Wednesday, 5 December 2007
07:20 PM
We were struck by some sort of anti-clutter lightning over the weekend and took advantage of it to, as they say, clean house. We got rid of at least three shelves' worth of books, donated to the conveniently close library. We took stuff out of the kitchen, and I took a pass at the workbench in the garage. Now I've started the long process of ripping CDs, with the aim of selling or donating those as I get them portably digital.
Personal organization is all the rage. There are numerous Web sites devoted to bringing order to the home (examples: Clutter Control Freak Blog, Think Simple Now, even the Fly Lady), and Sarah told me that a woman was interviewed on NPR the the other day who (I guess) is an organization consultant. I suppose it means that enough people in society have tested for and found the point at which adding stuff is a net negative in one's life. And here to sell you solutions to this problem, we have ...
I have, of course, some books on organization. Most of these books spend at least some time psychoanalyzing the propensity to acquire and keep stuff in the first place. I guess that's useful, but only up to a point. Knowing why I can't seem to part with junk around the house is interesting, but more interesting yet is actually getting rid of it. I've heard a variety of guidelines on this, most of which are common sense, if heeded as infrequently. Many variations on "if you haven't worn an article of clothing in n months/years, give it away." I personally like the one that says to get rid of anything that you can reacquire when you actually need it. (Corollary: which might be never.) When I moved out of my old house, a kind of burden to me was what to do with all the scraps of lumber that were left over from past projects and that were, to cite two reasons known to hoarders everywhere, that the lumber was a) "too good to throw away" and b) "could come in handy some day." It all went to the dump, alas.
The NPR lady had a slightly different take on the issue. I have to paraphrase, but it went something like "Keep it if you a) use it, b) need it, or c) love it." If I got this right from what Sarah was saying, "use it" means something you use regularly, if perhaps not constantly, like maybe your linen tablecloth or something. The "need it" recommendation seemed to address stuff like, dunno, old tax records. I liked the "love it" recommendation particularly, because it makes room for the emotional attachment that some of the other organizers seem to want to talk you out of. Plus it lets me keep books that I neither use nor need, but still like having around. For now. One note here: the "need" part can be finessed by sharing; I saw a great suggestion on one of the blogs ... why not share a lawnmower or snowblower or other clunky expensive thing with neighbors? We don't all need our own, is the theory, which I at least theoretically agree with.
I guess it takes practice. You declutter a kitchen drawer, say, and live with the benefits of that, and then some weeks later you have a go at where you keep the dishes, then maybe your closet. And so on, until you have decluttered and -- this would be the critical point -- your appreciation for an uncluttered environment starts to take precedence over other instincts, like the instinct to run out and buy stuff, and in my case, the laziness (or let's call it distractedness) that means I don't straighten things up as I go.[1]
So, a life goal, not a project for this weekend or even a resolution for the new year. And a lifetime is, I suspect, how long it's going to take.
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