Clutter and the Gift of Help

Real Simple’s January 2012 article on Sentimental Clutter gives people seven clear steps to dealing with the stuff that we have the hardest time letting go of. Yesterday’s tip was boxing it up to save for later. Today’s two are to enlist help and to work in short intervals. How does this match up with your personality type? Please read more to find out!

In general, enlisting help would probably be a good idea if you’re an extravert because you get more energy from being around other people and getting rid of sentimental clutter is an emotionally exhausting task. Real Simple suggests knowing yourself well enough to get the right kind of help and this is particularly true when it comes to personality type. “Do you need someone warm and fuzzy because the work would be unbearable alone? Or do you want a tech-savvy whip-cracker who can post images of your sellables on eBay while getting your nose out of that old diary?”

If you are a logical type — Smarts (NT), Fun Structures (SP), Classic Structures (STJ) — we highly suggest having someone warm and fuzzy mostly because they’ll help you see the sentimental value in things that you, in the tempest of grief, might let go of to just get the task done. They can also point out to you who else might benefit from or want this stuff if you see no need for it. Value based decision makers like Organic Structures (NFJ) and Classic Freedoms (SFJ) would also benefit from someone who shares their decision making sensibilities because they can help them through the process.

While the other value based decision makers — Organic Freedoms (NFP) and Fun Freedoms (SP) — could also use someone warm and fuzzy, but they are more likely than other types to get lost in the old diary and photos and get overwhelmed when hours have past and nothing has been accomplished. Smart Structures, Organic Structures and Classics (SJ) are all timeline oriented task masters, so that even if they do get swept away by emotion from time to time, they are aware of the passage of time in a keen way and are uncomfortable letting too much time go on without crossing something off their list.

Now the types who could truly use a detail oriented task master putting their stuff on ebay are the big picture types who are overwhelmed by detail — Organics (NFJ) & Smarts — but even more so for the big picture types who also have trouble getting tasks done — Smart Freedoms (NTP)  and Organic Freedoms.

This said, no matter what help you end up enlisting, the Real Simple third step toward dealing with sentimental clutter, “Work in Short Intervals,” is universal and sound advice that holds true no matter what your type. “Going through emotionally loaded items can make you feel depleted, so limit work session to three or four hours.” If you try and do it all in one go, you more often end up making mistakes and have what they call “Purger’s Regret.” We fear that the logical types might try and do too much at once whereas if the value types do too much they won’t be able to continue after a break. So for everyone’s sake. No more than four hours at a time!!