Clutter is creating white noise. It masks the beauty of life. It distracts me from my goals. It overwhelms the mind and builds anxiety inside. The essential and necessary things I need in life get lost in the mess. I lose time looking for it and frustrate myself with the time wasted. Complexity creates clutter by moving basics and core skills that keeps me grounded. So what am I doing to pare down? I keep what is essential and one or two things that has significant importance in my life. I sell and donate what I can. I recycle or dispose of the rest.
Since last summer, many things have left me. I sold an office chair, a Pioneer car receiver, Pioneer speakers, a set of tires, lightly used Five Ten climbing shoes, a pair of original 1992 Air Jordans, and a text book. I’ve given away a Barack Obama poster (never been much of a fan), candles, a toy car, and Play-Doh. I donated a lot of ill fitting clothing. There’s so much more to sift through and sell. I have a box of stuff to process. All the money I collected from selling my stuff went towards paying down my debt.
I’ve run into some difficulty. Books written about my interests haven’t been read them because always distracted by something else. I continue to hold on to these books hoping to find time to read them. I need to convince myself to let go of these books. I can always buy them in the future or borrow them at the library. Another problem I have is selling things as quick as cool molasses. Point isn’t holding out for top dollar. It should be finding good homes for my belongings for a good price. I’m not using many of the things that I own. As my brother said, “The worse kind of gear is gear not used.”
I also need to address the information clutter. It’s everywhere. It resides in my computer’s hard disk drive. It hides in notebooks from school. My filing cabinet keeps information long forgotten. My habits create and swim in clutter. It is something I needs to clear out. I believe clearing out this clutter will take much longer. They are small bits of information that needs to be cataloged, used, or discarded.
I’ll have a ton of time in February to finish this process. I receive very little hours in during retail’s slowest month of the year. I should make a lot of progress. I am using the two for one rule. For every item that comes in, I must get rid of two things in my life until I reach the bare minimum necessary to get my goals accomplished. Creating homes for my stuff helps keep things simple. I spend less time looking for what I need. It prevents me from buying something I already have. As a runner, shoe boxes multiply quickly because I need new shoes after 300-500 miles. I reuse these boxes as homes for my things. I write the category on the box so I know what’s inside. The best thing to do is keep a good steady pace so I do not overwhelm myself. In a few short weeks, the simplicity I’ll find will appear.
There are a lot of good websites out there to help declutter and seek simplicity. My favorite site has been FlyLady.net. I love this site because she has short ‘flying lessons’ to get a person started and she has a schedule! I enjoy schedules because it helps me keep track of what I’m doing and tells me where I should be. Following schedules help create good habits through repetition and continuous practice.
This week I start Day 1 (again) by shining my kitchen sink (well, clearing my desk). All this week, I’ll be processing all the stuff that I already tossed in my sell box. Is there anything in your life that needs to be simplified? If you have done it already, do you have any tips?