“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized
life.”
Immanuel Kant
“Successful organizing is based on the recognition that
people get organized because they, too, have a vision.”
Paul Wellstone
“There was a man
And some did think him mad.
The more he cast away
The more he had.”
John Bunyan – Pilgrim’s
Progress
I’ve been organizing my physical
spaces, and therefore I’ve been organizing my life. In the last few days I have thoroughly cleaned my car
including the trunk and the glove compartment. While I am not quite at the level of having a TV show done
about my lack of organization, like Hoarders, I have had some pretty huge messes for many years. Once, my car was so messy that a friend
thought I was homeless. Twice I
was in a car accident, both times totaling my car. When I had to clean out the trunk, it was almost impossible. I’ve cleaned out my trunk before, more
than once. I’ve cleaned out other
areas before, more than once, but they always go back to the way it was, if not
worse. It’s like those verses in
the Bible:
"Now
when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places
seeking rest, and does not find it.
Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it
comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes
along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and
live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That
is the way it will also be with this evil generation."
Matthew 12:43-45
Perhaps things weren’t worse, but they never really got
better. Every physical area of my
life was a cluttered and disorganized mess. Some of it still is, but something has been changing. It is the process of change that
fascinates me.
I’ve had changes in my life that have seemed sudden and
dramatic. Sometimes they were
permanent and sometimes they faded.
I think change is both sudden and gradual. Over the last year-and-a-half, since I began writing my
blogs, I have seen my life change dramatically, but it didn’t happen in one day
or with one blog. It happened over
days, weeks, and months and over the process of writing many blogs. These changes have been personal,
spiritual, professional, and financial.
I am still in the midst of all of them. I have not “arrived,” but I am arriving. I am becoming. As Irwin Kula might say in Yearnings
– Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life,
I am “Roberting.” This process began
when I wrote my first blog, but it didn’t stop there.
With regard to organizing, there were a few things that
happened. First, my Muse was
telling me that I needed to simplify and organize. She would tell me this through others and though my increasing
dissatisfaction with my physical environment. Then one day, I read someone mention simplifying, and
suddenly I wanted fewer things in my life. I started selling things on eBay and
each sale represented not only a small financial victory, but also an emotional
one. I was clearing out my
life. I was getting rid of things
I really didn’t need, or even want.
Sometimes I would lose money on the sale, but it was worth it to have
just a little more space.
I had heard these principles before, but this time I was
ready.
Then I heard T Harv Eker say, “I won’t do business with
anyone who has a messy car.”
That was it.
That was the last piece I needed.
Soon I started working on my car, then my garage. I would devote 30 – 60 minutes a day
cleaning. I found that if I tried
to do it all at once I would get overwhelmed. But I could certainly do a little each day. I also used The Rule of Five,
that is, every time I went to my garage or car, I would get rid of at least
five things. Often it was ten or
twenty or more. It felt
liberating.
There were also a couple of other emotional changes that
were different from other times when I tried to get organized. The first was that at the beginning of
this process I actually visualized what my garage would look like when it was
cleaned and orderly. This
visualization came unbidden and unconsciously. It just appeared.
I could see it. I decided
to apply this consciously then.
I could see my trunk or my glove compartment looking empty and clean –
and I could create it. I’d never
been able to do this before.
One other major change was that I no longer believed the
following:
“I should keep this because I may need it one day.”
I think that belief (Lie? Excuse? Fear?)
has kept me trapped in clutter more than anything else. There may have been something even
deeper. When I was about five
years old, in Scotland, I heard that some people were coming to take away all
our toys. I remember being scared
and wanting to hide in a room somewhere far away, where I could never be found,
with all my toys and never have them taken away. Though I grew older, I don’t think I ever lost that
fear. I found myself hiding away
for years with all kinds of toys.
Only they were no longer toys.
They were comic books, clothes, books, scrap pieces of paper, old check
registers, boxes full of stuff I hadn’t touched in years. I couldn’t throw them away because they
were part of my past; they were part of me. If I gave up any part of my past, I was giving up part of
me. Perhaps I was giving up the
possibility of finding my birth mother.
But everything I had saved wouldn’t save me. In fact, it was preventing me from
growing; it was preventing me from being free and clear. Now I understand I can keep some
things, even a lot of things. But
not everything. In fact, not most
of it. Some of it I can keep in
boxes, or photo albums, or file folders.
Most of it I can recycle, donate, or eliminate.
So now my trunk has been clean and organized for almost a
week. There are very few things in
it and what is in it, I either need, or will take somewhere else. If I had to completely empty my trunk
now, it would take less than a minute.
I am not a “born-again organizer.” I won’t be preaching to everyone how to
get more organized. Although I
think this work is different from past efforts, I am aware that I could
backslide. More demons could
return. So I will remain vigilant
and prayerful. I will take it one
day at a time. I will keep working
on simplifying my spaces and my soul.
I will Get Started and Keep Going.
