Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight

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Authors: Peter Walsh
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peace or happiness—always without success. Understand this: You do deserve to live in a tranquil, happy, peaceful home. You do deserve to be happy.
    Both your body’s weight and your home’s appearance evolved to their current state largely because of the thoughts, perceptions, and attitudes in your mind. So you’ll need to use your mind differently—in the next 6 weeks and the years to follow—to keep your body and your home in shape.
    Taking Stock
    But before you can develop a new relationship with your mind, you need a better sense of what’s going on in there right now. In this chapter, I’m asking you to fill out a few simple questionnaires that measure your mood, your focus, and your attitudes toward your possessions. The information you gain from these tools will help you declutter more effectively—and permanently—and examine your relationship with food and exercise in a new way.
    Ready? Grab a pencil. You might want to scan or photocopy the quizzes first in case you want to repeat them later to measure improvements in your mental outlook. I strongly recommend that you do these quizzes now, and again after you go through the program. The improvements you’re likely to see will give you more successes from the program that you can celebrate.
    MEASURING YOUR CLUTTER
    The first survey you’ll take provides a sense of how much your clutter affects your life. It also draws attention to the attitudes that seem to be fueling your clutter. Hoarding expert David Tolin, PhD, says this is a well-regarded tool for measuring the way you feel about clutter. I asked all our test panelists to take this survey. Once you’re finished, you can compare your score to theirs.
    SAVING INVENTORY—REVISED (MODIFIED FORMAT)
    Your score will give you a better sense of how badly you want to bring items home and how much you have to struggle to get rid of them later. For each of these questions, circle the number that corresponds most closely to your experience during the past week.
0
1
2
3
4
None
A little
A moderate amount
Most/much
Almost all/complete
1. How much of the living area in your home is cluttered with possessions? (Consider the amount of clutter in your kitchen, living room, dining room, hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms, or other rooms.)
2. How much control do you have over your urges to acquire possessions?
3. How much of your home does clutter prevent you from using?
4. How much control do you have over your urges to save possessions?
5. How much of your home is difficult to walk through because of clutter?
    For each of these questions, circle the number that corresponds most closely to your experience during the past week.
0
1
2
3
4
Not at all
Mild
Moderate
Considerable/severe
Extreme
6. To what extent do you have difficulty throwing things away?
7. How distressing do you find the task of throwing things away?
8. To what extent do you have so many things that your room(s) are cluttered?
9. How distressed or uncomfortable would you feel if you could not acquire something you wanted?
10. How much does clutter in your home interfere with your social, work, or everyday functioning? Think about things that you don’t do because of clutter.
11. How strong is your urge to buy or acquire free things for which you have no immediate use?
    During the past week:
0
1
2
3
4
Not at all
Mild
Moderate
Considerable/severe
Extreme
12. To what extent does clutter in your home cause you distress?
13. How strong is your urge to save something you know you may never use?
14. How upset or distressed do you feel about your acquiring habits?
15. To what extent do you feel unable to control the clutter in your home?
16. To what extent has your saving or compulsive buying resulted in financial difficulties for you?
    For each of these questions, circle the number that corresponds most closely to your experience during the past week.
0
1
2
3
4
Not at all
Mild
Moderate
Considerable/severe
Extreme
17. How

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