Rule #4 --Clear the Clutter

           Clearly I'm an angel on this one (for I continue to harp) ~But given this has been one of the tougher ones to rewire, please allow me to delineate. A tangent of the simplification step just referenced, but clutter comes in many varieties, both seen and unseen...

1)    There’s physical clutter.

Deeper than just clearing a closet or tossing a stack, I’ve been digging deep into my psyche to get my mind around how we've come to where we are. Since when did hoarding become a mental disorder and stuff management a new profession? Turns out (big surprise) it happened mindlessly...once again, when we weren't looking. No one sets out to become a clutter bug. Common sense says less is best...less to trip over, move around, store or stash. But still, we’ve become a nation of compulsive addicts, seduced by point of purchase displays and "own it now" marketing tricks, after which we wind up at the Container Store looking for cute plastic to store it all in.

How "more is best" slipped into our cultural consciousness is beyond me, but it happened when we weren’t looking. Now that we're here we’re either too attached, too familiar or just too overworked to have the energy to do anything about it, meanwhile "it" sits there silently sucking what little energy we have left into thin air. Real easy to miscalculate how much energy stuff takes to keep up with. Nothing slows the wheels of creativity and life energy like a big ol bunch of clutter (on our desks, on our desktops...now in our heads and our lives).

2)    As if physical, tangible stuff isn't enough, now there's e-clutter. They advised us in our smart phone class to clean our boxes out at least once a day to save battery life. Window after window on top of window and you'll be searching for your plug in half the time.  I seldom ditch old texts and you don’t even want to see my "in" basket. Seven pictures to get to one good one, but do I  delete the unused ones? (Not until I’m about to upload and back up, which then requires a blocked day to accomplish.) All that unnecessary stuff drains a battery you know, and it's doing the same thing to us. It wasn’t until I started thinking like Einstein (E=mc2) that this one really hit home: stuff is energy. Give me energy any day. If I’ll have more for clearing out a few things, then watch me clear. Energy is mandatory for life....a currency you want a steady supply of! Stuff? It's just stuff. (And there's plenty more where that came from.)

For me this means nieces get dish ware for their first apartments,  friends get stemware, old college notebooks get burned in the bin and Goodwill gets to know me on a first name basis. I’ve actually made a game of it. Everyday at least 5 things leave this house...Some get recycled. Some get re-purposed. Most get trashed. I've recently informed my closest friends that Xmas is coming early this year. It may be that candle they've long admired or my great grandmother’s favorite dish, but I’m daring to share…Each transaction leaves a bit more breathing space and while others might not spot it, I can feel the difference.  Like Dave Ramsey's debt snowball, the process gains momentum once you make the shift. There comes a tipping point at which it becomes sport and when you hit that point, Katie bar the door! It's a pretty neat rush!

3)    And speaking of Ramsey, there’s no worse clutter than financial clutter. (Again, guilty as charged.) It’s one thing to pay your bills on time. It’s another to throw everything onto autopay to the point you haven’t a clue what’s mounting and for how long.

I'm bad about this one. In order to make sure everyone got theirs, I hadn’t noticed when cable bills skyrocketed and insurance premiums changed. Time to redirect the focus here as well. End of the day, be it purchases, payments or products now stacking up and backing up, when I stop long enough to ask "Do I really need 2 of those just because it's a BOGO?" it makes a difference. Awareness of what’s coming in and (too often NOT) going out of your house, your checkbook, your life...it's an eye-opener! We’ve become a nation of sleepwalking, phone texting robots with mindlessness replacing mindfulness. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. Checking inventory, then reducing inventory ...it's not just for business anymore.