Sunday, November 29, 2009
Don't Get Organized, Get Simplified
Now that Thanksgiving is over I can post on a Christmas related topic. In about a month we are all going to get a lot of stuff and as someone who participates in gift exchanges, I think it is mostly a good thing. But for some reason, some people allow their stuff to burden them. The Freakonomics Blog recently linked to the Happiness Project's 11 Myths of De-Cluttering. It's mostly about how desires for organization are just excuses to keep your house cluttered. When I moved to North Carolina last year I realized how much stuff I had that I don't use regularly. Stuff is great, but we should buy things that relieve the stresses of everyday life, not add to them. Our stuff should allow us more free time to spend with people we care about, not replace the people we care about.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Have you heard of the 100 Thing Challenge: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812048,00.html ?
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how limiting that ends up being. It's a bit extreme, but it does make you think about how many material items you have.
Never heard of it. That could be helpful for extreme cases, but I'm more an advocate for keeping people self aware of whether their stuff is helping or hurting them.
ReplyDeleteHere's an example from my life: Ice maker, helping. Book on the history of economics written in the 1970's, hurting.
One of my favorite quotes:
ReplyDelete"If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." William Morris
It can't get any better than this.
ReplyDelete