One of the best things you can do is spend a few hours cleaning, organizing and getting rid of crap. You may not think it’s there but it is. I found four grocery bags worth of stuff yesterday and I couldn’t be happier…
Have you ever looked at something and said: “yeah, I might use that sometime…”? I said that a few times yesterday. I found myself keeping a lot of junk so I switched up the game: I took everything in my room on shelves, in drawers and under beds and put it out in the open.
Tackling the mega-surface: the bookshelf
Why spend the time?
My room looked messy and stuff was everywhere but it was like working with a blank slate.
- I could group stuff together. I didn’t really realize I had cables and gadgets in one drawer and other similar electronics in another. Similar stuff should go together!
- I could see what I really didn’t want. If I had to physically put it back on a shelf it forced me to think twice about it. Do I really need to hang onto that Pez dispenser? Do I need to save this old iPod box?
- I thought about last time I cleaned. When I looked at each item I thought, ‘wow, I guess I didn’t use this since last time I cleaned’. That’s a good indicator that it’s not worth hanging onto that lanyard collection. I will never need to simultaneously carry 10 sets of keys on a long piece of fabric. Who knew?
- I found stuff I missed. Pulling things out of boxes meant I could either a) empty that box and use it for something useful, or b) find cool stuff I forgot I had. I found all my Hawaii pictures yesterday. Good stuff!
Was it worth it?
I sometimes think about all the “stuff” we have in our lives. Just like in Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you”. The simpler the better. An uncluttered room is less frustrating to look at and easier to live in. Now I have less junk to sift through when looking for something of value–that’s time saved.
Plus, what if I had to move soon? What if I were hit by a bus. Do I (or anyone else) need to deal with sifting through a bunch of useless stuff?
You’ll be surprised how much stuff you have around that you don’t really need. Spend a weekend… it’s fun!
May is still considered Spring right?
Devin, there’s spring cleaning, and then there’s spring CLEANING.
The last time I did a real spring CLEANING I was on a manic high, and took everything I owned and piled it up the alley, and loudly announced to one and all that it was free for the taking.
Oh, they came, and took, alright.
A few days later, I said, “WTF did I do?”
I’ve done that a few times.
I gotta tell ya, though, it’s very liberating to shed it all, and start all over.
I know it’s crazy, but this how I’ve lived my life.
If I do it again, I won’t put my computer in the pile– it’s too much trouble to recreate this.
Frankly, though, spring cleaning doesn’t feel as good as a manic high.;-)
Haha so we have to move stuff out of our basement for construction. I was on a some sort of high last night, I assure you.
Oh, and I did put an old office chair outside. It was definitely gone within an hour. I had no idea people liked free stuff that much.
#1 If I would have realized how often Fight Club would come up in conversation, I might have picked a diff…just kidding, great movie. But seriously, no more Robert Paulson chanting, okay?
#2 Poor lanyards.
#3 Don’t worry about buses. You don’t have to go to Boulder anymore. :)