Page 17 - The Decorative Painter Winter 2017

As I give my creative studio a makeover
I’m keenly aware how difficult and important organization is. I’ve lived in the same space for over 20 years and accumulated quite a stockpile of resources. This cache is both inspiring and stifling. Simply caring for the stuff as I have to shift it here and there, struggling to find the old or make room for the new, is a herculean job that saps my creative energy and leaves me little time for actual painting.
The Emmy Award winning TV show, Hoarders, originally airing in 2009, capitalizes on our human tendency to procure and store. The show’s descrip- tion reads, “’Hoarders is an often painful look inside a disease that can bury its sufferer — literally at times — in its symptoms.”
Wonder if you’re a hoarder? Evaluate yourself with the help of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America’s definition found at www.adaa.org, search keyword: Hoarder. Clinical Director of the Bio-Behavioral Institute in New York, Fugen Neziroglu, says that a hoarder’s “clutter often takes over functional living space, and they feel sad or ashamed after acquiring additional items. Also, they often incur great debt, sometimes extreme.” Neziroglu clarifies
the difference between a hoarder and a collector pointing out that collectors “keep their collection organized, feel satisfaction adding to it, and budget their time and money.”
Organization is a key factor in experiencing either the benefit your large cache of supplies affords you or feeling buried under it. Take the fol- lowing self-test aimed to help you assess your status.
SELF TEST:
n Do you know what you have?
n Can you quickly find what you’re looking for
or is it easier to buy a new one?
n How many unfinished projects are you
planning to finish ‘later’?
n How long have you stored something with
the expectation of ‘someday’ using it?
(I suggest three years being the time limit. If you haven’t used it within that timeframe,
If your closet is overflowing it’s time to take action!
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• WINTER 2017 15
A hoarder is suspicious of other people touching their possessions.
pass it on to someone else who will, even a
stranger via charitable donations.)
n How thick is the dust and are there cobwebs? n Has it separated, dried up, faded, yellowed
or expired?
n Has your enthusiasm for the project/idea
faded, now a chore or mental dead-weight?
Susan Biali, M.D., life coach and author, encourages people to identify their “clutter style” for an optimal work environment. She says that for some people clutter makes them feel disorganized and unproductive. But if you need it and it’s giving you something positive, it’s not clutter, according to Biali. For some people, ‘controlled clutter,’ (where they take comfort in seeing their projects and supplies) is a more productive work-space.
Taking a proactive approach to your environ- ment will empower you to be your most creative and productive self. Maybe all you need is to organize your calendar
or brush bin. Or may-
be—like me—you need
to roll up your sleeves,
call in the troops and
remodel your world.
It’s OK!
About 18 years ago
I purged everything
in my art studio, re-carpeting, re-painting and donating all my “extra” stuff to charity.
I went from a frenzied “pink” room to a calm and orderly “blue” room. It was liberating. But entropy happens and today I find myself once again encumbered. So, here I go again: UNLOADING. I’ve done it before and survived. In fact, I thrived! You will, too!
Email: nanettehilton@gmail.com Website: nanettehilton.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ nanette.hilton