My amateur effort at housecleaning last weekend got me thinking about possessions, specifically, the lack of them. Concrete reasoning suggested to me the fewer objects I have the less I have to clean. Like the changing tide, my inner-Martha is on the wane and my inner-Angela ascends. It is high-time to throw things out.
I was recently reminded the average household has tens of thousands (!) of items under its roof, most of them doing no good. The speaker on the subject suggested a discarding one thing per day for a month. This will hardly put a dint in the amount of debris but it will give you a good feeling for having thrown out some rubbish. This virtuous habit could continue until the house is resembles a Martha Stewart photo:
My training in the treatment of OCD says the enemy to purging one’s provenance is the pernicious philosophy “Just in Case”. You look at the box brimming with old cassette tapes, cords to who-knows-what, and clothes unworn in since the 80s, and you conclude to keep all of it – ‘just in case’ – someday you may want them. The chances of this, of course, are nil. OCD patients are taught the “30 rule”: if you can replace a potential tosser with a new one purchased for $30 dollars OR you can drive less than 30 minutes to a store to get a replacement than the said item is toast.
Much of OCD hoarding focuses on throwing out unneeded things but not much is said about the new things flowing into the house. One must be always on guard for nefarious items creeping slowly in and accumulating until you are drowning in unnecessary plastic objects and refrigerator magnets.
In the House of Spo (and Someone too) there is no lack of unused items; we could fill the Goodwill bins with our discards.
I am going to take up the thirty day once a day throw-out challenge – if I can for Someone is a bit of a Just-in-Case type of guy. It would be just my dumb luck to discard the moss-covered three-handled family gredunza only to have Someone suddenly want it and ask its location. I think I will start in the garage with the snow shovel or the inutile walk-man. Even my inner-Martha won’t object.
35 comments
October 18, 2016 at 8:03 PM
3rdnlong
I have to throw away here and there and when Antonio’s at work. Today I just dumped a whole drawer of various wires and cords and chargers and junk. If he asks for it down the road I usually just shrug and tell him he must have left it in Charlotte at his Moms.
October 18, 2016 at 8:17 PM
Urspo
I get to claim being dumb and dizzy I must have dumped them out.
October 18, 2016 at 8:03 PM
Mark
My husband is a ” you don’t know when you may need it” kind of guy…. I say “if you haven’t needed it in the past year, get rid of it”. But sure as shit on the 366th day, we are looking for it and I’m catching hell!!
October 18, 2016 at 8:18 PM
Urspo
These what-if worse case scenarios keep us from throwing out all sorts of items.
October 18, 2016 at 8:56 PM
Ron
Have you been talking to Pat?
October 18, 2016 at 9:33 PM
Urspo
One could argue he’s gone several stages above and beyond minimalism
October 19, 2016 at 4:13 AM
Ron
And one would be absolutely correct in that observation. Pat lives an almost monk like existence.
October 18, 2016 at 9:23 PM
Old Lurker
Not the snow shovel! Next you will be chucking out the ice scraper!
At the very least I hope your discards are being shipped off to a thrift store, so they can be used to fund Mormon missionaries or Focus on the Family or something.
October 18, 2016 at 9:32 PM
Urspo
Oh that’s in the garage too. Looks brand new after ten years
October 18, 2016 at 10:03 PM
becomingmenaturally
I am working on getting rid of things also. My kids have til nov 1st to move there hunk out of garage and there old rooms. But throwing donating one thing a day if mine sounds good. I think I will start with the electric typewriter!
October 19, 2016 at 6:53 AM
Urspo
LOL my first thought was to hold onto the typewriter ‘just in case’…..
October 19, 2016 at 9:10 AM
becomingmenaturally
I was thinking it to but alas it has gone off to the kindergarten in our parish
October 18, 2016 at 11:22 PM
anne marie in philly
spouse is the “junk saver”, I am the minimalist. donate what you can.
October 19, 2016 at 1:15 AM
Raybeard
Yes, those old clothes should find a home in some charity shop or other. However, old cassette tapes (and I have well over a thousand of them) is rapidly becoming yesterday’s market sadly, so it may be harder to get rid of them in ‘constructive’ fashion.
October 19, 2016 at 6:53 AM
Urspo
When I lived in Chicago one just had to put anything into the alley and it was gone in 30 minutes – guaranteed.
October 19, 2016 at 6:52 AM
Urspo
Perhaps you can donate the spouse and kill two birds with one stone?
