You don’t own the things-the things own you.

Source: Fight Club

Now I think Durden was making a broad commentary on our corporately controlled consumer culture, suggesting that it destroys individuality. I however, started to think about this notion in a much more shallow yet pragmatic sense: let’s say you buy a car. You think you bought it to get you from A to B, and no doubt it fulfills that need. However, besides what you needed (to get from A to B) you now need to put gas in the car, wash it, buy insurance for it, take it in for scheduled maintenance and repairs, etc. The car, in a very real sense, owns you! There are so many possessions like this - think about your house!

One logical deduction is that the more stuff you have, the more time, money and attention it costs you to maintain it all. Let this idea sit with you for a while, and you might start to consider that less (stuff) is perhaps more (life). I am not saying we should not own things - we should. What I am suggesting is that we should be careful in what we choose to own, we should plan and actively manage what we own. Call it stuff management.

It’s All Too Much

I read Peter Walsh’s It’s All Too Much over the weekend. Walsh is a professional organizer and is probably best known for his part in TLC’s Clean Sweep television series. In the show, Walsh helps homeowners transform areas overrun by clutter to functional, organized living spaces. In an interesting coincidence, the quote that precedes the introduction in his book is exactly the same quote from Fight Club that resonated with me the week before!

Walsh’s claim that an over abundance of possessions (especially the clutter) costs us money, time, physical space and emotion is consistent with the thought that we don’t have stuff - it has us. One idea I liked from the book was that getting rid of the clutter does not actually start with cleaning up. While that seems like a logical first step, it would be like implementing a time management system by creating a gigantic to-do list. Just like a good time management system, we need to start with planning and prioritization before we start cleaning up.

Vision

Look beyond the clutter and imagine the life you want to be living. What does your ideal living space that supports that life look like? How do you want to feel when you walk into the place? It may sound like overkill, but consider that you will probably spend a considerable amount of time in this space. The space and the life you want to live should be consistent or at least complimentary. For example, when I decided to follow the tenets of The 4-Hour Workweek, I imagined a home office as a neat, hyper-efficient work space. Elimination would take the form of minimal visual distraction: there would be no clutter, required items would be filed neatly. My desk drawers would be tidy and not full - just the essentials. Flat surfaces would be clear. Automation would take the form of a single high end computer, a wireless LAN, a single printer/scanner/fax, and a cordless speaker phone. Most importantly, besides the desk, chair and filing cabinet, that is all I would have in my home office. That vision of my home office gave me the feeling of getting things done and doing business.

Function

The next step is to get it on paper. For example, by documenting what my home office space is being used for today vs. my vision, I can easily determine what has to go. Here is my home office room function chart:

At this point, you have a plan and can start eliminating stuff and cleaning up. Now I can start cleaning up!

I highly recommend It’s All Too Much, as it will go into this entire process at a greater level of detail. It also covers strategies for cleaning and organizing, dealing with emotional attachment to items, and tips for handling clutter on a room by room basis.

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