This is one 'decision making' hell hole!
You guys . . . one tool we have that our kids do not have is a fully functioning Pre-Frontal Cortex (click for a refresher), if we have clutter, we have taken the wheels off this powerful, powerful too.
When we enter a messy room, face a jam packed closet, walk down into a trashed playroom, sidle past a too stuffed garage we have thoughts, thoughts and more thoughts! We may not notice them, and they arise none the less. It takes our BRAIN energy to to squish them back down. AND the thoughts that arise from the mess, jam packed, trashed and too stuffed spaces talks like this . . . .
"You SHOULD totally train your kids to clean up after themselves, you suck at being a parent."
"Ugh, YOU need to lose weight to fit into those pants YOU bought on sale. Otherwise it's a giant waste and I told YOU to stop wasting money. You SUCK at being an adult."
"You need to pay those bills, file those insurance forms or else you are a loser. Do it, do it, do IT. Don't YOU dare put those papers away or else you will never do it. You SUCK at running your life."
Not only does this voice speak meanly, it's using our limited brain power to decide (again) to ignore the tasks. Deciding takes brain power. Without clutter our brain can focus on the task at hand and we get less of that negative chatter (we won't ever eliminate that critic in our head). Read this to see how Obama conserves his decision making energy (he's a COMPLETE Nifty Tipper!).
WHEN we have more brain power we usually make saner, more patient decisions which circles back to parenting and relationships. See how I did that? It's all connected!
Give your brain a break this Fall and de-clutter one area. Get a friend to help, a non judgemental and fun friend who can laugh with you at your crazy (we all have it). Sharpen that awesome grown up tool of the Pre Frontal cortex and then BRING ON THE HOLIDAYS!