October 19, 2016 at 7:35 AM
anne marie in philly
bwhahahaha! GOOD ONE, SPO! 🙂
October 19, 2016 at 3:03 PM
Todd Gunther
Warrior Queen has already tried that, but I always manage to find my way home. In conclusion, blech and harumph!
October 19, 2016 at 4:13 AM
David
An item a day for 30 days, and my thought was what, no compounding effect, not one the first day, two the second day . . . it would clear out a lot more in 30 days that way.
October 19, 2016 at 6:51 AM
Urspo
I worry I may start an avalanche and start throwing out things merely for the pleasure to discard items. I will see how far this goes.
October 19, 2016 at 4:29 AM
sluggy
I have seen(and had to deal with)what happens when someone with hoarder tendencies dies when my oldest brother passed. Not only was it exhausting to clean out his house(even the car was filled with crap!)and the massive storage unit he had filled, it was emotionally draining.
Do not do that to whomever is left behind when you go. Clean the stuff out of your life NOW! Nothing says I love you to those left behind when you shed your mortal coil than leaving just the best bits of your things. 😉
October 19, 2016 at 6:50 AM
Urspo
I am always glad to hear from you my Sluggy.
My parents – who have never done a thoughtless thing in their lives – have made it clear they have no desire to clear out the clutter but leave it to their children to do. Well.
October 19, 2016 at 5:07 AM
Michael
My partial solution to the things-flowing-in problem is to get rid of one thing for every new thing I bring in. I began this when I decided to thin my wardrobe to more reasonable size after retirement. I no longer needed thirty-two ties. (Had I ever, really?) So I cut down to a reasonable number of shirts, pants and so on, donated the rest to St. Vinny’s, and decided that when I got a new shirt/whatever (even if a thrift store find and only new to me), I would donate a similar item to St. Vinny’s. This keeps my closet relatively uncluttered.
The biggest assist in uncluttering was moving from a good-sized house into an apartment this past winter. There was no longer space for “just in case” items. A closet-sized storage unit in the underground garage cannot compare to the enormous basement where we could store junk before. Not that I advise making such a drastic move just to clean out your closets. I will say that our apartment stays fairly neat and orderly. It might not be Martha-esque, but it is rather attractive and looks roomy without stuff stacked all over. (Except in Tom’s room, but what can I do about that?)
October 19, 2016 at 6:49 AM
Urspo
Moving but it has a silver lining: the obligation to throw out and streamline. It is almost worth the price of the move.
October 19, 2016 at 5:21 AM
Autolycus
I inherited the Just in Case tendency (having parents with vivid memories of wartime shortages and the necessity to “make do and mend” didn’t help), and alas not the Round Tuit without which nothing gets tidied, sorted and cleared. But on the other hand, I do remember my mother smiling through gritted teeth whenever some kind friend gave her a pointless ornament; said friend would be barely out of the door before Mum muttered “One more thing to bloody dust”, and I do try to apply that before letting in anything new.
October 19, 2016 at 6:48 AM
Urspo
My grandmother Angela called knick-knacks ‘dust collectors’ as well. I appreciated this last weekend as I moved about the bibelots to dust.
October 19, 2016 at 9:45 AM
itsmyhusbandandme
Ditch as much as you can. Martha will be proud of you.
JP
October 19, 2016 at 11:53 AM
Urspo
Martha Stewart or my inner-Martha? If you mean the latter, that would be Angela not Martha hohoho
October 19, 2016 at 2:24 PM
wickedhamster
October 19, 2016 at 2:25 PM
wickedhamster
mistaken comment – ignore
October 19, 2016 at 3:28 PM
anne marie in philly
I’d like to try that; it’s pretty and uncluttered and peaceful.
October 19, 2016 at 9:45 PM
Urspo
Wow! No plastic objects !
October 21, 2016 at 7:06 AM
Erik Rubright
I kind of do that with clothing. Every year, I turn all the clothes in the closet with the hangers in the wrong direction. When something goes back in the closet, it goes in the correct way. At the end of the year, whatever is still hanging backwards goes to donation.
Now if I could just purge all those electrical items I horde…
October 22, 2016 at 5:13 AM
wickedhamster
Pedestrian question: The replies to my comment above seem to indicate that a photo of a Zen interior I tried to post did indeed appear. Is that the case? I ask because it didn’t show up on my screen and figured it was not possible to post a pic in a reply.
October 23, 2016 at 5:20 PM
fearsomebeard
I am so not letting my husband read this. He so wants me purge.