Clutter by Nenad Njegovan

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CLUTTER

Nenad Njegovan

OUT OF CLUTTER, FIND SIMPLICITY. FROM DISCORD, FIND HARMONY. IN THE MIDDLE OF DIFFICULTY LIES

OPPORTUNITY ALBERT EINSTEIN

contents

Preface Introduction The red dress Overload Buried alive Public housing Interview #1 Interview #2 Interview #3 Six Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

4 10 14 17 20 26 30 32 34 36

preface If you will entertain me and continue reading this book I will be able to teach you some things about, what I consider clutter and what effects this can have on the psyche of a person. The photograph on the next page is a man working on a car, this is me frantically working on myself to fix all my little idiosyncrasies and get rid of both the physical and emotional clutter. The irony being that I would have more chance fixing the car than getting rid of the clutter in my life. Clutter has a way of sneaking up on a person; it has a way of becoming a huge part of our life without us noticing until it consumes you wholly. Writing about clutter comes from my personal experience; I am not a professionally trained person in telling people how to deal with their emotional issues that relate to their cluttered state. Things begin to pile up and overwhelm a person to the point where they are unable to move. The author of this book is me. I am Currently a student of Visual Communication at the University of Western Sydney, which might come as no surprise. It does not mean that I can properly understand psychology and a analysis of clutter. I am a person who has suffered severe anxiety attacks, which can be closely linked, to the amount of activities I tried to fit into one day. Good example of this being that at one point in my life I was working 4 days a week and full time study at University and part time study at TAFE. This overload of activities eventually led to a state where everything built up around me. My room was cluttered and so was my schedule, everything in life was rushed and this overwhelmed me and life came to a fast paced halt.

this is me frantically working on myself

stress levels This graphs the level of stress and clutter, in the authors life over the past 7 years.

Clutter

Stress

Finishing high school has leads a spike in stress and clutter.

Stress of finding a career leads to stress, collecting clothes and posters leads to small amounts of clutter.

Failing grades raise stress, but the discovery of clubbing leads to drinking which lowers cash flow and thus clutter.

Became content with life with bare necessities and no career path, stress and clutter go down.

Decided to enrol into university, working and university lead to higher stress.

Working 4 days a week and going university full time and tafe part time takes its toll.

First anxiety attack, living space is full of electronics and entertainment facilities.

Last year of university, stress levels rise and the inability to have a social life leads to more purchases of entertainment and working out equipment.

my story My story with clutter is about a person who takes up more than they can and drive themselves and their personal life into a cluttered state where life stands still and gain weight because they had no time to watch what they were eating or maintain exercise. What is this that consumed my life and led to anxiety attacks and clutter of my mind? The only way I could describe those six months of my life would be that your are consumed by the rush, time passes by quickly. Time passes very quickly. The weight gain is something that followed the physical and emotional clutter, this stuff builds up over time and you basically lose yourself. Going from a leisurely walk in a park to this life being a thick forest where every inch forward is a struggle. Eventually you give up and become a part of the forest of clutter engulfing you. The week would go as follows – on Monday work from 7 until 3 and then 6 to 8 at TAFE night classes, Tuesday would be the same and Wednesday would just be aday at the university, same with Thursday and Friday. On weekends I would work 8-hour shifts and that’s the way it was for six months, the routine caused everything to stall. I saw my friends less and less and lived a frantic life. The images on the next page are taken from Facebook as a sort of timeline reference to that part of my life. So what is clutter and why am I devoting my final year of study towards a book about it? To put it simply there are bigger things I want to address other than someone’s room being overflowing with things they don’t really need. What leads a person to have emotional and physical clutter is them being wrapped up in their own life. Life becomes cluttered with activities and stuff accumulating all over the place and this leads to anxiety. To anyone who has the same issues I would suggest that they read through this book, take on some of the advice. My own personal experience and some of the people in this can be used as a learning guide and maybe have the reader look at themselves

the red dress

Clothes in their simplicity are defined as something that allows us to keep our bodies covered, sometimes not in the most modest of ways but in most as a form of covering for social acceptance. Over the past few decades clothes have become something used for defining ourselves in a culture dominated by labels and brands, sub-cultures and an intricate dance that we all have done along the lines of what is and what is not cool in its own sense and branding like we are all defined by this. It was once written by a novelist that men and women will define themselves by how much money they earn, the clothes they wear and by an animalistic drive to acquire more and define themselves in a star status. This story takes place in a wardrobe in a suburban home much like any of the ones we would have grown up in; the mailbox had numbers on it and the white picket fence stood proud. A young girl grew into the once too large dress, she filled it like water filled the glass, perfectly, never overflowing and poised in perfection. The girl loved her dress and the mother that passed it down to her, she would float from room to room and mirror to mirror. In her eyes she was a princes, her crown was a flowing red dress and her castle a suburban home and her subjects her family. Her sister would watch her in awe waiting for one day to inherit the crown that was bestowed on her sister. The ball had come and like princesses before her in bedtime stories told to millions of girls around the world, she was ready and sparklig with the beauty of the night. She walked out with her prince charming in hand and her rented chariot behind her, disappearing as she walked from it to the hall hired by the school for the night. He whispered to her that she looked beautiful and she believed him, the envy of her classmates fueled her to rise higher and higher until she was floating above the ground like an angel in the grace of God. The night went as she had hoped, her prince could dance and the classmates formed an unintentional circle around them. As the night began to wind down the music began to fade along with everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s enthusiasm. By the end of the night the two had given themselves time to talk about the world and everything in it. Parked in front of them along the bay was a warship, at the time being simply a statement about the current state of the world, announcing to them a prediction of things to come for them both.

