During a couple of seminars that I attended recently, the speakers mentioned goal setting. Last night, I read an article from a January magazine (yes, I am still back in January in some of my magazines!). It was all about New Year's Resolution, and how this author decided not to make any but rather to live with resolve day by day. Interesting food for thought when applied to my clutter.
In the house there could be benefits in breaking down the tasks, just like we do our goals. Today let's focus on one yearly task.
I happen to be involved in a couple of organizations with minutes, agendas, etc. I am TRYING to keep these on the computer now, but I still tend to collect things at the meetings and bring them home to join the pile. Once a year it would be a good idea for me to cull what I really don't need to keep. I have decided that now is the perfect time, because the meeting season is winding down for summer. If I do it now, when it all starts again in September I'll be ready with a tidy file system . And maybe, just maybe, the effort that it is going to take to do it this year will teach me to cull as I go in the future!
So why not grab your resolve and join me in a paper purge!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Day 20 - M – Minimize!
As you can tell, I got waylaid from my project of decluttering my life in 35 days. So here I sit, surrounded once again by the growing mounds of paper and other assorted things in my life.
I am happy to report though that even though I haven't been blogging in the past while, I have been making some progress.
One of the things that has come to the forefront during this cleansing adventure is the whole idea of minimizing. I realize that I have been greatly affected by the journey of my parents through the Great Depression. They, as was the case with so many of their generation, became hoarders. “You never know when you might need it.” Perhaps there was the underlying fear that they could lose everything again, as so many had back when they were young.
I definitely inherited their genes, although I must admit, I have been fighting against that tendency for many years now. Moving frequently during the early years of my marriage was a definite learning tool in this area. Do I really need two or three (or ten!) of those? It's amazing what you can get rid of when you know that every little bit of weight costs you more! After we became more settled (and started hoarding) I used to joke that every two years we should pretend that we were moving! Although a joke, there is some wisdom to the idea. It begs the question, “Why do I keep what I keep?”
Maybe more than anything else, looking at our clutter with that question in mind might help us to get to the philosophical place of being able to let go!
So, my friends, grab those boxes that we mentioned early on in this adventure, and minimize, minimize, minimize!
I am happy to report though that even though I haven't been blogging in the past while, I have been making some progress.
One of the things that has come to the forefront during this cleansing adventure is the whole idea of minimizing. I realize that I have been greatly affected by the journey of my parents through the Great Depression. They, as was the case with so many of their generation, became hoarders. “You never know when you might need it.” Perhaps there was the underlying fear that they could lose everything again, as so many had back when they were young.
I definitely inherited their genes, although I must admit, I have been fighting against that tendency for many years now. Moving frequently during the early years of my marriage was a definite learning tool in this area. Do I really need two or three (or ten!) of those? It's amazing what you can get rid of when you know that every little bit of weight costs you more! After we became more settled (and started hoarding) I used to joke that every two years we should pretend that we were moving! Although a joke, there is some wisdom to the idea. It begs the question, “Why do I keep what I keep?”
Maybe more than anything else, looking at our clutter with that question in mind might help us to get to the philosophical place of being able to let go!
So, my friends, grab those boxes that we mentioned early on in this adventure, and minimize, minimize, minimize!
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