Clearing out clutter

Humans, animals, plants, etc are not the only forms of life on this planet. Apparently inanimate objects live, breathe, and breed. How else could one explain the plethora of “stuff” my husband and I just assembled, packed up, and delivered to the Salvation Army – half of which neither of us recalls ever buying? And what better explanation could be found for the emotional guilt strings these objects pull on us as we sort them into the give-away pile? Their silent screams of “Wait! Keep me! I may be useful some day!” After countless moves in my life – several of them across country – I have become almost deaf to such cries. In fact, I periodically get antsy to play the game my husband has dubbed “What can my wife get rid of now?”

Summer vacation is a fabulous time to not only clear the clutter out of my home, but out of my professional life as well. I have known so many wonderful, professional teachers with overflowing closets, basements, attics, spare rooms, nooks and crannies hidden around their schools, and (now in the age of technology) digital hard drives and cloud accounts, which are filled with all sorts of “gems” of resources. They keep such items to refer back to, inspire, use again, or even “just in case” they need it for that proverbial “someday” which never seems to come. True, there are professionals who do periodically refer to their stored resources. Yet there are many more (myself included) who almost never go back to look at such “wealth.” What value do my resources have if they sit unused?

Perhaps we can blame it on a commercial I once saw for that show “Hoarders” (I cannot bring myself to ever watch the show), but I have a reoccurring nightmare. I am on my way to class, but never make it. Instead I end up suffocating under a sea of useless objects, papers, and digital files floating through the air….

So under a warm sunny sky in July, I find myself recycling, donating, deleting, and even throwing out the useless, unnecessary, never looked at, or not needed. I breathe easier as the clutter clears, and I realize I have made room for collaboration, inspiration, and student driven ideas in the empty spaces left behind.