Og Mandino On Clutter

Though it's rather late this Sunday afternoon to be posting a Quote for the Week, I have the perfect one. It's in keeping with what I spent from most of this afternoon doing: clearing out clutter.

American Essayist and Psychologist Og Mandino said: "Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along."

Though he's speaking about the trivial we all seem to pursue too much of the time, it also applies to the physical kind of clutter I've been sorting through this afternoon. Next weekend we're moving furniture from storage into the house we bought at the golf resort. Unfortunately, to get to the furniture, we have to unload dozens of packed boxes. We made a start today.

I realized that all those boxes of things suck the life out of me. I felt so overwhelmed and depressed when I surveyed them. It's going to take a lot of time to go through what we've inherited from family members who passed, things we saved because we might need them some day, and other sentimental odds and ends, but I'm determined to clear away the clutter. It sucks the life out of me and takes precious energy, not to mention a chunk of money each month in storage rent, to deal with all this. Storing it all is just procrastination.

I want to take what Mr. Mandino said to heart. I don't want to clutter my world with "stuff" any more than I want to clutter my life with trivial matters. I want the energy to tackle real challenges as well as the energy to have more fun.

Takeaway Truth

I'll heed Thoreau, and simplify. Simplify!