Today I worked with clients that work at a library. I was hired to help them sort out their office space. They were glad to see me. One lady said, "We'd normally be able to do this ourselves, but we don't have the time to do it. It's hard to take the time to do it." I think that's how it is for most people. We're pretty busy. It seems like we'd get behind if we took the time to clutter bust our stuff. But it can also be an excuse to avoid the clutter busting. I pretty much expect resistance. Sometimes I feel that myself when I'm doing clutter busting at home. It can seem overwhelming and a burden. But I know everything gets so much easier once the clutter busting begins and the relief comes from the clutter being tossed.
There was a lot of stuff piled up on work space tables. I thought this was a good place to start because there were no open spaces for them to work. Some things just needed to be returned to their places in the supply closets. But a lot of it was unnecessary. It was funny because at first they felt tentative in admitting it. One of them said, "We don't need this, but what if we need it one day?" I said, "You answered it with the first thing you said, the second part isn't necessary. The presence of all these things you don't need gets in the way of what's important now." Once they got used to the idea that it was okay to let go of things that weren't serving them, they started tossing with abandon. I had to keep finding them empty trash cans because they were filling them up so fast. They even started joking about it. One person who was going through files said, "These papers are from 1997. They haven't been used since then. Hmmm, I wonder if we'll need them?"