Cleaning The Clutter
I’ve spent the best part of today cleaning the clutter from the house. It’s part of a HUGE ongoing thing that Amy and I have been doing these past couple of months – getting rid of all the excess junk from about the house and generally purging ourselves and trying to lead a less complicated life. It’s OK to have a little bit of “junk” here and there, but I tend to file everything away for future reference which, in most cases, never ACTUALLY gets referenced! Amy is the same on that score – “Can’t throw this bit of wrapping away because of sentimental reasons” or “Can’t let go of this….er….doobiewhatsit because it might come in handy one day.” here’s a clue peeps – It never will. It’ll just clutter up your life and the accumulative effects of such actions will undoubtedly lead to much frustration later on down the track. If you haven’t used it in XXXX amount of years then it’s a stretch to say it’s actually useful to you.
And how do you know when something has become superfluous? Well saying out aloud “Ohh I remember this” when looking through things usually means that it’s something that you’d completely forgotten about, don’t use on a daily basis, hadn’t seen in a long long time and, therefore, probably don’t need and wouldn’t lose sleep over if it were to go “missing” again.
Still, that doesn’t make it any easier to get rid of when you finally bite the bullet. You umm and ahhh about getting rid of an old birthday card, a silly drawing a friend did, a number plate from your old car or a gift someone gave you which had the instructions written in Chinese and no-one – not even your friend – knows what you ACTUALLY do with it. It just looked good in the shop.
And it still might look good on display somewhere…..except that it’s spent the last 8 years in a box filled with other junk – So that probably rules out that idea and suggests that it wouldn’t really look that great after all. No use? No good? Get rid!
Like today I found an old note from an ex girlfriend. It made me smile and I kinda wanted to keep it. After all it’s just a note and it won’t take up any space at all. Then I thought “Nah, I’d better get rid of it” as it contained a few choice words and one or two “adult themes”. Wouldn’t want Amy to see it……although I DID want Amy to see it because it was cute and funny and she appreciates that stuff. But it’s not really the sort of thing you show your wife “Hey, look at the funny, sexy note my ex girlfriend wrote to me”. In many cases it would mean an ex wife as well! Still, Amy’s cool (I mean after all she IS with me!) but you never REALLY know how a girl is thinking about certain things, do you?…..Well, not until the next argument anyway!
Then there’s that broken VCR still kicking about in several pieces – some forgotten video stuck within it’s bowels. You tried retrieving the tape by taking the machine apart but that sucker was well and truly stuck! What do you do now? Do you put it aside to work on it again at a future date? Do you take it to the video repair place to get it fixed and/or the tape extracted? Then again wasn’t that tape a dubious one that your mother probably would never approve of? Mmmmmm, maybe you shouldn’t take it to the video repair place after all? What to do, what to do? Simple! TOSS IT OUT……Dubious tape and all!
You KNOW it makes good sense!