ROOM FOR A PONY

Exploring what life could be like if we weren’t buried in clutter, burdened with too many possessions, and surrounded by chaos.

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Inside the Mind of a Packrat

December 14th, 2012 · Packratting, Re-using, The Packrat Mind

 

That thing you see on my finger? It’s a twisty tie, which just turned up in the Miscellaneous drawer. Why had I saved it?

For its beauty.

Obviously.

For one thing, it’s gold. For another, unlike ordinary twisty ties, it’s wide and flat instead of narrow and twisted. As if that were not fantastic enough, it is bordered by a little rounded edge on each side. That’s the part that actually houses the wire. The wire of a twisty-tie is like the spine of a human being. This twisty-tie has a double spine, which is why it holds its shape so impeccably in whichever way I bend it. See how beautifully it spirals around my finger. I found it in the drawer just now in this exact shape – just the way I left it there about six months ago. Unfortunately I can’t remember what product it came off of. If I could, I’d probably go buy more of it.

You may at first think I am a sick woman, and you may be right, but there IS an upside to it. As you might imagine, if I can get this excited about a twisty tie, it can’t be that expensive to make me happy.

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Casting Stones in a Glass House

December 13th, 2012 · Philosophy, The Packrat Mind

As for the rest of us, the ordinary, run-of-the-mill Packrats, we should refrain from pointing and staring at the Hoarders (e.g., watching that show), and recognize that when we do that, we are indulging in one of the lowest forms of human entertainment, namely, seeking out people “worse” than we are, so that by gawking at and mocking others we can obscure our unsightly view of ourselves.

Let us now look bravely inward.

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What if you have the hoarder problem?

December 12th, 2012 · Hoarding, Packratting

If, with the aid of my last post, you have diagnosed yourself as being beyond Packrat and into the realm of Hoarder, I’m afraid I have to tell you that that’s not really the problem I’m addressing in this blog. If you are in the habit of conserving dudu and other things of vile nature, there’s probably a better blog out there for you than this.

My blog might be a good supplement to that, but really, you need more. So sure, do stay and work along with us, but in addition, find someone else — another human, of equally compassionate but more professional nature, to help you with the True Hoarder aspect of your illness.

And, Dear Hoarder, fear not that I think for a single moment that I’m better than you. Neigh, my friend. I recognize, and hereby publicly confess, that I may be as little as two wayward brain cells away from being you. I cling breathlessly to the diaphanous filament of hope that if I’m *Really Good* and continue to purge relentlessly, I’ll be rewarded by all my brain cells remaining firmly in their seats, with their seatbacks bolt upright, their tray tables up, and their seatbelts securely fastened. Till my plane comes to a complete stop at the end of my runway, Amen.

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Hoarder, Packrat, what’s the difference?

December 11th, 2012 · Hoarding, Packratting

Have you ever watched the TV reality show called Hoarder? I haven’t, but I don’t really need to, because I’ve seen hoardiness in person.

During the Broke Era of my life, i.e. my twenties and thirties, I lived for a year in a sort of …. rind of a boarding house … where I shared a single room with only my pet frog, Bert — but wait, that’s a-whole-nother story. You’ll have to read my book for that. This is only my blog.

Getting back to my point, in a similar room across the hall from me lived a hirsute, pungent, and corpulent young male with a hefty repertoire of eccentricities. I didn’t know anything about hoarding until after he’d gone missing — rent-less-ly — for about three months and the building owner hired a friend of mine in search of odd jobs to clean out his room.

My pal reported back what he found: peach pitts…. pizza….. banana peels…. half eaten cans of soup…… tuna…… Chinese takeout seeping through its cardboard boxes. Potato vines holding hostage the building-issue chrome vinyl dinette set…

(This next part is super gross, so if you are squeamish, you might want to stop here.)

Ultimately, but not lastly, he found: dudu. (Yes. Go ahead, say it. It’s phonetic.)

And I don’t mean mouse poop. I mean of human origin. In other words, not left behind by unwitting rodent passersby, or a spiteful cat, but tucked away intentionally. In shoe boxes, in drawers, in flower pots…

To summarize, the difference between a Packrat and a Hoarder is as follows.

