Did you know that vinyl, ostriches, & organization have something in common?

Do you feel stuck in too much stuff? What are you doing to get out of your stuckness?

If you answered “nothing” or “what I’ve tried hasn’t worked,” then please indulge me in some reminiscing.

Vinyl records are back in vogue. What I don’t know is if one of the major pitfalls of playing albums on a record player has been solved: when a scratch, piece of lint, or some other small object causes the needle to get stuck in one place from which it can’t move. This means you hear the same sound over and over and over.

Back in the day, I used one of these options to stop the stuckness:

• Manually place the needle beyond the scratch.
• Attach a penny to the needle because the extra weight helped the needle move past the scratch.

Either way, I had to take action.

Okay, back to what to do if you feel stuck with too much stuff.

Have you tried the ostrich approach? This is when you (figuratively) bury your head in the sand and hope the issues go away.

Do you deliberately postpone until the time is “right”? This is when you think that if you can “make it” until some specific date in the future, you’ll have time to deal with the problem. “If I can wait until after I’ve gotten my diabetes under control, then I’ll have time to organize my desk.” However, after the diabetes is under control, you experience sleep issues and are always tired. Then it’s allergy season. And before you know it, you’re desk is more cluttered than ever before and you still haven’t taken time to declutter or organize.

If you’re serious about making a change (because you’re tired of hearing the scratch in the record), decide to take action.

It can be a very small action:

• put items back in place once you’re done using them
• say “no” when a family member wants to “give you” a possession that you don’t really want
• take 10 minutes and delete obsolete items from a drawer

Stuff-overwhelm doesn’t go away on its’ own. In fact, left to its’ own devices, it usually gets worse. This is especially true during life-disrupting situations.

If you’re like some people, it feels easier to stay stuck than to take action. I assure you, it is not! If you’re ready to get unstuck from your clutter, type “ready” in the comments below and I’ll let you know you’re first teeny-tiny step toward decluttering.