Author: admin

Summary: Over 11 weeks of decluttering, I committed to and did at least 3 hours weekly, but found the clutter’s scope overwhelming.  Much remains to be done.  Moving forward, I’ll adopt a different approach inspired by Oliver Burkman’s Meditations for Mortals.

It seems like just yesterday that I was proposing to my accountability group that I would commit to work on decluttering for 3 hours a week for each of the 12 weeks of our fall Accountability Group cycle.  One of the group members, wanting to make sure I did not take on a commitment that I could not complete, asked me: “Do you have enough clutter to allow you to work at decluttering for 3 hours a week for the full 12 week cycle without running out of clutter?”  

I answered: “Yes. I have enough clutter to last me through 12 weeks of decluttering.”  I added something to the effect of “I could spend 3 hours a week for 12 hundred weeks and have enough clutter to last me”.   I wasn’t sure how much I may have been exaggerating with my reply, but that is the way it felt.    

Now, 11 weeks into the cycle, I am uncertain if I have made enough of a dent in the clutter to be perceptible.  I’m not sure if I reduced the clutter by 1% or not.  I think it’s likely not.  It still seems infinite.   I know that a few places in our house are less cluttered than they were 11 weeks ago, but when I look around I see so many many cluttered places that the need for decluttering seems infinite. 

Yesterday, I took a series of photos to document the remaining clutter along with maybe a couple of images of places that are pretty good and need little or no additional decluttering.  I imagined the pictures might help me, or help us, to get a better handle on our needs and opportunities for decluttering.   Now that I have these 37 pictures, mostly showing unique areas of our house (covering that vast majority but not all of our home) I can review what is need from the comfort of my computer or phone anywhere in the world.  Looking at the images, it appears that each area shown could use between 1 and 100 hours of decluttering effort. Thus the over 36 hours I have put in over the last couple months are a drop in the bucket and my glib reference to needing 12 hundred weeks to complete the task seem close to reality.

Feeling like the decluttering project may be close to infinite can be discouraging and motivates me to find a new way of looking at decluttering.  I would like to shift my paradigm to a perspective that helps me to feel more empowered with respect living with our stuff and the first world problem of having accumulated too much stuff.  I continue to learn about life and have found great inspiration in Oliver Burkman’s most :recent book “Meditations for Mortals” in which he suggests a “Done list”  (Chapter/Day 4 “Against Productivity Debt: On the power of a ‘Done list’”)  that we focus on completing things but not on everything.  (chapter/day 9 “Finish things: On the magic of completion”)  He explores of the multiple benefits of shifting the way we relate to the things we do, to get to done more often, partly by defining tasks to be finite manageable, and partly for us to push through to reach completion. 

In alignment with this new to me paradigm I would like to celebrate a few wins among my decluttering actions over these last 11 weeks.  I only remember some of what I did as I was not keeping a done list. Here are a few items I do remember: 

• The garage: I went through the garage seeing and touching almost every area inside it,  getting rid of many things.
• USB cables plus: collected and sorted through electronics wires from many locations consolidating them into one place sorted in a way that finding what is needed is much easier.
• Deck: cleared out the back area of our deck
• To do list: digital decluttering of my todoist inbox emptying it completely
• Removed from the living room the big pile of things that I took from my dad’s place last summer after he passed away and stacked them neatly in the basement.
• Went through the hanging stuff in my closet getting rid of many items and making the closet easier to use.

Going forward I will keep a done list for my decluttering, and define decluttering actions to be clear and finite, and push more to complete the defined actions. It has been helpful to have a commitment to doing 3 hours per week, this is has not proved to be a sufficient and optimal structure for me.  

I have much more to do and much more and to learn, including implementing new ways to pair down the clutter in my environment, as well as adjusting my perspective both on the actions of decluttering and on living comfortably unencumbered by unneeded and unwanted stuff.

The blog post reflects on a home renovation journey, starting with utility room upgrades and expanding beyond.  It highlights decision-making challenges, evolving plans, and balancing aesthetics, functionality, and comfort while addressing scope creep and budget considerations.

My wife and I have spent the week after Thanksgiving in our coldish house up north working on the planning the renovation of our kitchen and utility room. We are very thankful that we have this house surrounded by beautiful trees and now with several inches of snow surrounding us. We are further thankful that we have the resources to be able to improve the house, making it more comfortable and pleasant to be in. And this week has been chilly with our new fall electric mini split heating system barely able to handle the heating load required by the cold December weather.

