I’ve not been feeling very well the last couple of days. Not the kind of ill where you’re confined to your bed, but rather the kind where you’re eternally restless but without the energy to do anything about it.

This kind of sickness is horrific to the creative mind, I look around my house and instead of thinking ‘I’m not feeling great, that pile of washing will just have to wait’ or ‘never mind that huge stack of books my boys have left in the corner, I’ll tackle it tomorrow’ I instead find myself with an almost uncontrollable urge to tidy, sort and throw things away!!

I have over analyzed this urge on more than one occasion and have come to the conclusion that a sick body requires peace and tranquility to rest and recuperate. Unfortunately standing on rogue lego bricks or balancing another dirty plate upon the pile does not tranquility make. It makes sense to clear the area, so that I don’t have to think about it and can finally find calm. Thankfully I know I am not alone in this bizarre sense of priorities as my mother and several friends are the same (at least if I’m nuts, I’m in good company!)

The choices therefore are…

Run myself ragged tidying and cleaning until I’ve made sure and certain I feel ill whether by virus or by exhaustion (not my favoured choice funnily enough)

Enlist my children with promises of rewards (I like this option when it works, I also like to think I’m teaching them good life skills 🙂 )

Get a big black bag and throw it all away (tempting, but not really very environmentally friendly and a shame if goods are still usable)

Or make wonderful piles of clutter which are destined either for the charity shop, bin, recycling, or to be sold.

I like the idea of decluttering as opposed to tidying, less stuff= less tidying in future! But I’ve become a bit disillusioned with auction sites, they take ages to list things and then there’s the wait to see if an item sells, not forgetting the wait for payment and posting. I am actually far more keen on services that allow you to sell your stuff to them all at once, like Music Magpie. Granted you wont command as a high a price as you might privately but it’s a bit like part exchanging your car, you get a little less for the convenience and time saved for you. Personally (especially when I’m under the weather) I think that’s a fair trade off 🙂

Do you love decluttering too or is that just me?