Cleaning up our acts (and our closets), one step at a time

Do you remember when you were trying a new recipe about 20 years ago and it called for one teaspoon of mace? So you went out and bought one of those little tin boxes of mace (McCormick, probably) ... and now, 20 years later, it's still on the shelf. You can't seem to make the decision to throw it away, yet it's too stale to be used. So why are you keeping it?

How many remains of things past and irrelevant haunt you from the shelves and drawers of your home? Every one of us has things that are eternally present and equally useless. We allow them to clutter our shelves and our lives, and often even devote time to moving them about and dusting them off before we put them back in their little places. Why is it so hard to let go? Coco Chanel, the legendary designer, believed that to be happy, one should throw away one thing every day. Now, that may seem extreme, but a modified approach to this idea could break us out of some constricting habits that deserve to be changed.

For example, do you catch yourself rinsing out plastic food containers so you don't have to buy Tupperware-but now you have enough to start your own packaging company? Do you hesitate to give away that never-worn sweater simply because a relative gave it to you years ago? The comic George Carlin does a side-splitting routine about "stuff," and anyone who has seen it can never look at their possessions in quite the same way. We accumulate a lot of stuff as we travel along life's highway. And we tend to be very possessive about it, whether it's that little can of 20-year-old mace or the collection of abandoned lipsticks in unflattering shades rattling around in the bathroom drawer.

Whatever prevents us from making the bold decision to get rid of unnecessary "stuff" (nostalgia? inertia?) is the same force that keeps us from shaking off the past and concentrating on new and interesting experiences. So why not start with one small step? Clean out the spice cabinet—and then move on to the rest of your life.

ELDR Editors' Note: Leda has published a book of essays called, "Look for the Moon in the Morning." To learn more about Leda Sanford, you can visit her website, ledasanford.com.

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posted at 11:15:36 AM