Doing a renovation project can be a fascinating learning experience in scope creep. I describe some of our project evolution and how our experiences and research led us through many different concepts as we endeavor to arrive at a final “best we can get to” project plan to have a most comfortable and pleasant home.

Our current renovation project flowed from the removal of our fossil fuel furnace and going all electric while making space for a washer dryer and additional toilet and sink. Since we were already renovating the utility room adjacent to the, maybe it is time to do the kitchen renovation we had been thinking about for a long time. We could have a functional easy to use drawers and cabinets and a sink which will be easy to wash pots in.

As then looked more carefully at the kitchen floor, and saw an old and worn tongue and groove pine floor.  There are many many places with cracked tongues and grooves. Repair might be possible but seems unwise as it would require lots of labor and likely would not last long. 

We decided to put in a sheet Marmoleum floor like the one we’re so happy with at our primary residence…… But we soon learned at a flooring store that sells the product that installers who can do a good job of installing Marmoleum  are very hard to get and very expensive, charging over $25 a square foot, and even if one is willing to pay it can be very hard to get them out to do the job.  So, we backed off of our sheet Marmoleum plan, and pivoted to the easy to install floating floor Marmoleum click together tiles.  But after visiting a friend who is very unhappy with his Marmoleum floor we opened our minds to other possibilities.  

Many people in the area suggested that “wood floors are what people do around here”.  Our house is in the woods, has wooden beams, wooden floors, many wooden windows and wooden sills, so for aesthetics and durability, we decided that we will install a wooden kitchen floor.

Deciding on having a wood floor is just the beginning of a difficult decision process of what flooring to use. Wooden floors may be solid wood or engineered flooring made from a combination of woods.  Also, solid wood may be factory-finished or finished in place, while engineered flooring is always factory finished. We wavered between the choices through multiple showrooms, conversations and research. Many times feeling like we were close to a decision and then having our choice change again, and again.

A friend called for an unrelated reason and we began speaking with her about floors as they had recently installed a kitchen renovation. We learned from them that they chose to replace all the floor surfaces across the first floor of their house to maintain their home design integrity and achieve a feeling she liked in their home.  The floors are the aspect of their “kitchen” renovation project with which she is most satisfied and happy about.

Hearing about the whole house floor renovation experience brought front and center to our minds the concerns that we and others have had, that after we replace the kitchen floor, seeing the old floor in the living room through the kitchen doorway would give a feeling of old tiredness of the living room part of the house, as it would be visually compared with the new kitchen.  I immediately got up from my chair and measured the square footage of the rest of the house while my wife and I both adjusted our concepts of the floor project to now include the entire house.  Whole house is 4 times the area of only the Kitchen.  (Kitchen 223 sf / Whole House 986 sf)

I sat down at my computer and searched for more information about flooring and the range of cost and quality to take this now bigger project into high gear.  I clicked on the first link of my first Google search; I then selected the first sample that appealed to my eye and read the specs which listed it as oil finished.  Just the day before we visited a well-respected flooring store and were convinced by the salesman that oil finished flooring may be the best choice for our situation and preferences.  I opened the “details PDF” and saw that it is usable with under-floor heating.  WOW!   I realized that under-floor heat is a possibility.  A quick Google AI summary showed me that adding under-floor heating throughout the house would likely add $8- $15 per sf. to the cost of the floor and as such be very costly but a potentially manageable increase in the total project cost.  Having a plan already to replace the floor throughout the house adding under-floor heat seems like a relatively small increase in the overall scope and complexity of the project.

I sit here in our living room writing this post feeling chilly with the mini-split heating units doing what they can on this December evening.  Next December I could be sitting here in a toasty warm house, though it might require more electricity to run the heating system. This scope creep could provide us with a much more comfortable home in cold weather.  Or, we could install a wood stove, a different scope creep which I may explore a bit later. 

While doing some cleanup in my yard a couple walking by on our country road called out to me to say hello.  They looked familiar, though I did not fully remember them. I answered the greeting and walked closer, to continue our neighborly conversation.  Debbie and Jim reminded me that we had met previously while walking.  