A monster was creeping towards them, it did not come bearing a red apple or even a curse with it, but the world and society functioning on the principle where those who are weaker will be feasted upon by those who are strong. By the end of the year the princess had lost her prince to the darkness of the streets and to the demon that takes you to different dimensions. Some of those who envied her had attempted to take their own life, even her sister had fallen from an angel glowing white to a distressed soul given themselves too young to the festering hunger of an older man. Years have passed and the dress still stands, it has gathered dust and no longer holds the aura that it once encompassed. The dress faired the same as the princess that once wore it as her crown, it was a ghostly sight in her wardrobe, it lingered awaiting her sister who would never come to it, becoming simply a form of clutter that has bitter and sweet memories clinging to it.

overload

This is not just a story of an unfortunate man, but a cautionary tale for any of those who swim in an ocean of Internet and social connectivity. This tale like many others begins with humble events that take the protagonist through greed and a wanting to further his own goals and ambitions. On a dark night, in a city like any other with a large population where the young would spend there days pondering the ways of the world and their nights dancing and twirling to mindless dribble known as modern day music. Michael was on a night out spending his time drinking cocktails and wildly throwing his eyes towards any woman showing some skin. Michael had recently been dumped by his girlfriend of three years; needless to say he was shattered like an egg dropped from the roof of a high rise building. Upon being dumped and grieving the proper amount of time he decided to take upon himself the goal of getting as many girls as possible. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long before he was staying out late and throwing himself around, trying to take the pain away. He discovered that he could use social media to his advantage, before the world knew it Michael was sending Facebook messages, tweeting, Instagram-ing and so on. His phone become a utopia of social media activities, girls kept pilling their attention towards the oddly charming and charismatic young man. His phone would beep and vibrate every few minutes, he would wake up to extreme amounts of messages, calls, tweets, instagram feeds. This device would soon consume his whole being, he would check it every five minutes, his mind busy and cluttered. Michael began having trouble sleeping, he started to have problems with anxiety and his whole world became consumed by his phone and a steady Internet connection. One day after flipping through his phone he had a sort of epiphany, realizing that this entire social media was hindering him, he had become a person accustomed to living two lives, one on the Internet and the other in the real world â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a matrix styled event. He had become unplugged, free in a way from the eyes of the social media. Michael can now be seen playing snake on an old Nokia, he can make and receive calls and send simple text messages, allowing himself to live an easier life.

It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t long before he was staying out late and throwing himself around, trying to take the pain away

buried alive

Books are stories and information found on paper, words and sentences interwoven to entertain and educate the reader. But like most things people collecting these can turn this into an obsession. Richard had lived his life like many of us did and when he was younger he found solace in his books, fantasy worlds with knights and princesses. Many years had passed and Richard become a well educated man, he had a special relationship with his brother and they stood by each other. In many ways his brother embodied what he was not: he was athletic, laidback and much more of a ladies man. On a cold winter night, deeply layered in tacky clothing Richard awaited a doctor at a local hospital, a doctor who could bring the best or the worst news. On this occasion the doctor wandered in, his head hung low with a silence in his steps, as though he was trying to not be seen in the room full of people staring at him. He spoke shakily, giving the family the news that a cancer was running through and conquering his brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body, cell by cell. Within one year the cancer had taken his brotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life and Richard found escape in his books. hHe slowly turned himself away from the world, he become more involved in his own pain, only finding temporary escape in the fantasy tales found in his books. Two years passed since his brother had passed but the only development Richard had felt was in his vocabulary. He developed a system to store his books, he had over six thousand, all different styles of writing, some on history some about fantasy lands. These books were arranged by type and alphabetically. His apartment seemed as though a ghost was living in there, the rooms in the apartment were cold with a scent of a library; when the windows opened a hint of a whisper could be heard being made by the wind. Richard himself crept through the place, beaten down and broken, the rooms were cluttered with old pizza boxes, old tins of instant coffee. In the corner an old computer stood, he never bothered turning it off and used it to document what books he had in the apartment. On a November morning Richard awoke, quietly made him self an instant coffee and began to search for a book. He began scanning a large wall of books, he was looking for something to read during the week. A gust of wind rushed into the house, a slight slip of Richardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hand led to the wall of books shaking and consequently collapsing on Richard.

