Clutter's Last Stand
by Don Aslett
Too often we confuse ownership with companionship,
not realizing that certain things, even good things, change and
lose their value, and we don't need them anymore. We've outgrown
them, outlasted them, or something new and better has come along.
We have to release them, but our greed and possessiveness and "loyalty"
outdo the monkey and hang on, even at the peril of our physical
and spiritual lives.
There's no escape from the toll clutter
takes on our life. The most valuable "someday useful"
junk will stymie our emotional freedom if we let it pile up on us.
Everything stashed away or hidden discreetly or indiscreetly, is
also stashed away in our mind and is draining our mental energy.
We can't hide junk in our mind. Once physically discarded from our
mind, and we're free from keeping mental tabs on it. But as long
as we own it, we'll mentally tend it. We feel obligated to use our
junk, whether we need it or not.
The well-known 80/20 rule of business: If
all of a given category of items are sorted in order of value, 80
percent of the value will come from only 20 percent of the items.
Think about that in terms of clutter. Eighty percent of the space
on our shelves (and in our minds) is occupied by stuff we never
need. Eighty percent of our beauty and hygiene routine makes use
of only 20 percent of the cosmetics and potions we have stacked
around. (How much of the remaining 80 percent is junk?) Eighty percent
of our family fun comes from 20 percent of the games and equipment
and puzzles we've got jammed into our closets. (How much of the
remaining 80 percent could be junked without it ever being missed?)
Eighty percent of our reading enjoyment and information comes from
20 percent of the material in our bookcases and magazine racks.
(How much of the unopened 80 percent would we miss?)
Clutter is one of the greatest enemies of
efficiency and stealers of time and that includes yours! For every
chore he tackles, the average person spends more time getting ready
hunting for a place, the tools, a reason to do it, a nail,
often 10 minutes to find nails and hammer. If a job is buried in
junk, we never get started we just trash it.
We've been taught we're bad if we waste
waste not, want not. But we waste more valuable time and
energy working over and trying to save worthless junk that many
and object was ever worth originally.
The picking up of other people's junk is
the most inefficient and expensive clutter cost of all! Like the
mother who spends all her time picking up after a cluttering husband
or careless kids. Women all over the world are wasting their youth
and high spirits and creatively playing janitor to their families.
If your family habitually leaves clutter around, they're going to
keep doing it are you going to keep picking it up?
When you clutter your closets and drawers
with things, you're cluttering your feelings and thinking
freedom in your dwelling allows freedom to dwell in you!
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