I shared that I had not been walking much lately as I have been dealing with plantar fasciitis. Debbie replied that she too has been on a recovery path from plantar fasciitis, which she thinks she developed by walking up and down the super steep “Hill 99”.

Debbie and Jim became regular Hill 99 walkers, many months previously somewhat after I had told them about this very steep residential street loop that adventurous walkers may choose to use as their exercise ritual.  There is even a “Hill 99 Club” https://www.hill99club.com/ for enthusiasts.  

It was a surprise to me that Hill 999 walking could be implicated in developing plantar fasciitis.  And in hearing her words I considered whether I should feel guilty, and decided I did not and should not.    I can imagine some people reacting in my position. And speaking words such as: “Oh, I’m so sorry that I suggested Hill 99 to you as a good place to walk.”

I think the culture of saying sorry, sorry, sorry so much could fit in with my assumption that someone might put guilt on themselves for someone else’s hearing them doing something and being harmed.

In our conversation and I brought up that it had been an occasion to buy new shoes which brought a smile from Debbie, who also had bought multiple pairs of new shoes in the process of her plantar fasciitis and recovery.  Debbie and Jim recommended the shoe store Montano’s in Saugerties, NY, an old time shoe store with people who know how to measure your foot and help you select appropriate shoes.

Our conversation also covered the getting better and that people do get better from plantar fasciitis.  Debbie is much improved, but I don’t think she was fully better.  She shared that it was the physical therapy and stretching in particular that she attributes to helping her get over the plantar fasciitis.  I sheepishly said that I haven’t been doing my physical therapy, and decided and shared that I will now do my physical therapy. Physical therapy also includes standing on the slant board, which is something I’d be happy to do as well as deep muscle work that Anna taught me, which is myofascial release work.  I noted that standing on the slant board, could be done as a meditation, and maybe that I need to replace my meditation for a few days with stretching meditations.

My experience today reminded me that communicating with other humans can be valuable to do even or especially when one has health challenges to overcome.  I received encouragement, ideas and a feeling of commonality because I chose to enter into a deeper conversation.  I chose to share that I had a physical problem, in plantar fasciitis, and that it was impacting me.  I chose to connect at a deep enough level to share what was going on for me.  I chose to be vulnerable.

My next step is to do my  Physical therapy exercises, myofascial release work, and to stand for a long while on a slant board. And only after I complete these actions will I move on to doing the next important thing for me to do.

I share my journey with plantar fasciitis, initially dismissing discomfort as age-related but later experimenting with shoes, insoles, taping, and physical therapy.  I found partial relief and deeper insights into managing the condition, as well as some more general lessons about life and caring for our changing bodies.  

The discomfort began slowly.  I became accustomed to discomfort as I stood on the wooden floor getting out of bed each morning.  I made sure to have my Crocs slippers at the bedside so I didn’t have to stand on or walk on the hard floor first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night when I would rise to go to the bathroom.

One morning my wife shared that her feet hurt when she got out of bed, and asked me if I had ever had that issue.  Sure, I replied.  I’ve had it for several months, maybe it’s just part of getting older.  She immediately set out to make doctors appointments, to figure out what could be done and to remedy the situation.  I began to realize that maybe there was something I could do to alleviate my pain.  I sought out soft shoes and slippers hoping to minimize my discomfort.

I joined my wife at her podiatrist appointment sitting in the back of the room and listening which allowed me to deepen my  understanding of plantar fasciitis and feel certain that this was what I too was experiencing.  Week or two later my wife had a session with our physical therapist and within a week her pain was gone; but I was far from healed.

My discomfort was rarely severe enough to concern me after the sharp pain on first standing in the morning and this was easily forgotten by the time I was fully involved in my day.  Until one occasion when I was dancing and the pain in my foot took me off the dance floor.  It was time to visit my doctor.  My doctor would certainly ask me questions so I redoubled my effort to gather possible causes for discussion with my doctor. 

Over the past year or two I had shifted to wearing Oranginer Barefoot Shoes which I was loving, and often recommending to others.  Wearing them motivated me to fine-tune my walking technique so that I would not bang my heel into the hard pavement, and as a dancer I appreciated this challenge, which I felt up to accomplishing.  And, I didn’t know how well I was doing.  The shoes I had loved and worn most of the time for the previous year or two were Altra Torin running shoes, a deliciously comfortable soft and wide, heel dropped shoe which I had begun wearing after rejecting Hoka’s for being too high and soft and squishy.  

