your home, chewing through the wood to build its nest. Big things are accomplished by making a consistent effort.

Understand, greatness is not achieved overnight. Clutter doesn’t magically appear. It takes years of no action to accumulate clutter.

To achieve anything worthwhile in life, Focus. We’re fast losing our ability to focus. There are too many tempting distractions. Facebook. Google search. Netflix. Spotify.

Focus on taking one step at a time, consistently. This is when the magic strikes. It’s different for each of us. When you are committed to and keep doing a thing, a magical force pulls you along until you Finish.

I’ve felt the magic. Sometimes, it’s a feeling of lightness after I dig repeatedly into a task and complete a small portion. Other times, I’m blanketed with warmth. My goals, resources, and energy appear to converge as they carry me confidently to the finish line. I cannot fully describe these magical feelings that are unique to each of us.

With consistent focused effort, you will feel the magic too. But you must Start and then keep going.

Remember, LIFE is about the journey. (We all know how it ends.) So, enjoy the gifts each day, as you take one step at a time toward your goals and ambitions. You will pave the path. You will finish. Trust yourself.

What have you got to lose?

In this case, a lot of clutter.

For more, read Eric Riddle’s article, Trust Yourself to Declutter.

Slideshare by Курьерская Служба Украины

Don’t Say It. Do It. ACT.

June 28, 2021/in De-Clutter/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

How often have you heard a friend, family member, or co-worker say they are going to do something?

“I am going to lose weight.”
I’ve said this for the past year, while gaining (as of now) eight pounds. Weight, like clutter, fluctuates. We need to act consistently to lose weight and keep it off. Two of the biggest contributors to my weight gain are food intake (type of foods and amount consumed) and physical activities. After being too physical while playing basketball and bike riding, I hurt myself. I needed a walker after the first injury in October. The second, in January scared me. I vowed to do what it takes to gain greater strength, stability, and flexibility. I am making progress. It is painfully slow! I’m working up to another hike in the Sierras. (Last summer, I walked 13+ miles above 10,000′ elevation.)

“I am going to clear the mess on my desk.”
As I’ve written before, having a clean desk is an ongoing process. After all, you work at your desk. There will be paperwork and other stuff. I place paperwork, books, and more on my desk. When I get busy with something else or take a short trip, if I neglect the paperwork for long, it reproduces. Before it grows into a pile of overwhelming paperwork (POOP), I dig in and clear the clutter.

“I am going to read more books.”
Much of my accumulated possessions over a 41-year career, consists of paperwork and books. As I take steps to clear the clutter, I’ve internalized one valuable lesson. Do not bring home more stuff. Don’t subscribe to anything. Don’t buy any books. (I bought one earlier this year to read and review it for my other website.) Get rid of the stuff I have, first. I’ve been good about letting go. With all the reading I do online, I manage to finish reading about one book a month. I usually take notes and then place the book in a box to give-away. Earlier this year, I let go of one box filled with books that I read last year and ones I had no intention of reading.

The To-Do List goes on.

“I plan to watch less TV.”

“I plan to build my side-business on my days off.”

What happens?

Usually, nothing.

Why?

Because research shows that our brains consider the words we’ve spoken as if we’ve taken steps toward achieving the goal.

But have we?

No, we have only expelled warm air from our lungs through meaningless words.

Talking about doing something is not the same as doing it.

Last week, Eric advised, Trust Yourself to Declutter. Part of the STUFF acronym to Start, Trust, Understand, Focus, and Finish.

For our words to be meaningful, we must ACT.

Act (in order to)

Complete (the)

Task

After you have accomplished the task, it will no longer occupy your thoughts. You will not suffer seeing it undone. You don’t have to reschedule it anymore. In fact, you don’t have to even talk about doing it.

Why?

Because it’s DONE.

You ACTed.

How do you feel?

WOWEEEE the Korean Edition of STUFFology 101

February 18, 2016/1 Comment/in News 'n Views/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

I had the pleasure of picking up a gift that arrived from South Korea, yesterday – a box of the Korean edition of STUFFology 101 – Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter.

As an author of nine books, I’ve had the pleasure of having books translated in German, Spanish, Korean, and Slovenian. It’s always a treat to see how publishers of different countries handle the design and translation.

