Clutter Clearing & Getting Organized Does your workplace look something like this???
-by Rtn. Vatsal Shah Rotary Club of Ahmedabad Metro
People tend to hoard various things:
Clothes Footwear Furniture Magazines Containers Appliances Electronics Newspaper cuttings Sentimental Memorabilia Brochures Souvenirs
Aparigraha: Non-possessiveness
In Hinduism and Jainism, aparigraha (Sanskrit: अपररिग्रह) is the virtue of non-possessiveness, non-grasping or non-greediness. Aparigrah is the opposite of parigrah, and refers to keeping the desire for possessions to what is necessary or important, depending on one's life stage and context.
When
you hold on to things you do not use… you deprive someone else of using it. It also wastes the natural resources available to us and is ultimately bad for ecological balance.
Do We Own Stuff? Or Does Stuff Own Us?
Clutter in Office “A cluttered office means a cluttered mind”
If you don’t clear your clutter, you pass it on to someone else… Things that need De-Cluttering in an Office:
Books Magazines Flyers/ Brochures Business Cards Letters Emails/ Inbox WhatsApp Chats CDs/ Tapes E-Waste: Chargers, pendrives, headphones, old mobiles, computer hardware…
Books:
If you haven’t read it in the last 5 to 7 years, you never will… E-books available now… almost any title you name it is on Kindle, or Free E-books on the net. Many people say they prefer physical copy than reading it on screen. But I guess that is a matter of getting used to the new medium. Donate all those extra books to the local library, municipal schools, village schools or give away to friends/ retirees who will cherish reading them.
Magazines:
Magazines older than 1 year are practically useless. If you still want to read some articles, you can pull out and file them… but again this will someday have to be de-cluttered again. Have to be read and disposed periodically or unsubscribe them.
Brochures/Catalogues/ Flyers/ Samples
With the current rapid changes in technology and new things coming in… Products may have been discontinued/ changed. So check and discard all old ones.
Virtual Clutter: Email Inbox Mobile messages/ WhatsApp
Mostly we never delete till our inboxes are full and we get a warning of lack of space. Spam and junk mail from clubs, banks, promotional offers from amazon/ flipcart, newsletters, festival greetings… long list. Or our mobiles start hanging because of overload. In Email, you can make different folders and move messages from Inbox after sorting. Unsubscribe from useless newsletters. “Empty Folder” for Junk messages. “Sweep Delete” tab to delete all messages from a particular sender.
Delete Media from phone
WhatApp too you can ‘star’ messages you need and delete entire conversations without reading and there is an option of deleting media from phone as you delete the conversation. With videos and images gone it will free up a lot of space.
E-Waste
Old mobile phones Broken Chargers Computer hardware Headphones Pendrives, CDs, DVDs
Dispose Responsibly: Do not ‘TRASH’ it. Give it in exchange when you buy a new one. Institutions like CEE collect E-waste and recycle it. So does stores like CROMA.
Make Room For Good Things to Enter Your Life… Haiku: "Autumn realizes, How beautiful and lovely, At times to 'let go'."