One of the best things you can do is spend a few hours cleaning, organizing and getting rid of crap. You may not think it’s there but it is. I found four grocery bags worth of stuff yesterday and I couldn’t be happier…

Have you ever looked at something and said: “yeah, I might use that sometime…”? I said that a few times yesterday. I found myself keeping a lot of junk so I switched up the game: I took everything in my room on shelves, in drawers and under beds and put it out in the open.

Organized Bookshelf Landing Strip
Tackling the mega-surface: the bookshelf

Why spend the time?

My room looked messy and stuff was everywhere but it was like working with a blank slate.

  • I could group stuff together. I didn’t really realize I had cables and gadgets in one drawer and other similar electronics in another. Similar stuff should go together!
  • I could see what I really didn’t want. If I had to physically put it back on a shelf it forced me to think twice about it. Do I really need to hang onto that Pez dispenser? Do I need to save this old iPod box?
  • I thought about last time I cleaned. When I looked at each item I thought, ‘wow, I guess I didn’t use this since last time I cleaned’. That’s a good indicator that it’s not worth hanging onto that lanyard collection. I will never need to simultaneously carry 10 sets of keys on a long piece of fabric. Who knew?
  • I found stuff I missed. Pulling things out of boxes meant I could either a) empty that box and use it for something useful, or b) find cool stuff I forgot I had. I found all my Hawaii pictures yesterday. Good stuff!

Was it worth it?

I sometimes think about all the “stuff” we have in our lives. Just like in Fight Club: “The things you own end up owning you”. The simpler the better. An uncluttered room is less frustrating to look at and easier to live in. Now I have less junk to sift through when looking for something of value–that’s time saved.

Plus, what if I had to move soon? What if I were hit by a bus. Do I (or anyone else) need to deal with sifting through a bunch of useless stuff?

You’ll be surprised how much stuff you have around that you don’t really need. Spend a weekend… it’s fun!

May is still considered Spring right?