This is an exciting time for us. Imagine writing a book that people from around the world express interest in. I feel a little giddy with excitement imagining how my co-author, Eric must feel. This is his first published book, which became a top-selling title and it is now available in the Korean language. WOWEEEE!

What’s next?

There’s no telling what’s around the corner. As we wrote in the Unexpected Gifts chapter of STUFFology 101, if you keep working toward your goal, you never know which unexpected gift will come your way.

That’s what happened with this edition. We exhibited copies of STUFFology 101 at the Frankfurt Book Fair through the Independent Book Publishers Association. Although more publishers and agents expressed interest in this title than my previous books, the world’s economy remains tenuous and no deal was forthcoming. However, unknown to us, Cheombooks, a publisher in South Korea was searching for books on Amazon when they discovered STUFFology 101. And here we are!

All we can do is focus on helping you and who knows what’s next.

How about a little serendipity? I opened the book and paged through until I found a nice image of the inside pages I could share. What did I choose? Chapter 17 – Focus on Doing One Thing.

In our demanding, multi-tasking, and fragmented world, the best road to success with S.T.U.F.F. is to Start, Trust, Understand, and FOCUS in order to Finish.

Will you JOIN us?

It’s Our Third Anniversary and We Finally Sign a Post-Nup

July 8, 2015/1 Comment/in S.T.U.F.F./by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

For nearly three years, Eric and I had been working together without nuptials on S.T.U.F.F.

“What,” you ask? “You’re not even married.”

Weeeaaaall, in a way we are.

You see when you commit to work with someone, it becomes like a marriage.

Three years ago, we made the commitment to collaborate on writing a book about decluttering. We felt like book spouses, marrying our ideas together during weekends as our vision for the book took shape. And just like the newlywed phase passes, we too had differences. Despite our disagreements, we remained committed to seeing the birth of our baby (book).

STUFFology 101: Get Your Mind Out of the Clutter was conceived early July 2012. She took nearly two years to be born. Like most parents, we felt PROUD and JOY at her birth on April 1, 2014.

Yes, that was April Fool’s Day. We believe it’s best not to take ourselves too seriously. We also felt relief: No more labor pains! Ask Eric about indexing.

We knew she would be a FUN child so we launched her into the world with a FUN party.

She’s 14 months old now and remains a FUN child.

Since then, STUFFology 101 was released as an eBook, and later seeing her influence spread (worldwide English Audio rights sold) and recently Korean Language rights, we’re happy to see her make a path in this big world of ours where many ideas are shared.

To ensure we progress according to our initial vision and that should something happen to either or both of us that our “heirs and assigns” will be confident in carrying out our wishes, we retained a Los Angeles-based Intellectual Property attorney to draft our post-nup.

To think, how many partners can agree to a pre-nup much less a post-nup. But this ability to see eye-to-eye is how Eric and I started working together in the first place. We agree on most things–the important ones being integrity and a stable with both-feet-on-the-ground approach to our business and marketing decisions.

We also believe in keeping lines of communication as open as humanly possible. Some days (weeks?) it’s harder than others, but we’ve managed to reach our third anniversary.

When I reflect on it, it’s almost like following our apronym S.T.U.F.F. Instead of letting go, we let in and developed our ideas until we created a book.

We simply got Started.

We Trusted the process.

We Understood how each step builds upon the next.

Sometimes we struggled, but we maintained Focus on each area.

And eventually, we Finished.

What STUFF means

June 2, 2015/7 Comments/in S.T.U.F.F./by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

What does our STUFF mean?

Better yet, what does our STUFF say about us?

Throughout our lives, we accumulate STUFF for diverse reasons.

We aspire to make a statement.

Years ago, while I lived in Wisconsin, an Indiana-based consultant asked me why I don’t wear a Rolex watch. I told him my Seiko works just fine. He advised me that a Rolex would help create an image of success. I reminded him of the irony that he had driven four hours in his Mercedes sporting his Rolex, because he needed my advice.

We acquire a unique item while on travel.

While in Armenia, I brought home a bottle of Coke with Armenian lettering.

Take a moment, right now to recall something you acquired within the last week or two.

What was it and why?

I bought a pair of crop pants on sale at Costco. Why? They were a compromise between too-short shorts and pants. I’ll just roll up the legs to just above my knees and they’ll be perfect.