In truth, I cannot be certain what caused my plantar fasciitis.  It may have been the shoes I was wearing, stepping on a sharp object or some other random act or regular behavior I was doing or not doing.  For a couple years I had not been using the custom insoles once made for me at great cost by a podiatrist. The padded cover had worn out and I just stopped using them, planning to fix them or have them fixed.  But now I had pain and I needed to do something to remedy the situation. 

Stepping on a hard surface caused me pain so I looked for soft shoes and slippers.  I found the soft footbed of the OOFAS OOahh Slide Sandals to be a comfy fit, and at the same REI store I found a pair of Hokas in my size and judged that with pain I was experiencing I could sacrifice the solid connection to the ground I had missed when rejecting Hokas shoes in the past.  

I begun doing “myofascial release” in my heel, a technique of long duration static pressure followed by release.  A physical therapist had taught me the techniques for releasing stressed muscles, and although the area was not a muscle belly, pressing for two minutes and releasing seemed to help reduce my discomfort, so I kept doing it.  

I finally saw my doctor who confirmed my self-diagnosis of plantar fasciitis.  I shared with him that I had been doing  “myofascial release” in my heel, and thought it was helping.  I told him that I had many of my shoes in the car, and could bring them in if asked.  He supported me continuing to do what I thought was helping and did not want to see my shoes.  He taped my foot with some stretchy tape while mentioning that it was not the ideal tape for taping a foot, for which a less stretchy tape would have been better. He suggested that I continue taping my foot and that it would likely heal rapidly.  

Back at home I found a good video of foot taping for plantar fasciitis done by a physical therapist from which I learned an entirely different method of taping a foot to address plantar fasciitis and I ordered three rolls of tape.   I began taping my foot as I had seen in the physical therapy video, and found the taping to be very helpful, significantly reducing my discomfort.

I now had soft shoes for inside and outside and believed I was on the path to recovery.  But after wearing the super soft footwear for only a week, it became clear that they were not the cure for my plantar fasciitis pain.  Is anyone looking for good deal on a  pair of lightly worn black Hokas Bondi 8 size 10 1/2 wide in excellent condition?

I experimented more with shoes, determining which insoles and which shoes seemed to be most helpful for reducing my discomfort.  It became clear that an aggressive insole such as my prescription insoles and the medium high Superfeet hiking insoles and the Oboz Shoes and insoles were all effective in reducing the discomfort.  I noticed my old Dansko Wyatt Oxford shoes on the shelf and tried them on. I rarely wore my old Danco shoes, they were never my favorite being a bit too solid and heavy.  But they have an aggressive insole and I found my heel discomfort greatly diminished or non-existent while wearing these shoes.

I made an appointment with a wonderful physical therapist (who had previously taught me the myofascial release techniques,) to explore what she might be able to do or teach me to do to help me to further heal my plantar fasciitis.  Although she did not think the pressure work directly over the heel was the solution she did some myofascial release massage with me to help release the muscles and tendons that connected into the plantar fascia as it continued up into my legs and taught me how to do self massage on these tissues helping to release them, thereby reducing the stress on the plantar fascia.  I believe that if I can find the perseverance and time to do these work on my muscle relaxation it would be helpful and I am concerned that now like in the past I will be less than fully successful in finding the time and perseverance and memory to do such regular actions.

It now seems to me that paying attention to what shoes and  insoles that I’m wearing, as well as taping my foot at times I will be doing extensive exertion are important parts of my path to recovery.   These actions are easy to do and require less time and persistence than doing the myofascial release. 

I’m learning some things from this experience, and as my healing process is not yet complete it is likely there will be more to learn and so far my learning have included:

• pay attention to early discomfort. Something that I have taught people in ergonomics classes and known for years and years and yet found myself not doing……
• Consider potential unintended consequences and long-term effects of the behaviors that we adopt and regularize
• Know that not all the answers to a problem will be found in one place and in one time that there may be many aspects to address to solve a problem
• It takes time to heal and reverse a condition that has taken time and extended repetitive abuse to cause
• Deterioration of the body and having pain on a regular basis can occur for people as they get older and my body will deteriorate with age as everyone’s does, AND it is important to recognize that some deteriorations and pains that occur will be addressable, healable and reversible. 

