TEN YEARS AFTER - I start yet again in 2020!

I just realized that I never talked about my ongoing struggles with DE-CLUTTERING, and that I don't seem to have talked about the C-BOX.
This is a quote from an email I'm sending my friend as I plan to begin yet again the process of DE-CLUTTERING 2020.

THE C-BOX

This is a large green (my favourite colour) plastic box, shaped like a treasure chest, and labelled C-BOX.

No, this isn't a "Clutter Box" - C is for Ciara, a friend of Rosie's who came to do for me what your Jessie will ideally do for you.

It is many years ago, could be in the early 1990's, so that's up to thirty years ago, that I have been struggling with the Clutter Issue.

Anyway, Ciara volunteered to give me a hand, and like you described Jessie, Ciara also has a ruthless streak.

As we went through each item, Ciara would say: "How long is it since you have used this?" I often had to admit either it was years ago, or I couldn't actually remember. 

Then Ciara would say: "What is your plan for the next time you are planning to use it?" If I had such a plan, she would put the item in a small pile to one side. If I admitted that I didn't have such a plan, Ciara would say: "Fail to PLAN, means plan to FAIL"

I knew she was right.

But even though I admitted this, when she moved to put the item in the 'Throw-out Box', I sometimes felt very upset at the idea of 'losing' this item. That was when Ciara launched her master plan.

"Don't worry," she would say. "I'll just put it in this other box, You can take it out any time you want do during the next six months. But some day after that, I will come when you are not here, and empty the box"

When she said this, my Child would give a big sigh of relief, and we would go on to the next item.

It must have been nine or ten months when I remembered the box, which we had labelled the 'Ciara Box'. Before I opened it, I tried to remember what we had put into it. Nothing came to my mind. When I opened it, it was empty, and I still didn't remember what had been in it. 

Not only that, in the thirty or so years since then, I have never remembered even ONE SINGLE ITEM that had been in the box.

I've used this method once or twice since then, even without Ciara's help. I would just slip the item into the box without fully opening the lid. And when it got heavy, I would empty it into the bin with my eyes shut. And again, I have never ever remembered what was in the box.

So I know it works, the trick is NEVER to LOOK into the BOX once  the six months passes after you put an item into it.

So that is the story of the C-Box.

Tomorrow, I am going to go around the house and photograph the areas of clutter (and any areas of CLEAR that I happen to find.)

I'm just remembering, I started a blog about clutter some years ago (I've just checked - I began it the September 2010 after I finished in Art College, and the last entry is October 2017, a little over a year after Tony died, and the extension to the house was finished.

So now, there's another little task - I will re-read the blog and see can I learn/re-learn anything from before