You can’t live in a sty forever.
With more than 80% of the year done and over with, most of the stuff that kept me busy earlier in the year went right with it. The days aren’t as busy, yet in ways, they feel just as hectic.
The likely culprit? My environment.
This isn’t the first time I’m making this observation, but it is the first time I’ve had a solid plan to do anything about it!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
My office is filled with books, magazine clippings and other things that I’ve read and loved, or still intend to read. But the more you accumulate, the less you actually know what any of the mess is! I tried to take a few sheets and plot them out in mind maps and checklists, but it was too little progress and taking too long.
It would take months, but a Plan B would eventually come to the surface.
One reason why we fail to start is that we’re intimidated by how immense the projects of our dreams are. To start a side business of our own. Or to travel the world. To build something spectacular with our very own hands.
The solution? Finding the balance between our visionary schemes and all the itty-bitty details that can turn them into reality!
So I took another look at all those magazine clippings of mine and started sorting them out in piles according to their purpose. I started looking at my art supplies, wondering which of them I’d actually use again. In short, I took another look at my possessions. and wondered which of them were actually worth possessing.
Unless you’ve got some rare stuff in your home that you care to part with, all that clutter you have isn’t worth as much as you think it is. And the sad thing is that we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s too hard to get rid of it all—we’d drop it off at a donation centre, but we don’t have a car to get it there. We’d put it up online on craigslist or freecycle, but it’s too much effort.
I thought so too until I looked into Clothesline, the Canadian Diabetes Association home pickup service for electronics! (Sometimes it pays to read the ads on the subway!)
It might sound like they only accept clothes, but they do far more than that! All those books I purged from my library? Yup, they’ll take those. Old MP3 players and electronics that we don’t use anymore? They’ll take those too! Pretty much any household item that you no longer have a need for, they’ll find someone who does.
More people need to take advantage of programs like this wherever they’re available—we’ve gotten used to living in small spaces; why make them feel any smaller?
For more information, drop the Canadian Diabetes Association’s Clothesline program a line!
As for me, I have a lot of random stuff to pack away!
312/365
