Rounding up the strays

One of the things I find when decluttering is that some categories of things have been distributed all through the flat. Take stationery- I had writing utensils and paper stashed away in four different locations, which led to several unnecessary double purchases because I couldn´t find the ballpoint pens or envelopes or whatever when I needed them, so I just went and bought another pack.
Only now have I managed to put all of my stationery in one place, and I think I won´t have to buy any for quite a while.
Another culprit, it turned out, was candles. After yesterday´s candle closet cleanup, I had that nagging feeling of having missed something. As indeed I had. Hidden away in the corridor cupboard was one decorative (read: too-pretty-to-burn) Easter candle, plus a plastic bag full of even more votive candles. Putting them into the candle closet made, for one, sure that I will have that Easter candle out next year instead of letting it languish in that closet, and the votives (which I had plain forgotten about) have a chance of getting lit, too.
And the corridor closet now holds only the two handmade pottery table sets I own which, by now, only come out for special occasions, plus some thermos coffee pots of DH´s, and two extra packs of paper napkins courtesy of IKEA. As for the latter, a napkin roundup is already planned. As far as I remember there are three places where I have some of those.I´ll see how much space I need for them.

Not having a designated space for things is obviously another big cause of clutter. Some of those hidden stashes came about when I had to do a quick tidying up, and did not have a designated place to put things. To get them out of the way, I just put them into the closest available space, which made the outward room look tidy and turned the inside of the closets into a mess.
If I want to avoid a repetition of that situation, every thing I own must have a place to keep it in.
Things for which I have no place where they can live are automatically clutter. So are things stashed away in unlikely places, because it´s not likely their existence will be remembered when such an item is needed.
Just the act of keeping track of things distributed all over the place creates stress.
Reducing the amount of items to keep track of, aka decluttering, plus finding permanent homes for the items I keep, reduces my general stress level considerably.
Rounding up the strays from different categories has allowed me to become conscious of things I tend to overbuy, and even get rid of some unnecessary extras, thus creating even more space to give a permanent home to the things I keep.
And then all I have to do is lead the strays back to their homes whenever I find them out of their places, and enjoy my uncluttered flat.


Julia