Resulting discussions of my previous “stuff” blog brought out some interesting comments on storage and sentimentality.
No matter if its for office or home – just look at the resulting retail boom of products to store our “stuff”. In every size, shape, color and price point you can find shelving, baskets, boxes and totes! Not large enough? Rent space for your “stuff” at a storage unit!
Ladies, sorry, but we notoriously hold on to way too much “stuff” for reasons of sentimentality – pressed flowers from who?! Baby hair from which kid?! Ticket stubs, playbills, recipes…
I thought we had earned the dubious reputation as the Throw Away Generation! That must only apply to broken toasters…
Such overload should really make us question our materialistic values – more “stuff” doesn’t really mean we’re happier, does it? In a favorite, decades old book, “Gift From the Sea”, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, she writes about the process of physical shedding: how little one can get along with, not how much. She went on to explain how she carried that discipline into all aspects of her life – both at home and at work – and the pleasure and satisfaction she derived from it.
As we switch around a couple of our offices here at BrandBuilder, we’re faced with the task of looking into those drawers of old “stuff” – albeit important “stuff” from a long ago project – but now just out-dated paper work that’s no longer relevant and shouldn’t be taking up space. Sound familiar?!
Businesses are plagued by the mindset that “we better hold on to it for a while, someone might need it someday”. Luckily, we have Ray Justice’s, 4/13/11, ThoughtCompass blog with the following direction:
Do It - Delegate It - Delay It - Dump It
