Too Much of a Good Thing?

Do you ever feel surrounded by too many things? Things that duplicate other things? Are the things you have taking over your life?  George Carlin used to joke about stuff, and how we all had stuff and house stuff grew, and we ended up having to rent storage Spaces to save all of our stuff. I find myself more and more in this type of a dilemma.

When I was in the military, I moved a lot, when I retired, I stayed in the same place, going on 27 years now. I know that when I moved every 3 or 4 years, I did not have this problem. When you get ready to move you get rid of the things you don’t need to take with you, and you take the things you do. I imagine we have all had this type of experience at one time or another.

Lately, I’m starting to wonder who’s running the house the things or me. I know the old saying is ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ The problem now is all the other junk in the house is banding together and looking for a place for me. I am not sure what I need to do about this. However, I have a plan.

Every time I see something sitting around that annoys me, I ask a couple of questions. Why do I have this? Where did it come from? Where and how do I use this?  (Where I use it gives me an idea of where it should be.) Do I need to have more than one of these? Do I need more than one?

As I work at this, one item at a time, the great people at Goodwill get some excellent benefits of my trimming down. I used to watch a cooking show by Alton Brown, and he always talked about using multi-use tools in the kitchen. In other words, a tool that would allow you to do more than one particular task with it. I like that idea. Using that idea,  I remove unneeded junk from the house.

If you want to feel better, you need to release some endorphins from the brain. One way of releasing those endorphins is actually completing tasks that you know need to be done. Removing excess things from the house also gives you a better view of where you live and helps you to keep those good feelings. 

Thanks for being with me today, I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society. View all posts by Mike Balof