Something I have always struggled with is managing the clutter - both material (more visible) and immaterial (not quite as noticeable). As a kid it was torture for me to clean my room but once I did I felt fabulous. My family and I joke about the petrified peanut butter sandwich that was once pulled from an old back pack in my closet - perhaps I could have debuted on the original episode of "Hoarders" had it aired in the early 80s. Don't get me wrong, I don't have rats in my closet or anything, nor did my room on Corning Street, but that sandwich in my backpack does serve as a reminder of the ongoing challenge I have to keep things tidy.
Over the past few years I have tried to streamline various areas of my life. I consciously make an effort to keep things in order. Not always successful, but I do try. A good, albeit small, example is my wallet. I have this thing in good working order. Need some cash, it's always in the same place. That is, if I actually have cash which usually I don't, but that's a separate issue. Need your dental ID card - there it is in the ID card section. Wallet can't close because of too much change, empty out the change pocket. It works. My wallet and I have a great relationship. Another good example is the file I have of all of the Christmas letters and pictures of our family dating back to 1997. I give Jim credit for suggesting we originally create a file and add to it every year. I just added our 2012 version and had a great time looking back at our family history. So I love my wallet and I love that file.
So how can I take what I have done with my wallet and card file and apply it to other areas? My office tends to be the command center for a lot of professional and personal things I manage. I have worked for the same company for almost 20 years and I have the clutter to prove it. No corporate record retention policy has anything on me. That said, I think I can probably toss the client presentation on overhead slides and the UR Pharmacy management report from 1998. No one will miss it. No one paid attention to those reports when they were printed, they won't miss them now. And once I do, I will have two full sized file cabinets to put necessary files in that currently are piled up on my desk.
Next on the list, my closets. I have tried very hard to rid myself of clothes I don't wear regularly. And while I have tried, I admit I have a long way to go. Our master closet/bathroom rebuild project is a fine time to do this. We had to remove all of our clothes from our closet and now have them in an area of our bedroom on a clothes rack Jim purchased for $30 from the Mark Shale going out of business sale. The completion of our closet will be an excellent opportunity to only move back in to our new closet what I truly need. Toss out that single pink pump from 15 years ago that doesn't have a mate and the flannel shirt that I have kept for years because I might wear it when I'm sick. The truth is, I have done a fairly good job recently of purchasing smart clothing items. Items that can be used in multiple ways and make many outfits out of a few items. So that closet will hopefully solve itself. The others in the house need some help. And I'm on a quest to conquer these projects in the coming months.
Any large project needs realistic expectations. (And I'm not calling this a new year's resolution as those are too easy to quit.) That's why I'm scoping this out to include my office and my closets. The project is large enough and will likely take me all year given I can't take a sabbatical from the rest of my life and spend 24 hours a day cleaning closets. I will try to track my progress and give myself a few pats on the back along the way. I am hopeful that decreasing the material clutter will also free up some space in my mind that spends time worrying about the day when our house is full and you can't see any of us. (exaggeration for dramatic effect).
Cheers to purging!
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