Then we hold onto the STUFF we acquired.

We hold onto a reminder of a loved one.

I still hold onto The Wooden Spoon. If you haven’t yet, read the story in STUFFology 101.

We think we’ll need it, later.

We paid a lot for the item and can’t justify letting go of it.

Yep, these are some of the reasons we accumulate clutter.

Long after the reason for acquiring an item has passed, we’re still holding on.

What’s with that?

Oh, I’m not criticizing. I do it too!

As a STUFFologist, I make it my business to define my own clutter, but it takes time to get rid of STUFF.

Deciding what we hold onto defines who we are. Our STUFF makes statements about how we see ourselves.

WOAH, you say! Not all my stuff!

I agree.

Over time, we try to find containers to store the stuff that we don’t need, right now.

And even though it’s out of sight, we remain tethered to our Stuff.

I still have recordings and videos from over a decade and a half ago when my husband and I taped my father while he lived with dementia. He couldn’t make sense of his image on TV and insisted we call the station manager because there was a guy that looked just like him on TV. I thought about making a video to help people understand what it’s like living with dementia. Enough time has passed. There are far better videos available, today.

I am ready to let go.

Nooo, you say. You can get them converted by a service!

Again, retrieving all the videos and audio recordings and then determining which items to convert, takes time. However, it bears mentioning, we don’t have to reduce ourselves to an all-or-nothing choice. I may choose to preserve at least one of those memories.

Still, I don’t want to live through another Station Fire to be forced into rush decisions about what I keep and what I let go.

An earthquake? A fire? A flood?

I am letting go of things now, so I don’t leave others with the burden of getting rid of my STUFF.

I Start by defining the clutter in an area, Trust in the process, Understand the cyclical nature of clutter, Focus for a time, and Finish getting rid of my S.T.U.F.F. in that area.

These mini successes encourage me to keep going whether it’s getting through emails, a pile of magazines, books, paperwork, and more. I think of Queen’s refrain: I want to break free. It’s not easy, but if we keep at it, we will break free of clutter.

The older I grow, the less STUFF means to me.

Have Fun With S.T.U.F.F.

April 21, 2015/1 Comment/in S.T.U.F.F./by Eric Riddle STUFFologist

Knowing and doing are NOT the same thing. We know we should take time to relax, but often don’t. We know we should spend more time with family and friends, but let work and other obligations get in the way. Clutter is not always black and white.

Step back, take a deep breath, and have fun with S.T.U.F.F.

Our own cluttergories overlap one another, but we can work on more than one at a time. This is where the S.T.U.F.F. acronym comes in handy. START by defining what clutter is for you. For me it has been mental and temporal clutter. Like many of you, I have too much stuff going on! The family and I needed a break, so we went to the California Poppy Festival over the weekend.

I learned some things about clutter at this event, especially in the petting zoo area of the children’s section. The camels reminded me to get over the hump of my mental clutter. I had to TRUST in the process and myself to de-clutter.

There was a rainforest animal section too, that contained all kinds of exotic critters. The giant spider made me think about how clutter builds up slowly, just like a web. UNDERSTAND that clutter builds up over time and its removal is a process not an event.

Enjoy the moment and be present. Kids seem to do this naturally. Follow their example and FOCUS on where you are and what you are doing.

And last, but not least, FINISH the area of clutter you are working on. My day of fun with the family reduced the mental and temporal clutter holding me back.

S.T.U.F.F. is a tool you can use to process whatever cluttergories are impacting your life. Try it today!

To Master the Art of Decluttering, Ask Magic Question 2

March 18, 2015/2 Comments/in 2 Magic Questions/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

The art of de-cluttering is similar to any other skill or talent worth developing. If you want to play better piano, you need to practice, Practice, PRACTICE. If you want to be a better basketball player, you need to shoot hoops and practice moves on the court.

Whatever talent you wish to master, you need to respond vividly to the second of two magic questions.

The great masters, whether in music, sport, or any other talent, practice and use visualization to mentally finger the keys or take hoop shots.

We take it a step further.

Visualization is not enough when we have access to five senses.

Master the art of decluttering so that you may join us as STUFFologists.

