In this post about clothes shopping, the blogger talks about his clean slate method/fantasy of starting with nothing and then adding in the things he wants rather than just eliminating items from his hoard of Stuff.
Coincidentally, my neuroscience professor today advanced his kidney method of cleaning (or de-cluttering) during a lecture on drugs. Despite widespread belief that the kidneys work by filtering bad stuff out of the blood into urine, what actually happens is that the kidneys move everything out of the blood into the urine-holding area, then let the good stuff back in to the blood. (Drugs are lipid soluble and move through the membrane back into the blood stream.) He recommends cleaning your room/house like this at least once a year.
This jives with the recommendations of people like my mom that the way to clean a closet is to first remove everything from it, then put back the things that you want to keep.
If you really want to seriously get rid of a lot of stuff at once, I think it's smart to do this. You put all the work into removing things at the beginning, so deciding to keep something means you have to move it into place again. This makes getting rid of the item (e.g., tossing it into the Goodwill box/bag) the default option, so your laziness works for you. (As long as you don't get so lazy that you just dump everything back into your closet/under your bed/etc. in one large undifferentiated mass of junk.)
I admit that I tend to use the weeding method myself. The first time through, I get rid of the obvious stuff (big weeds). Then I go through again a little later and eliminate some more things (the medium-sized weeds that now look big in comparison to the rest). I keep repeating this process until I've winnowed things down considerably. The trick is that you have to keep after it because you are not necessarily eliminating many items at a given time. However, sometimes the idea of parting with 50% of your wardrobe feels aversive even if you rationally know that it will leave you with plenty of clothes. Getting rid of a few items at a time is not nearly so traumatic, and it can become kind of a game to figure out which 4 items you will eliminate this week (or whatever). It helps that I love actual weeding (my favorite part of gardening; I'm a freak), so thinking of it as weeding makes the process more appealing to me. Of course, it's sometimes hard to distinguish a "weed" from a "flower" while doing this, but I have that problem with literal weeding as well.
Coming back to the neuroscience thing: It's quite fortunate that I started watching House, M.D. long enough ago that I am now able to read, hear, say, and write the word "blood" without feeling faint because I would not be able to remain conscious in class without having experienced this inadvertent exposure therapy. Today's class was particularly "blood"-intensive.
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7 comments:
If you decide to go into medicine, you can start watching "Dexter" to prepare.
Moving can simulate this, also. At least, it can if you have time to really make choices when you pack. My 'library' gets edited like this every few years.
Congratulations on the success of your blood entertainment-self-therapy. Totally fits in with Project Cheap-ass, too.
No, thank-you to "Dexter," Tam. I read too many of the books (2) and have certain horrifying images that I can never get rid of. It looked like they were going to do the same thing with the TV show, so I quit watching after an episode or so.
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I've had some success with the kidney version in decluttering my shirt drawers. Unfortunately, I kept adding things back until I ran out of room, not taking into account the things in the laundry basket, so I had to do it again.
But I didn't find laziness to be helping me. I still split the rejects into several piles like - throw away because it is too worn, save for scraps because it is too pretty to get rid of, store with other too-small things, store with other things that don't happen to go with anything right now, and give away.
Mostly I use the extremist/embarrassment method for clothes--when it becomes too embarrassing to own something, say because my elbow actually poked through it, then I know it's time to get rid of it.
I'll also use the replacement method for things that wear out - once I have a replacement, then I can get rid of it. But not right away, because first I have to make sure that the replacement is actually better--sometimes it turns out not to be.
I think my favorite is the philosophy method - make up some philosophy about what sort of things I want to own, and then evaluate everything based on that philosophy.
I do not at all fantasize about a clean slate methodology. The closest I get is fantasizing about tagging everything I actually use for some time period and then making myself seriously reconsider the remainder.
Tam, I think the M.D. ship has sailed without me. Which, given my recent seasickness experiences is probably good.
RVman, that's the only way many people ever get rid of anything, I think, though some (whom I will not name for embarrassing Robin) just move the same taped up boxes from place to place without knowing what is in them.
Debbie, I read one Dexter book and what got to me less than the blood thing (strangely) was that it just seemed so...stupid somehow. The premise seemed promising but I didn't care for the execution. (Ba dum dum)
Starting to think of clothing as fabric really starts to screw with a person's ability to get rid of stuff when they should. The less said about my office closet, the better.
I'm an uncontrollable pack-rat.
I only use the Kidney method on my desktop. Everything else - it's an iterative select-and-discard process. (I'd call it "genetic organization", but that would really be pushing it...)
Sal, I watch House now too, but must say all this organ talk is a bit much. I will definitely not think about it when I'm de-cluttering. Being a medical doctor just isn't in our gene pool. (Notice I avoided the b-word there too) I think we'd get rid of more stuff if it were easier to do. I hate the thought of throwing things in the trash, but then also question whether it's good enough for charity. So, for now, we have things in our storage cage downstairs that will need to be dealt with, uh, probably when we move :)
You haven't de-cluttered until you have to do your own stuff and your
father's stuff, which is at your house. If my father ever leaves the nursing home (highly unlikely) I hope he isn't upset about how little of his stuff I am keeping.
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