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Remember: any junk or clutter (house clutter, car clutter, mind clutter) can and will sprout into more of the same. We humans wrinkle and wither fast, mentally and physically, from the burden of worthless cargo. Dejunking is the cheapest, fastest and most effective way to become physically and financially sound, emotionally and intellectually happy.
Just Do It
Start with three large heavy-duty garbage bags and one box. Label them 1) Junk 2) Charity 3) Sort 4) Emotional withdrawal (the box). If it’s broken, outdated, lost its mate, out of style, ugly, useless, dead, or moldy, then it’s junk (no good.) DUMP IT OR RECYCLE IT. If it’s repairable or useful (to someone else), if it’s the wrong color, wrong style, too little, too big for you, bores you or is simply an excess, chuck it in the Charity bag. Let someone else worry about it for a change…
Sort all your loose, misplaced, and homeless stuff that is still useful and needed, but isn’t where it belongs. If you haven’t figured out where to park it, put it back in the sort bag. KEEP AND SORT AGAIN IN A MONTH. [About] emotional withdrawal: KEEP IN JUNK LIMBO FOR SIX MONTHS AND THEN THROW IT AWAY.
Junk Therapy
You know you’re a junkee when: 1) Strangers say your house is "interesting." 2) You send a search party into your basement – and they never return. 3) You entertain dinner guests by showing them your odd sock collection. 4) The cat has a pile of plates all his own. 5) You set your handbag down to write out a check and passersby chuck trash into it. 6) You win a shopping spree at the place of your choice and you choose the nation’s biggest flea market.
You may have a serious junk problem if you: 1) Hide when the doorbell rings. 2) Wait until after dark to pull the car into the garage. 3) Have to think about how to cross a room. 4) Finally replace a badly worn or broken part – then keep that broken part.
There is a solution to clutter. You can do nothing. It is totally chickenhearted; you will retreat again and again, and junk will multiply. Might facing up to junk be the best solution? Face up to it! After all – it won’t just fade away!
Copyright (c) 2005, Don Aslett. Used by permission of Marsh Creek Press. All rights reserved.
Excerpted, adapted and condensed from Don Aslett's book, Clutter's Last Stand.