I invite anyone who sees more or other learning we could take from this story, please add your input as a reply to this post.  I’m sure that I have much more to learn.

I, like many others, want my life and labor to have a positive impact on the world; and to feel fulfilled by and satisfied with the way I spend my time.  Time is a limited resource for all and for many of us, with the resources to read and write a blog like this, it is the resource that most constrains the positive impact we can make with our labor.  Everything we do takes time, and as such, the choices we make about how we spend our time will both enable and constrain the positive impact we have on our committees and the biosphere as a whole.  

My desire to have a positive impact and feel fulfilled led me to step into the circle at a personal growth workshop, and doing so opened my eyes, again, to the need to narrow the focus of my actions so that my work will have a meaningful impact and I will feel fulfilled.  I shared openly in the circle about the dilemma I face.  I am both interested in and capable of making a meaningful difference in many different areas, yet if I take on work in too many different areas simultaneously I will likely not have a significant impact on any and feel dissatisfied and unfulfilled. 

After sharing and doing some public exploration of this topic, several other participants came up to me letting me know that they too felt challenged by this issue.  They appreciated that I had brought the topic forward.  Understanding that I am not alone in this challenge it seemed appropriate that I share some of my learning and current thinking in this blog, a more public and less ephemeral forum. 

I came into this public exploration with an affirmation or “contract,” stating what I desired to be the truth of my future life and used this as the jumping off point.  I shared:  “I align my actions with my priorities and values, staying present, acting mindfully and engaging fully in collaboration with others.”  and after some public exploration, facilitated by the workshop leader, I arrived at a slightly shifted statement which will serve me as I chart my course forward. 

The key change was a shift from aligning my actions with my priorities and values…., to focusing my actions  …...  This change calls me to narrow the scope of my actions making it more possible to invest more time and mental energy in each.  With a limited scope of action I can have both an understanding of the territory and sufficient awareness of the particular situation to support true engagement.   My experience has been that when my time and mental focus is split among too many things, most of them receive insufficient focus to achieve engagement or to complete meaningful actions.  In such circumstances I have experienced dissatisfaction and frustration, while feeling distant from the projects in such a way that I lost interest, and I have not felt fulfilled. 

It is my intention to focus my actions on few enough things that I will be spending sufficient time on each that they will remain in my awareness and thus allow me to support the making of meaningful progress on each of the projects or areas that I take on, to do or support.

Breaking this down affirmation or “contract”: 

“I focus my actions on my priorities in alignment with my values, staying present, acting mindfully and engaging fully in collaboration with others.”

• “I” I am responsible for what I do.
• “focus”  I focus, making sharp and clear what I am doing helping me to not take on more than I can deliver in an effective and personally fulfilling way.
• “my actions on my priorities in alignment with my values” — I am in action
• “focus my actions on my priorities …. ”  I have priorities which help to guide the selection of actions I take.
• “in alignment with my values” I have core values and the actions I take will be in alignment with these values.
• “staying present” means that I attend to the reality in each situation (which is supported by my meditation practice)
• “acting mindfully” which suggests intentionality, consciousness and awareness about the actions I take including potential unintended consequences.
• “engaging fully” in what I am doing which allows me to be most effective and at times to enter a flow state leading to great work, and the personal intrinsic satisfaction that comes with being in a state of flow. 
• “collaborating with others” suggests both that I am doing things with others as well as that I am in collaboration, actively participating in creative and less creative work that is done. 

I look forward to developing and implementing a plan to make this “contract” or affirmation a reality:  

“I focus my actions on my priorities in alignment with my values, staying present, acting mindfully and engaging fully in collaboration with others.”

Paralyzed

Surprised and imbalanced

Unexpected occurrences
upending my understanding

A new reality

I am called to attend

Attend to reality

In reality I find balance

Balanced I proceed

Mindfully
……… in action.

How much time do we spend on our stuff or because of our stuff, and how does decluttering fit into this picture?

I hate to throw stuff out.  I have a prolific and creative mind for imagining how I might someday have a use for almost any item.  Getting things for free or at a great price has been attractive to me.  I have strong sentimental attachments to items linked to people or experiences, and feel that letting them go would be disrespectful and eliminate cues that help me recall the memories. I appreciate having the perfect tool for a task.   I am an expert at finding ways to store lots of stuff in a small space in a way that things can be found and accessed.  

