One of the strongest motivations for getting organized, I think, is a yearning for beauty: the way the light hits gleaming hardwood floors or gem-colored bottles on a window ledge; how a sheaf of scrapbook paper or box of watercolor pencils neatly arranged by color arouses one's creativity. Order invites expansion, enjoyment, and relaxation. It makes it easier to assess, reflect, experiment, and play, whether at the drawing board, in the kitchen, or in the garden.
When I need a little beauty to kick-start my motivation, I love to look at home-made art journals. You can imagine my delight when I discovered the wonderful Clutter Journal by artist and teacher Aisling D’Art.
The Clutter Journal is a mixed media extravaganza: part collage, part traditional journal, Aisling combines found objects (found, no doubt, in the decluttering process) with writing, drawing, painting, rubber stamping, torn images and pasted text from magazines.
Filled with quotes from such disparate icons as organizing luminary Karen Kingston, financial wiz Suze Orman,and humorist Quentin Crisp, the Clutter Journal is at once hilarious and heartbreaking. It offers a visually compelling record of one woman's organizing odessey during a time of great personal upheaval.
All images used with permission, copyright by Aisling D'Art.