During March of Trash we repaired, recycled, gave away, sold, composted, burned, and trashed tons of stuff. The pickup truck I saw, said to be on its last legs and on its way out, must have weighed at least two tons by itself. We put things away. We found stuff we had lost or forgotten. We upgraded our lives by throwing away worn-out shoes, chairs, cooking pots, sheets, and towels, replacing the worn-out items with better ones we already had. Tons of obsolete paper files were recycled. Neglected equipment found its way back into the flow after being given away or sold. This list included hair cutting shears, a bread machine, a carpet cleaner, a typewriter, and a guitar game controller. A strobe light and a snow shovel were repaired and returned to use. At least one participant has set aside stacks of boxes for a tag sale in April.
March 31, 2016
March 28, 2016
Room for Something to Happen
We don’t clear clutter just as a matter of abstract principle, but because it makes a real, immediate difference in what we’re able to do. Removing clutter means making room for something to happen. Here are a few simple examples:
March 25, 2016
Holiday Weekend Clutter-Busting
Today is the first day of a holiday weekend for many of us. The holiday can have different implications for different clutter-busters. Here a few suggestions for some of the most common situations:
March 22, 2016
Clutter-Busting in the Face of Bad News
I woke this morning to reports of bombings. Unknown assailants had killed 20 people on their way to work, along with more people in other locations. This kind of news can cast a shadow over a day, even one as sunny as today is in Pennsylvania. I have been telling myself for years in situations like this that the best response to death is for those of us who remain alive to live our lives the best we know how to. That sentiment doesn’t help as much as it might seem it should. It can be hard in the face of disaster to focus on all the tedious work that must be done. It is still better to do some work than to give in to despair (or morbid curiosity, poring over news that says the same thing it said an hour ago) and do no work at all. Whatever work you can do on day one makes day two seem that much lighter.
March 19, 2016
The Back-of-the-Closet Effect
If you’ve cleared away the obvious clutter that’s right in front of you, it might be time to go look at the back of the closet.
Go look at things you don’t look at everyday. Something can be clutter just because you haven’t seen it for so long that you’ve forgotten you have it.
March 16, 2016
Reading the Scorecards
The month is not quite half over and already I am starting to see completed March of Trash scorecards. I should hasten to add that no one is checking your scorecard to make sure you really completed it, but on the other hand, I’m always happy to see what people have accomplished. A March of Trash scorecard can be a head-scratcher to read at times, though. People are getting rid of things I never heard of.
For example, what is a “cat cave”? Wikipedia (describing the Columbus Zoo) offers the image at right. At Etsy it seems that cat caves are often made from felt. Whatever the details, a cat cave is apparently a bulky item that, if sitting idle, calls out to be given away to a household where a cat lives.
March 13, 2016
5 Ways to Talk Back to Clutter
Self-talk, the thoughts you have that are directed at yourself and may seem like voices in your head, can be a problem. One of the most burdensome things about self-talk is the way it keeps repeating, as The Urban Monk author Pedram Shojai tells us:
It loops over and over in your head like a bad mantra.
Deepak Chopra sums it up nicely: “99.9 percent of the thoughts you have in your head today are the same thoughts you had yesterday.”
One of the reasons thoughts can repeat so exactly day after day is that your material surroundings are so much the same day after day. That is especially true if you are living with clutter. All your possessions trigger thoughts in your head. If you see the same possessions in the same spots day after day, they tend to inspire the same thoughts. It’s as if your stuff is talking to you, saying, “Your life doesn’t ever change, does it?” along with other equally negative sentiments.
March 10, 2016
Clutter-Busting Alone
I got a question: “How can you take on clutter alone?” The question surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. When you find yourself unexpectedly living alone, it is one of the best times you can imagine for taking on clutter. You have time, and the clutter is right there. Besides your own stuff, there is a strong chance that you are left with some of the debris of someone else’s life, things that can bring you down if you let yourself be surrounded by them. You have a great deal to gain by taking the clutter away.
Yet depending on the circumstances, living alone can also be one of the hardest times to muster the energy to do anything.
March 07, 2016
Making Change Real
It is clutter’s inertia that makes clutter-busting so difficult. On days when you don’t do anything with clutter, it stays exactly where it is, and that creates the illusion that you will be stuck with the same clutter forever.
This is only an illusion. Everything in a house got there by being carried in and can just as easily be moved around or taken out. Of course, if a house is full of clutter, the clutter won’t go away in an hour, but it takes only five or ten minutes to make a change that is easy to see and that has an emotional impact.
March 04, 2016
Refrigerator and Freezer Trash
We have trash! It’s fitting that March of Trash starts off with a photo of a trash bag. It might not be pretty, but the celery, kale, coffee, coconut, and who knows what else serve as a reminder of how much trash you can find just by opening the refrigerator door and looking inside.
March 01, 2016
Clutter-Busting State of Mind
Effective clutter-busting may depend on taking some time to put yourself in the right frame of mind first. Since today is the first day of March of Trash 2016, it seemed the perfect time to look at this subject. Most of all, be patient getting started with clutter, since getting started is often the biggest hurdle for a person to get over.
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