In over 45 years of clearing the clutter throughout my life, I have found when I clear a physical space; it has a profound effect on how I think. For example, clearing a square foot area of clutter clears my mind and opens me up to unexpected possibilities. It goes deeper than this but I’m limited by two-dimensional expression.

Imagine what we can accomplish room by room in an entire home or office!

Clutter will never totally disappear. It’s part of our natural cycle of life. Just as you eat to digest the nutrients in your food, and then eliminate, there will always be a cycle of clutter in our lives. We accept this as the natural course of life; especially, while we’re focused on other tasks leaving clutter to accumulate.

We can control our clutter by answering the two Magic Questions.

In Chapter 22 of STUFFology 101, we address the Two Magic Questions.

Eric Riddle wrote about the first Magic Question in Why do I have this?

This article invites you to step up the challenge of answering Magic Question 2: What would the area I am focusing on look, feel, smell, or sound like if I cleared the clutter?

Your ability to feel the answer deeply will yield lasting success. In other words, visualize the area but go beyond to imagine using your other senses.

Do you notice how clean an area smells after you’re finished dusting?
Do you remember feeling a more open mind after clearing an area of a stack of papers?
Have you noticed after emptying a room of stacks of boxes, that you are able to hear sound more clearly?

Where do you begin?

Click to Start with S.T.U.F.F. Define an area you want to clear of clutter and get started. Focus on how you feel, what you smell, hear, touch, or see.

The more senses you involve, the greater your success.

Over time, like a virtuoso pianist or a star basketball player, you will master the art of decluttering.

And who knows?

In the physical, mental, digital, temporal, and even sensual space created, you may find an unexpected gift. There is no telling what it will be. That’s what makes it unexpected. I have found if I observe closely and keep an open mind, I usually find the answer to a question I’ve been mulling around awhile or a find a solution to a challenge I’ve encountered.

We need to declutter and archive statements more often.

January 21, 2015/2 Comments/in De-Clutter/by Brenda Avadian STUFFologist

The truth is my husband and I archive our records once every three years. Thirty-six months of accumulated paperwork is all our file cabinets can handle.

By this time, our files have grown so full that even the hanging folders lose their grip and collapse from the weight of being overstuffed.

It’s also about this time that my husband and I hate filing papers. It becomes a chore to try to stuff one more balanced credit union statement, one more receipt, one more paid utility bill, one more… In years past, we’d start a pile in front of the file cabinet. But we learned painful lessons over the years when having to file all that accumulated paperwork.

Late last year, my husband, David, removed all the pre-2014 paperwork and stacked all those sheets of paper into a neat pile on a shelf.

Time to Archive

It was exactly three years and one month this past weekend, when we pulled out the banker’s boxes and plastic storage bins in order to archive this paperwork among our older records.

Eeeeewwwwww. There was even a dated note on one of the bins: 12/18/2011 This bin is full.

We need to let go of our older records.

As a STUFFologist, the thought of buying a new bin did not occur to me. Instead, using Nature’s process as noted in “Input Throughput Output,” Chapter 21 in Part Four of (click on) STUFFology 101, we needed to let go of some stuff.

It took the better part of a quarter hour to decide what we would let go and then the better part of three hours to get the job done.

We keep records of the last seven years. Anything prior to that, we reviewed and reduced to make room for the newer records.

It’s a slow process at best because it’s not simply a matter of tossing records from 2006 and earlier. You may recall I have a need to look through my paperwork one more time before letting go. So, the process will take a bit longer.

For one thing, I purchased a few stocks over a decade ago that I still own. I need to look through my paperwork to see if I still have those records. It would be much harder to get them from the brokerage as I’ve changed brokers over the years, too. I’ll need this information to calculate the long-term capital gain when I’m ready to sell.

This is the process of dealing with (click on) S.T.U.F.F.—we need to Start, Trust the process, Understand that it will take time, and Focus, in order to Finish.

David and I decided that we need to archive and de-clutter statements more often.

In one and a half weeks, we’ve set aside time to return to this process of removing our older records. This time, it should be easier since we’re not waiting three years to review and be reacquainted with our filing system. Over time, I have faith that the process will move faster as we feel strengthened by saving only what we need.

How about you? What area do you define as clutter and how can you get started with decluttering your STUFF?

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