Clutter

There are all different sorts of clutter in our lives.  The visual clutter of the urban/suburban landscape, the auditory clutter of all the traffic, machinery, music, shouted cell phone conversations, and cat calls also present in those environments.
Then there's the clutter in our homes. Most of us, if we are honest, have WAY too much "stuff".  Stuff we hardly ever, or even NEVER use.  Clutter.
There's mental clutter-  all the thoughts that run over each other and plague you when you try to fall asleep, the endless "to do" lists, the things we fear we forgot, the worries that niggle at us.
For some of us, even our computers, phones, laptops and tablets are cluttered.  Poorly managed files, excessive apps, email that needs to be weeded out.

For me, the physical clutter is often frustrating, though some of it is things that comfort me just by being there.  The mental clutter gets to be so bothersome, I sometimes get out of bed and write things down so they'll stop plaguing me and let me fall asleep.  Now that our house has better insulation and better windows, we don't have as much auditory clutter invading our private space, but the train still makes itself heard. Sometimes, the PA system at the high school stadium does as well.

It is often hard to tackle physical clutter because the prospect is exhausting.  One doesn't want to get rid of something only to need it a month later.  One must become rather ruthless about it, in fact, and remind oneself that if the item hasn't been used in more than a year, it is taking up valuable space and not giving any benefit. Perhaps it needs to go to someone who WILL use it...
 However, this is difficult because we often have emotional attachments to our things, whether we should or not.  I haven't done any cross stitch embroidery in more than 10 years.  I have entire drawer full of supplies for it, though, that are STILL sitting there.  My eyesight isn't really good enough anymore to do cross stitch without a VERY strong light and a magnifier.  Must decide whether I will ever do any of it again or not.
There are books here that I have not consulted in a very long time, but I will not part with them.  They are old friends.  Anthologies of poetry, references, dictionaries, music theory books, even a volume or two of educational theory that are about 34 years old, and probably have come back into vogue, as theories do.
There is an entire file drawer full of fabric scraps and "fat quarters" that I used once for projects, and haven't touched since.  Knitting needles, crochet hooks, a variety of yarns, old photos, high school yearbooks, books I bought at the Friends' sale and haven't read yet, figurines of characters from movies and TV shows that I love, a whole collection of fountain pens, pencils, and art supplies, mugs, blank cds/dvds, a whole mug full of bookmarks, notecards, candles, just TONS of stuff, and that's just in my OFFICE. 
The kitchen is a major clutter collection.  There are cake pans I haven't used in years in one cupboard, at least FOUR sets of dishes, NOT counting the fine china (service for 16) that is in the dining room hutch, several collections of mixing bowls, a large pitcher full of wooden spoons, more cookware than we'll EVER use, and the usual small appliances that only get used rarely.
Let's not even talk about the board games, Wii games, dvds and BluRays, and knicknacks that clutter the living room. Also, lots of music books. Most of those, though, I'd like to keep.  We do use them on occasion.

Decluttering the house will be difficult.  Decluttering my mind is surely impossible.  I have always had a noisy mind.  Can't seem to quiet it very often. Writing helps, especially the poetry, for often what is clamoring around in there is a phrase or an idea that wants out, but doesn't want to be lost.  So, I also have a huge collection of notebooks and journals, AND this blog.  I try to clear my mind and sit quietly at times, but it is very difficult.  I seem to live inside my own head a lot, and though I am very interested in people, and I socialize well, large groups of people exhaust me. Too much input.  (Noise, sights, emotions, ideas, all crowding in on my already noisy mind.)  I often wonder if my celebrity acquaintances who have met me at conventions think I'm rather drifty in person.  They know me from social media, but when I post, I am usually alone in my office, with a more or less quiet environment. At the cons, especially the large ones, I am so overwhelmed by the crowds that I feel almost like I'm sleepwalking.  I think I did better in San Antonio, I was able to concentrate on the people nearest me better, and I hope I sounded less like I was half asleep.

I don't have any real solutions to offer for the problems of clutter.  I have never really dealt with mine. Until 1998, we had the Air Force solving some of the problem for us.  PCS moves come with a weight allowance for household goods, so it's a good reason to purge.  Guess we'll have to pretend we're moving and just start evaluating our stuff.
As for my cluttered mind, well, this has helped a bit.