If spring cleaning includes cleaning out your pantry, you may have perfectly good food to give away. For most U.S. postal customers, that’s especially easy to do during the Stamp Out Hunger drive on Saturday — just leave grocery bags of food near your mailbox or mail slot before your letter carrier arrives. Donations go directly to local food charities.
Most people will agree that sleep feels good but may be surprised to hear that sleep is a key to success. On the occasion of the release of the new Arianna Huffington book The Sleep Revolution, Richard Branson writes about the value of sleep in his blog:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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.
Clear away clutter and the to-do list and get your life moving again!
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