March of Trash, day 25

What can you do about clutter when you are not at home?

It’s a fact of life for many of us that our responsibilities take us away from home for days at a time. This presents a challenge not just in the March of Trash challenge, but whenever you want to change your lifestyle by taking on new habits. How can you build a new habit when you’re out of your usual environment?

It’s a challenge, but it shouldn’t stop you. There is always something you can do to keep your momentum alive. Looking specifically at the March of Trash challenge, you can put the clutter-busting habit to work without having to work on your own clutter. That’s easy enough if someone around you is tackling their clutter, but if not, there is still a good chance that you can find something over the course of the day that is finished or resolved so that the residual materials can be put away or recycled. You can write that item on your March of Trash scorecard, even though it’s not one of your own things. If you’re on the bus, you might still be able to delete email messages. Of course, if you’re traveling, don’t let clutter build up in your luggage! It’s easier to clean it out wherever you are than it is to lug it home and sort it out there.

If there really is no clutter at hand, you might still be able to figure out a clutter problem at home. What could you do with that old manual typewriter? Sometimes you can get new and better ideas just because you are in new surroundings.