Before we moved to New York, some friends shared their strategy for successfully living in NYC’s small apartments: every time they brought something new in, something old had to go.
Sharing an apartment smaller than the one I rented as a college senior has forced us to be ruthless in casting off anything unnecessary.
This has been liberating. We’re such an acquisitive society — buy! buy! BUY! — but our finite space doesn’t let us. It forces careful consideration of everything down to the number of toilet paper rolls we can stash in the closet.
This blog post below draws the parallel between physical clutter and time clutter. Although time is finite, we often fritter it away and wonder why we don’t have time for what matters most.
via Snapurly
On a related note, the Best Life Design blog recently featured a post that compared time management to eating well, asking “Are You Meeting a Balanced Diet?”
Like cotton candy makes you feel like you’re at a carnival, like chocolate chip cookies make you feel like someone loves you, like mashed potatoes and gravy make you feel like the holidays have come around again and all is well with the world – hanging out with friends can make us feel carefree, lighthearted , even popular and successful.
And like a meal plan – when you have those treats in your diet you need to include substance, fiber, vitamins and protein. You need the salad and the side of broccoli, the bowl of hearty soup and a few slices of turkey. If your goal is to have a successful career you also have to balance time spent in superficial chatter and laughter with time spent with people who challenge you and teach you, who egg you on to become more than even you believe you can be and who give you substantial help to make it happen.
Whether the analogy is sending bags to Goodwill or eating your broccoli, what are you doing to make best use of your time?
3 Comments
Laura B
This is as great post! Considering WHY we save what we save, and if our future plans for this stuff we’re saving are worth the time investment and trade off to carry out those plans seems critical. Many people save things or buy things because they want to do something ELSE with that thing. Too often, the something else never happens. For instance, do you take a big pile of old clothing and sell it on Ebay (spending hours and hours in the marketing process, or feeling guilty and anxious while it sits there) or ship the pile to Goodwill and instead spend those hours writing, gardening, or pursuing one of your real passions.? (This is assuming marketing on Ebay is not your passion. 🙂 I am actually facing this decision now, and think I will head to Goodwill tonight. Thanks for a great post!
Sae
You’re right. Something new comes in, something old has to go out. One of the cats has to go. Mama needs some new shoes!
Colleen Newvine Tebeau
Saw, I wouldn’t advocate dumping kitty companions but I can see the merits of more shoes. 🙂
Laura, that’s a great point. Get out from under your guilt and lesser ambitions to focus on your real passions. Sometimes physical clutter and time clutter are tangled up together.
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