The De-Clutter Challenge

I hate social media. Okay, perhaps I don’t hate it. It’s more that I find it aggravating.

Go ahead and post 1,000 photos of yet another stellar European vacation or even your hot self wearing a bikini and killing it at age 50. None of that bothers me.

I don’t even care when the super moms of the world daily share about their kids breaking another sports record on the same day they received the “great, but totally expected news” that their teen genius got a perfect ACT score. Bring it! I’m all over hitting the “heart” and “wow” emoji for you.

What’s zapping my mojo is when people share life improvement tips that morph into a series of show off moments. The latest one is the 30-day De Clutter Challenge. For the record it’s bad, not as bad as the “Gratitude Posts” that sweep Facebook two years ago, but give it time.

At first I was all about it. There’s a calendar that shows what area of clutter you need to work on every day. I was excited and ready to actually take part in a Facebook group. I clicked on “join” and was raring to go. Count me in on being part of the Summer 2017 De-Clutter frenzy.

What I didn’t expect was all the humble bragging. For example, last week it said to “go through old shoes.” There should have been an asterisk next to that challenge stating “and by ‘go through’ we don’t mean posting on social media about your shoes.”

I get it. A sizeable portion of the female population has a shoe fetish. How else can you explain DSW? But, what I don’t get is fools who pay upwards of a $1,000 for footwear that resembles something a fashion forward Pilgrim would have worn boarding the Mayflower on a breezy fall day in 1620. (I’m talking to you Manolo Blahnik.)

Furthermore, who uses a de-clutter challenge as an opportunity to post about the heartache of deciding what four figure designer shoes to purge? Please, stop. Everyone knows there’s a better chance that these women would rather sell their blood plasma than get rid of single shoe.

The shoe show and tell then lead to closet tours which scared me because I didn’t get all goofy with storage lust. Is something wrong with me because I have no desire to remake a bedroom into a closet with a trio of chandeliers and a “hand bag bar”?

If you’re wondering right now what a “hand bag bar” is let me break it down for you. It’s basically a kitchen island in your closet where you display your purses on Lucite stands.

I’m so old school I still share a closet with my husband. The horrors! And if I was going to display something it would be the pair of jeans I’ve been trying to fit into for two decades. (That right there is what I need help with – letting go of things that will never happen.)

The next day when the challenge was to clean out your frig these same shoe women started posting pictures of their commercial size refrigerators. The appliances, the size of a Sasquatch, were so big I’m positive they would cause my home’s electrical panel to explode. One group member, I kid you not, shared a picture of herself inside her refrigerator. I’m afraid that was the final straw.

I decided to go rogue. I de-cluttered my life from these women. Yep, I dropped out of the group that had become less about home organization and more about overt show boating. Now, not that I would ever humble brag myself, but that’s what I call a very efficient life purge.

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1

Kimmie S. on July 5, 2017 at 10:44 am

Good for you!!! I wonder what kind of self-esteem issues people have to have to be constantly showing off. God, you’re an adult relax. I can’t stand these women that act like everyday it’s high school cheerleader tryouts.
2

Ntheken on July 5, 2017 at 11:05 am

Geeez-us. Who are these women on your social media friends list? Take control of your newsfeed! You’re not a victim here. Feeling the same over other issues I weeded these people out of my life and definitely out of my social media living room. I don’t give annoying narcissists any of my space, real or virtual.

Go Forth and De-friend!
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  snarkyinthesuburbs on July 5, 2017 at 11:36 am
  
  It was a de-clutter group made up of people across the nation that were doing the challenge. They were not friends on my social media feed. I’m very particular about my feed.
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    Ntheken on July 5, 2017 at 11:47 am
    
    Ahhhh. Thanks for clarifying – I obviously didn’t read your post thoroughly 🤓. Catching it on the run. Depending on the subject, I find these vast open FB groups to be rather annoying.
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    snarkyinthesuburbs on July 5, 2017 at 11:48 am
    
    Yes! My first and last time.
6

Angela on July 5, 2017 at 12:12 pm

I joined one of those. And there is probably some benefit, if the members are supportive. I posted, seriously/humorously, that to get rid of a lot of stress in my life, I needed to ‘declutter’ the piano students in my studio who never, and by that I mean NEVER practiced. Well, that group attacked me en masse. I was a terrible teacher, they were glad their kids didn’t have a horrible, negative teacher like me, etc., etc. That’s when I realized it was just another “aren’t we amazing” mom clique. Buh-bye!
7

Kim on July 10, 2017 at 10:40 am

I’m not sure which is worse, spending over a 1000 dollars on a pair of non-orthopedic shoes or listing cleaning out the refrigerator as a “de-cluttering” activity.