Packrat: Potentially Useful Stuff.
Hoarder: True Garbage.

Ew.

 

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Just Say NO to STUFF

December 10th, 2012 · Consumer Issues, Decluttering, Trash Disposal

I used to blame myself for being a packrat, but I’ve noticed that every living person I know has this same clutter problem. A lot of dead people I’ve known have this problem too, and the living people around them aren’t at all happy about it.

Wait. Maybe I shouldn’t blame myself. At least not entirely. Is this being done to us? Kind of. We could easily develop a whole conspiracy theory about how we’re coerced into funneling a never ending deluge of flotsam into our homes.

Or …… we could just — stop allowing it.

In this blog I’ll share my discoveries and strategies and answer advice questions. Soon you will see how everything is connected and how decluttering your life is a political, spiritual, and emotional act.

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Inspirational Tip #1

December 8th, 2012 · Decluttering, Excess of Possessions

If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for whoever’s going to get stuck with cleaning out your place after your untimely demise. It could happen. Very few people make it out of here alive.

 

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The Profound Benefits of Decluttering

December 7th, 2012 · Decluttering

Clutter matters — its presence matters in one way, and its absence matters (just as powerfully, if not more so!) in another way. When I get rid of a bunch of junk and/or put things in order, the shift in my mental state is dramatic! Space opens up, and suddenly, there’s ….. room for a pony!

This is so much more than physical! If you want more space, but also more time, more energy, and a wider perspective — get rid of something cluttery! It’s like magic. Even if it’s one little shelf behind the closed door of your medicine cabinet or some equally obscure place, you will feel it!

And when you feel it, the whole rest of the world feels it too. We can unclutter the world, starting with our own dwellings!

Try it! Try it now.

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Life’s Important Questions about Junk

December 6th, 2012 · Consumer Issues, Decluttering, Excess of Possessions

Nowadays, every item I choose to purge brings up a whole list of complicated questions, such as:

How did this item get into my house, why did I keep it, and what shall I do with it now? After a while, getting rid of stuff becomes a tiresome chore, and you begin to ask even more important questions, like: “Why was this item ever manufactured in the first place?”  “How did I become convinced I needed it?” and “What would I be doing now if I didn’t have to spend all this time getting rid of stuff?”

 

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Back to the Caves?

December 5th, 2012 · Consumer Issues, The Packrat Mind, Trash Disposal

The global garbage problem disturbs me horribly. The whole world is filling up with stuff just like our homes are. I don’t think going back to being cave people is the answer. My hope is that if we start from the microcosm of our own dwellings, word of our efforts, of our refusals to participate, will ripple outward.

Then at some point, the production of unnecessary and/or shoddily constructed items, slated to malfunction long before their expected lifetimes and sold in three or four layers of non-recyclable packaging, will become an act that draws widespread lynch-mob attention to itself. Public outcry will shame such behavior out of existence.

Call me naive, but at least it gives me a direction.

As the late Lotus Weinstock said,

“I once wanted to save the world. Now I just want to leave the room with some dignity.”

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More on Cave Dweller Life

December 4th, 2012 · Consumer Issues, Excess of Possessions, Trash Disposal

In Paleolithic times, the nagging household question was “Honey, where’s my club?” That wasn’t a hard one, when you only had three or four possessions.  Today the question is “Where’s my this, where’s my that!?” and on and on. A different question every time. Drives Honey crazy.

Why can’t we find our stuff? Because, unlike in the Paleolithic days, we have way too much of it. Sometimes when we can’t find the thing we need, we go out and buy another one. Then we have even more stuff.

Such a torrent of items hurls its way into our lives that we have to constantly get rid of stuff just to stake out room for our bodies. So then getting rid of stuff becomes a huge ongoing project that takes up gobs of our time. And you can’t just stick everything outside your front door and have it go its merry way — because it’s not just your home that’s run out of room, it’s the entire globe.

As you might imagine, the Paleolithic people didn’t have these problems. The few items they did need to keep on hand fit nicely into their caves. Consequently, they weren’t faced with the 873 disposal decisions we have to make every day, each one laden with positive or negative consequences for the planet.

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