It’s been terribly hot here in Texas this week, but I’m a lifelong Texan, and I know this happens every year.
It’s too hot in my minimally air-conditioned house for any heavy lifting or major decluttering — and I didn’t have much time anyway.
We were out every day this week except today (Saturday) buying books for my bookselling business and also taking care of my mother’s apartment. That left very little time for anything else.
I’m behind in acquiring inventory for my business, but I can’t maintain this pace for many more weeks. Still, sales are up, so the extra work is having the desired effect. If I can get caught up, the business can fade back into the background of my life — where I like it to be. It has been taking up too much time in recent weeks.
With my mother away for the week, running her small business was up to me. It took an hour about four times this week, but it wasn’t hard work. (And the next time I’m feeling frustrated by my slow Internet connection, I’ll remember how much slower hers is.)
I found time to do a little cleaning and maintenance on the third of our three air conditioners, too. After repairing two of them last week, I thought the third deserved at least a filter cleaning and a general once-over with the vacuum cleaner. It’s working better than ever, and the two that I repaired last week are doing just fine, too.
I’m working toward a life with very little clutter — that means very few items cluttering my house and very few activities and situations cluttering my life. This week, working for my business was more clutter than enjoyment, but the work needed to be done since no significant money is coming soon from my other streams of income. Multiple streams of income are the only way to be successful as an entrepreneur, and some of mine that have dried up haven’t been replaced.
Before this 52-week decluttering and simplying project ends, there’s a lot more junk that needs to leave my house. But there’s plenty of decluttering to be done in other areas of my life, too, and I’m finally starting to address them.
It will be hot next week, too, and I still have some inventory building to do, so I expect next week to look a lot like this one. Maybe — just maybe — I can find some approaches that will make future weeks seem less cluttered.
Gip Plaster is a web content writer. Previously a journalist, online bookseller and even a corporate advertising guy, Gip now specialize in writing high-quality content for websites — his and other people’s. Learn more here.
Life has a tendency to be cluttered and this affects our other lives as well. The more physical clutter, the less mental discipline and the more spiritual interference. Clutter seems to attract chaos and that in turn produces an imbalance.
I guess the key is to ensure that your surroundings are as clutter free as possible. It is amazing to see what a difference it makes when you remove the junk out of your physical realm. Your mental outlook improves and a feeling of lightness prevails. It gives you room to see the forest instead of the trees.