The Luxury of Distraction

“Don't own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.” 

― Wendell Berry, Farming: a hand book

                                             This is Vincent Van Gogh - In the Orchard

The following quotes are my husband's take on clearing clutter.

"The thing with clutter is that it collects everywhere and becomes this nebulous overwhelming feeling.  I think it's good to really focus.  If you think abt it, it could have taken years to accumulate all that stuff.  So, why do you have to clean it up all in one day?  Plan a space to clear, and discipline yourself to stay there for however long you decide, and get the job done.  I get a little neurotic when I start working somewhere and I'll have a few things that go into another room and then I go into the other room and I get distracted by what needs to be done there.  That's an inefficient way to do your work.  Choose your job and stick to it. 

"Clearing clutter is like surgical weight-loss.  You could have the surgery and drop the weight, but if you don't change your behavior, you will have the weight back again.  Same goes for all the extra stuff you accumulate and consume.  You may have a January clean out, or spring cleaning, or yard sale, but if you keep adding to the stuff in your house, you will always be overweight when it comes to the clutter around you.

"Genadeo, the gardener, comes back every year as a matter of course.  He goes from one tree to the next.  He knows exactly what his task is, and while he may note the other things in the orchard that need to be tended to, when he comes to prune, he just does the pruning."

So, I gleaned my new favorite mantra from all of my husband's clutter-clearing wisdom and it is this, "Don't allow yourself the luxury of distraction."

Get that?  Whatever your task:  Don't allow yourself the luxury of distraction.