Clutter Reduction
Jun 13, 2010 Clutter
Considering the possibility of moving I’ve renewed my mission to de-clutter. I don’t know that I’ll ever be free from clutter as I seem to be able to walk by piles of stuff, ignoring them for days, weeks, and to my embarrassment sometimes even months. I have found, however, that I really do enjoy throwing stuff away so that has become my new mission. A couple of times a week, I start a pile of things to throw away and walk the whole thing out to the trash when I’m done. At first I end up creating even more piles of stuff because I also make piles of what not to throw away. Eventually all the new space created by throwing things out allows me to put that pile somewhere more bearable. My office is coming along nicely.
Next on my list is paperwork. I plan to start scanning much of the paperwork I can’t seem to throw away. I’ve already opted to getting many of my statements via email which has cut down considerable on clutter growth. The key is to have a backup plan that will keep a safe copy of it all should my computer crash. Paper seems to be the largest component of my clutter piles so I expect to make a considerable dent in it.
Tags: Clutter
What Am I Collecting?
Feb 24, 2010 Clutter
I understand the value of collecting things. While one can share his or her collection, the feeling you get from collecting cannot be shared. Collecting involves research, resources, maintenance, time, space, and care. The amount of people in the world that might understand willingly paying these costs are few. Some collections are passive, they sit on the wall, in books, or in plastic, waiting to be admired. Others are safe to touch and use like one’s music collection or even supermarket coupons.
The value of one’s collection comes from two sources, how much it means to you and how much others will pay for it. There are of course those who collect things that no one else would want and there are others that fight and pay high price for highly coveted items. Lastly there are those things we collect indirectly like magazines, newspapers, tickets stubs, ink pens and the like. What are we to do with those? If they have no value to you and none to anyone else then you are still paying the collection cost to maintain them. One of the biggest costs is space. Another is the cost of not maintaining that collection. Collections can collect dust. As I look around my home at all the things that fill it up I wonder. What am I collecting that has no real value to me and how much is it costing me to keep it?
Tags: Clutter