And, I have reached a point where the space in our modest home has become a constraint on bringing in more stuff.  Along with this constraint I am experiencing a shift in my outlook on life, in particular I am questioning myself:  On what do I choose to spend my limited time?  I now recognize more deeply the reality of having a limited number of years, weeks and hours left to enjoy and to spend on important things in my life.   

In this context I recently committed to a “decluttering” project.  I am spending not less than 3 hours every week reducing the clutter in the physical and digital spaces of my life.   Doing this effort I am becoming more and more conscious of the ways that I have over the years brought stuff into my world and how much time the stuff has and continues to cost me.  I would like to spend less of my time focused on my stuff, yet I have had habits contrary to this desire.  

To get a better understanding of this picture in a time efficient way I asked Google: “How many discretionary hours do we have to spend in our adult lives? and how much of this is related to the “stuff” in our lives, including obtaining stuff, arranging stuff, and deciding what to do with stuff and getting rid of stuff?”  The bottom line of the AI assisted reply I received is that 10-20% of our discretionary time goes to managing “stuff”, including: acquiring, organizing, and decluttering.

Examining these from my own situation and I have identified a few ways that I could reduce the amount of time I spend on stuff.  

1. Consider whether I really need or want something before deciding to get it.
2. Reduce the time spent choosing stuff.
3. Consider time spent returning stuff as time spent on stuff.
4. Reduce the number of places an item may be stored.
5. Always hold the possibility of getting rid of stuff.
6. Use a system for getting rid of stuff that minimizes decision time.
7. Use methods of getting rid of stuff that consider time required. 

I am happy to discuss any of this and to learn from others.

One year after the October 7th Hamas invasion, as measured by the Jewish calendar (22 Tishrei), I found myself in a deep heartfelt political conversation with a Palestinian man from Gaza.   I was out canvassing for Kamala Harris and as I walked away from the last door on my list, having left a piece of campaign literature, the door opened.  I returned down the walk to the door where I was greeted by a man close to my age.  We introduced ourselves and he came out of his home and motioned me to join him at some chairs in his front yard.  We sat down.

He told me that he was from Gaza, and was dismayed that the US was supplying bombs to Israel that are being used to destroy Gaza.  He grew up in Rafah in Gaza.  As a young man he traveled to Israel to work, and during those years worked in many places in Israel.  Eventually he had sufficient success in business that he was able to build a 5 story home in another location in Gaza.  When I met him he owned a home and did business in Philadelphia and was very clear about paying a considerable amount in taxes.  

Israel’s bombing Gaza has destroyed his 5 story home and killed members of his extended family.  There is no property insurance in Gaza.  Lives lost are lost forever.  

I heard from him his perspective that voting for the party in power that has sent the bombs to Israel that destroyed his home is not an action he wants to take.  I thought he was suggesting he would therefore vote for Trump, but as our conversation continued it was clear that he understood that a Trump government would not make decisions better for the Palestinians’ future.  He totally understood this and yet voting for Kamala Harris, part of the Biden government who sent bombs to Israel, may not be something he can do.

In our conversation I shared with him some of my history as a Zionist and living in Israel not far from Gaza, and that I grew up with others as “peaceniks” who truly wanted to live side by side in peace and equality with the Palestinians.  He and I then spoke in Hebrew for a while.  We agreed with each other that there could be space for both Palestinians and Israelis on the land.  We agreed that we would like to see a path followed that would lead to living in peace, our peoples together.   We both wanted the war to stop and for Israelis and the Palestinians to live in peace.  Neither of us were able to articulate how we get onto a path toward peace.

The US election is only a few days away.  The government in the US has power to influence but not to control what happens in Israel.  Many voters in the US are dissatisfied with what the US government has done in its support of Israel, and may because of this choose not to vote for the incumbent Democratic party candidate.  Voting from their heart.  I understand how people may make such a choice. ….. Yet. …..  Might we not end up with a better future by looking at the whole big picture and assessing which result from an election will likely lead to a path in the US and the entire world overall including Israel, that is closer to what we prefer, and voting to advance that path? 

