Clutter Bugs
Which personality style are you?
BUTTERFLY
Exposed
Simple
Spontaneous
Abundance
Emotionally attached to stuff
Butterflies are often free spirits who need to see all their stuff. They tend to be disorganized, and messy, and do not put things away. Laziness and irresponsibility, attention deficits, are accusations they tend to deal with, while actually, they require easy, open visual systems to make organization simple. "Out of sight out of mind" leads to anxiety for butterflies. Children are often baby butterflies, actually caterpillars that need to be trained to become tidy and morph into their own personality style.
Keep all containers open, easy and accessible. See-through labeled containers will be preferred. Hooks, open bins, hampers, and trashcans by the places they will be used. Remove lids, drawers, and doors to keep it simple for them to toss or hang items and see where they landed. The less complicated the better!
Butterflies tend to accumulate stuff and need help to deal with it. Create systems they can successfully follow through with. And mantras: "Trash goes in the trash!" "If you take it out, put it back." "If you dirty it, clean it." "If your turn it on, turn it off." "If you used it up, replace it. Don't buy more, til you used up what we have."
Proverbs 10:4
"A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."
BEE
Exposed
Detailed
Structured
Abundance
Emotionally attached to stuff
Bees are creative collectors, artists, and hobbyists, tinkerers, who like to display everything neatly organized. They have no problem putting things away where they belong. And sometimes they even have clear labels and shapes that show exactly where a tool belongs on their peg board. Bees like more! They struggle with eliminating things that could be sentimental, valuable or recycled, or used later elsewhere. Their environments are like walking into a hardware store - where you can see everything in place and lots of it.
Bees love open shelves, open cabinets, peg-boards, hooks, colorful variety of displayed organized items. They manage their inventory but can tend to do too many projects at one time, hoard, and need help purging because of their emotional attachment to clutter.
Proverbs 16:3
"Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established."
CRICKET
Unexposed
Detailed
Structured
Minimal
Detached to stuff
Crickets are the rare champions of organization and cleanliness. They are also often obsessive, compulsive, detail-oriented, perfectionists, and meticulous. Crickets are able to organize and discard items easily unless they get struck by analysis paralysis to do things perfectly. They are not emotionally attached to stuff. They love structure and established routine systems. They enjoy putting things away and filing everything so it is easily retrieved even with color-coded sub-categories. They enjoy clear surfaces and everything neatly organized and hidden inside their proper places. Crickets have no problem discarding or putting things away in perfect order and are easily upset by messes and disarray. They feel anxious when things are messy or there is too much visual noise or procrastinate because they rather have detailed perfection. They have showroom model homes with just the essentials and tend towards minimalism naturally and easily. They see fine details that others often overlook and prefer to remove any visual clutter. They tend to not have organizational difficulties. Instead, they tend to have conflicts with the other organizational styles. Crickets can be brutal about controlling clutter, keeping everything hidden that should not be displayed, and protecting their systems. They need to relax and show compassion to those who are not as fine-tuned to purging and maintaining their particular system.
Setting time limits to over-doing it and accepting a "good enough" attitude will also help curb the cricket's natural workaholism tendency.
I Corinthians 14:40
"But all things should be done decently and in order."
LADYBUG
Unexposed
Simple
Spontaneous
Minimal
Emotionally attached to stuff, but desires to be detached.
Ladybugs like space, clear surfaces, keep things tidy, clean and messes hidden. Don't look inside drawers and closets though, they tend to be a hot mess! Ladybugs struggle with keeping things neatly put away and organized. They need simple systems that are easy without extreme details. They tend to pile, instead of file - then hide that pile and deal with it later. Ladybugs are notorious for moving things so others can't locate them. Everything needs a place and every place needs its thing. Ladybugs sometimes struggle with eliminating clutter, hiding it instead of organizing or discarding it. Establishing a lovely enclosed solid container (baskets, bins, etc) and labeling them before storing it away - will help the Ladybug relax and allow others to know where to find things too. Visual clutter in their own home or workplace is stressful to ladybugs. They often have cricket envy. But their routine needs to be easy and simple. Once they learn to select containers that will hide their clutter and organize items in broad categories (not micro-manage), with clear labels - the ladybug will relax and enjoy her space. It requires thinking through an effective system that is sustainable. It may also include regular purging to maintain this system since ladybugs really like quick and easy methods and loathe details - taking time out to clear out the clutter is a must.
Luke 12:2
"Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known."
Analyze yourself or others to determine your personal style:
- Do I like everything displayed or hidden?
- Do I prefer abundance or minimalism?
- Am I detail-oriented or prefer the general categories?
- Do I struggle with putting things away or enjoy organizing?
- Is it difficult to eliminate clutter or do I have a close relationship with my trash can and donation bin?
This personal insight will empower you to succeed to set up a sustainable system that you will enjoy and understand how to work with others who are alike or different from you.