This Side of 60
Marie Snider
Originally published 09:54 a.m., June 7, 2008
Updated 09:54 a.m., June 7, 2008
Our friends, the Sawins, are at home in two different states — Virginia and Kansas.
They winter in Virginia where they have fun babysitting for their professor son and his wife. But now that it is summer again, Tom and Ruby are back in their home state of Kansas.
And ready to play bridge!
Last Saturday night, we met them on a candlelight walk in our local arboretum, and they told my daughter a saga about one of her books.
In the early 1980s my daughter was the photographer for “Larry Hatteberg’s Kansas People” and “More Larry Hatteberg’s Kansas People.” Both are out of print, but the Sawins had recently received an autographed copy from a woman from Iran.
The story went this way. A Virginia photographer spoke at a college where my daughter was teaching and she gave him an autographed book.
Now the photographer was getting rid of books, and this Iranian woman, who lives in Virginia, thought about Ruby and Tom when she saw it was a Kansas book.
Later, my daughter seemed a little miffed that her photographer friend had gotten rid of her book.
I reminded her that everybody has too much clutter.
After reflecting a minute, she admitted, “If I had one of his books, I would probably have passed it on by now, too.”
In our affluent society, what to toss and what to save is a perennial problem.
Do you save a book just because it is autographed or do you save a shawl you haven’t worn for years just because it was your mother’s?
Or should we admit we just have too much stuff and take the “Clutter Cure.”
In her book by that title, professional organizer Judi Culbertson has a three-step clutter “prescription.”
• IDENTIFY the things that make you happy and support your dreams. And discard everything else.
• ASSESS what the function of each room is and decide the mood and feeling you want to create.
• TAKE ACTION and decide what you want to give away, sell, donate and trash.
“Most changes in attitude begin in the mind and then migrate to the emotions and will,” says Culbertson. Thus the three steps and her many helpful hints.
• Everything has a natural life cycle. The same is true of “stuff.” Take for instance, an ancient typewriter I once bought at a garage sale, just in case our country runs out of electricity!!!
• Buy fewer but better-quality items. Like the good quality lawn chairs I broke my budget to buy 25 years ago. Now, instead of being in the landfill, the chairs are just as good as new.
• Remember 90 percent of what gets filed never gets looked at again. True again! I have five four-drawer file cabinets full of paper which I rarely look at and 20 inches of file folders in my desk, which I reference all the time.
By creating physical and emotional space, you are making room for new experiences, says Culbertson.
So why not get started today with your prescription — identify, assess, take action. Create the organized and beautiful home you desire. And make way for wonderful new experiences at the same time.
Write Marie Snider at thisside60@aol.com or visit her website at www.visit-snider.com