Rummage Musings

Over the last couple of weeks, my family and I have been busy with supervising painting works going on in my house. With such works, comes the daunting task of moving material from one place to another to facilitate in painting all attics, nooks and corners.  So all the junk up in the attic, clothes in the wardrobes, utensils in the cartons all these were brought down, making the place resemble a war-torn zone.  And every time I passed through this “missile-struck” heap, I realized that over years, I have accumulated so much of material “wealth” that, today I simply don’t know what to do with it: Heaps of bags & purses of all sizes and shapes, reams of paper of all hues, my daughter’s growing up companions – toys of all colors and material, clothes some of which I still wonder how I fitted in (😃!), books on various topics, cling-clang utensils, pens and pencils of varying sizes, hair clips and hair bands, the list is endless. When I looked at them, I wondered, when did I actually buy/get all these? What “need” were these to fulfill. For one, I realize that though I may use some of them once in a while, I may never use most of them ever at all. What then were these doing in my attic, wardrobe and shelves all the while? Why was it there in the first place?

As sense of detachment from material wealth over took me as I sifted through this heap of trash. The realization of why my father always advocated frugal living dawned on me. As a teenager, I remember mocking him when he had told not to have too many clothes – he advocated having not more than 3 clothes – one on the body, one in the shelf and one washed on the clothes line. The objective of such wise words is dawning on me now as I go through the arduous task of rummaging, sifting, cleaning, and keeping/disposing all the accumulations.

I am now formulating some rules and action plan from my side to handle this in future

• 

  Rule 1: Every time you look at something at the shop and feel like buying do the three- strike rule and see if you really need it – Cut accumulation at source! Do a three strike rule to check if you really need to buy something:
• Why are you buying this – what purpose is it going to serve: If you don’t get a clear answer to this, don’t buy
• How long is it going to be needed – if it is to satisfy a fleeting goodness feeling – ditch it
• After the first use (if at all), when are you going to use it again – if the answer is “maybe never” – rethink if you really need to buy it

• 

  Rule 2: Have a weekly/fortnightly disposal mechanism
• Sort through all the physical mails, see what you really need and dispose or destroy what you don’t need.
• If you really need to store a part of the information in these physical copies, take a snapshot on your mobile and save it on drive or elsewhere

• Rule 3: Don’t accumulate stuff
• Give off if you feel something is not being used especially clothes when they are in good condition
• Don’t have too much storage shelves at home and limit your accumulation to only what is possible in the storage available. The more storage  you have, the more junk you will end up accumulating
• When something new comes in (after passing through the three strike rule), then ensure two old stuff go out – this will ensure conservation of space and will keep the balance of in and out intact.

Now, while I continue through this material rummaging exercise, it is a wise time to also reflect on the other things I have accumulated elsewhere – in the body and mind 😃!!