I know I have too much stuff.  I have avoided getting rid of things while priding myself on being able to design and make marvelously efficient storage systems allowing us to store everything that came through the door in our modest home.  I’ve always preferred creative problem solving over making difficult decisions and as such resisted decluttering.  Why make difficult decisions that can be avoided with a new shelf or cabinet?

But…… I knew I needed to change my ways when I brought car loads of stuff into the house after my father passed away.  There was no more space to build more storage space to put the new things into the space along with the old.   Decluttering was finally needed.  

As an engineer and an ergonomist I appreciate and seek to understand systems and how we humans can play our most effective role and limit the errors we might make.  Decluttering includes multiple stages or system elements each with their own challenges and roadblocks that can and often do derail a decluttering project.

I have developed a tool to support the decision process of keeping or letting go of (Release) of a particular item.  As I continue my decluttering process, expect to revise this tool and I may find a need to develop additional tools. (Ideas and input are welcome.)

Below is an outline of high-level aspects of the decluttering process. The tool that I’ve developed applies to element 1a. and is described more below.

Elements:

1. Sort into “Keep” or “Release” (or toss)
   1. (a.) The keep or release decision has garnered a lot of attention in popular culture. Most notably Marie condos decision rule. Keep it if it Sparks Joy.  And this decision is often challenging, especially for those of us who have found ourselves to be prone to accumulating clutter. (See attached tool which I’ve developed to support this decision process.)
2. Disposition
   1. (2.a.) Keep: Display/Active Use or Store
      1. (2.a.1) Dispositioning into display or active use can involve decision making often in collaboration with others.
      2. (2.a.2) Storing requires an understanding of and often Improvement of available storage resources and may involve collaboration with others
   2. (2.b) Release: Trash/Recycle or Pass on
      1. (2.b.1) Get item into the appropriate stream of trash or recycling according to its properties, local resources including time available.
      2. (2.b.2Determine how to best pass on through what business or personal connection and set up the necessary logistics to accomplish

The Decluttering Keep/Release tool has 14 questions followed by a button line Keep / Release choice.  Each of the questions can be answered YES/NO/PARTIAL (or NA) The questions can be answered relatively easily and are mostly subjective.  In the prototype I have put the paper checklist in a steel pizza pan and used magnets to mark the answers.  

After answering as many of the 14 questions as you can or choose to answer, looking at the page and the sheet with all the magnet markers provides an easy way to see all the answers in one glance.  This is helpful and reduces the salience or subjective weight of the first and final questions that without the visual summary might have a greater subjective weight. 

What I present here is version one (v1) of a Decluttering decision making support tool to assist in the all important [KEEP] vs. [GET RID OF] decision.  Attached is a picture of it in use along with a link to a PDF of this version 1 document.   As I (or we) use this tool I expect there will be reasons to improve it V2 soon. 

This is my first “Decluttering” post in what I expect to be a series of posts in which I will explore aspects of my decluttering journey that I judge may be interesting or possibly helpful to others on a similar journey.   If you have thoughts on the matter and/or would like to enter into discussion, please do.  (I am new to the blogging thing and will figure out hoe to work with the comments/discussion.) 

DanGottesman@ergovation.com

Eight weeks ago was my father’s last day of life, and my last day having a parent I could see, touch and who could hear my words.  I have continued onward with my life, which included attending the funeral of another wonderful man I knew.  Without asking I have been given a repeat lesson and reminder of the ephemeral lives we live. 

Yesterday, while taking care of some end-of-life admin tasks such as canceling auto-renewing memberships, I found my way into my dad’s email and Facebook page.  Now, after his death I am seeing more of him than I knew while he was alive.  I was impressed and moved seeing the content he posted, most of which I missed when he shared it, as I rarely took the time to look in on what my dad was sharing online.  I missed a lot.  Friends and family had told me on multiple occasions that they appreciated my dad’s Facebook contributions.   Now that he is gone this at least is one aspect of him I can still see.  (Is it really necessary, for security reasons, to delete his Facebook or can we keep it visible as a memorial?  “….  you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone.”*

I sent a few messages from my dad’s email to myself, resulting in me receiving new messages from my father in my inbox with his google profile picture, there for me to see.  Odd.  I’m glad to see his name and image in my email again, postponing the time that I will never see it again.  Yet, seeing his name in the “from:” column reminds me that although the 67 years of receiving directly from him have come to an end, what I have received from him lives within me, continuing his gifts to me.

10/10/2024