D C L

LT R

public housing Public housing in Australia has recently become viewed as some sort of problem stemming from a government solution. The public housing in Australia started in 1945 to house soldiers and their families after the Second World War. In the sixties the housing purpose was changed from this to accommodate those living in sub-standard housing. During the late 1970s as local community resistance grew to inner suburban high-rise estates public housing programs were severely curtailed. In addition to the reaction to large high-rises in the inner city was the social stigmatization following the creation of sizeable enclaves of a single, negatively perceived socio-economic group. From the 1980s onwards, the focus was on small-scale infill projects and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;spot-purchaseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of existing dwellings in appropriate locations.

Celebrating every day, no more public housing Thinking back on my one-room shack Juicy - Notorious BIG

In 2004, on a hot night, the police were chasing a young Aboriginal man. The local Aboriginal and broad Aboriginal community has its mistrust of the police, which was deeply ingrained in events that transpired later. After the young man was impaled trying to escape the police the community quickly came together, mostly from the Redfern area, Evenleigh Street. The next day on Valentines Day as the community gathered together to commemorate the young manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life, the police and the community clashed and what ensued was a full scale riot. These cluttered living situations where public housing finds itself in its current state is something that has made the living conditions unbearable and volatile. Several studies and reports record that there is a perceived culture where crime is evident in these communities. Recently the government has initiated a redevelopment plan for these areas, planning to try and organize those areas and make more people use bicycles instead of cars in order to achieve de-cluttering of small aspects of the neighborhood.

No sympathy from neighbours as commission home burns The observer - 21 march 2013

interview #1 How long has some of this stuff been here? It has been here for about 10 years, we just sort of dump stuff we don’t need but could use here. Have you ever tried to live without the clutter? We have cleaned it out before and then basically it builds up all over again, it a sort of stash of things we can’t seem to throw away, it will get cleaned up and then built up again. Are you emotionally attached to this stuff? I don’t think we are but we haven’t gotten rid of it, for some reason we keep the stuff around, I am sure there is an Aldi bag in there full of junk we don’t need. When did it start to accumulate? It started to accumulate around the time I become a teenager, our household become less stable, everyone was arguing. The clutter began to pile up and it just never seemed to get clean. It’s out of sight and out of mind. Do you think you could ever move past this? Yes of course, it would seem weird without it being there, it has been there for the past 10 years.

interview #2 How long has some of this stuff been here? Some of these clothes don’t fit anymore, but they are still here collecting dust. Oddly enough there used to be more, but I donated it to charity. Have you ever tried to live without the clutter? I have tried re-organizing myself, micro managing things that I do, how many purchases of clothing I make but I cant seem to lower the amount of clothes I have. I don’t need most of them but I keep them around, feel weird to look into my wardrobe and have less in there. Are you emotionally attached to this stuff? I don’t think I am, but the clothes that don’t even fit are still there, I don’t throw them out for some reason. I guess some of the clothes have been around for a long time and I have memories attached to them. It’s cluttered in there but I like to think its organized clutter. When did it start to accumulate? I started to collect the clothes around time I got my first job, I realized that money could buy me nice things and five years later I have the nicest things money can buy. I had good experience with most my clothes so I just decided to keep them, even when I outgrew them. Do you think you could ever move past this? I could, I mean I will but most the clothes are still good. They look good and are still relevant that’s why I don’t want to throw them away.

interview #3 How long has some of this stuff been here? The books have been collected for over 25 years, they were passed down from my father to me and I remember as a kid that there was always a lot of books around. Have you ever tried to live without the clutter? I have honestly thought about throwing some of the books away, but I look at them sometimes when I am bored. I don’t read all of them I don’t think I even read most of them, but they are there if I need them. Are you emotionally attached to this stuff? I guess I am, I would not throw them away but I would buy more for the collection but I wouldn’t throw it away, this is something’s that I would like my kids to keep. When did it start to accumulate? It started with my father, we always had books in the house, him and my mother liked to collect them. Do you think you could ever move past this? I don’t see it as a problem, so I don’t really need to.

CLUTTERED HEART

CLUT

d’s of

T TER

1.DELETE Decide wether you need the stuff, not wether you might need it one day.

2.DO If the work can be done straight away, do it and dont let it pile up.

TO DO 1 2 3 4 5 6

Tasks Cleaning Organise Meditate Visualize space Donate clothes Love simple space

Jane Doe

Notes throw away unwanted items organise clothes and work take time out and focus imagine the space without clutter

give away unwanted clothes learn to love an organised

7 8 9 10 11 12

3.DELEGATE If it canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be done within a reasonable time frame pass it onto someone else.

YOU

4.DEFER If it takes too long to complete, put it on a to do list but make sure you look into the list.

5.DIMINISH Direct the workload if you cant do it straight away, create different to do lists for different days.

6.DAILY Work and clean on the daily, make it a part of the routine.

January 1

CLUTTER

Clutter in its many forms can enslave us, clutter can be the weight holding us back. When dealing with clutter it is important to remember that it is not just the physical we have to organise and move on from. keep the heart in mind when everything is being organised into a neat pile. Sincerely, Nenad Njegovan.