Clutter

 Here are a few items still on my bucket list -

  1. The Smithsonian
  2. Monticello
  3. Tubing in the snow
  4. Ride in a self driving car

* * *

Imagine you're barefoot and trying to navigate your way through a room with Legos scattered all over the floor. You're halfway to the door when somebody turns off the light.

That's what it feels like for me to be in a cluttered place. It takes me forever to find the salsa in a cluttered fridge, or a particular tee shirt in a full closet, or a certain tool in a full toolbox.

I need less, not more. Less of everything.

My blindness has caused me to want to buy the best of everything once. I don't want six pairs of cheap pliers, I want one pair that will last a lifetime. Searching through dozens of items to find the one I'm looking for doesn't seem like a big deal but when I do it over and over again each day it's draining.

I don't consider myself part of the decluttering movement. I have my opinions against consumerism and capitalism but my choice to live clutter free isn't philosophical or ethical or even aesthetic, it's practical. It's about saving my mental energy to do better things with my time than sort through stuff I don't need.

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