Peace of Mind Organizing

I can see clearly now

5 March 2007

I had my Honda CR-V washed the other day. I know that doesn’t sound remarkable, but it’s a fairly big deal for me. I hate paying to have my car washed and I hate washing it myself. So usually I just don’t worry about it. But we’d had snow and ice in St. Louis, which meant there was a lot of salt on the roads. My dark blue car was looking grey. And since I advertise my business on my car, it seemed prudent to get it washed.

So I paid almost $30 to have my car washed inside and out. I expected to enjoy having a nice clean car. I didn’t expect to have an epiphany.

Until my car was washed, I hadn’t realized that I basically wasn’t able to see the road, except for the area cleared by the wipers, front and back. I didn’t realize how obscured the side mirrors were by the salty film on the windows and mirrors. Once the windows were cleaned, it was as if blinders had been taken off. I could see everything, crystal clear. It was fabulous and freeing. And it made me feel safer.

Then it struck me that this is exactly what freeing one’s life of clutter is like. Clutter builds up gradually without your even noticing. But once the clutter is gone, you realize how much space it had taken up and how it had obscured your vision of your future, past and present.

When my desk is messy, I can only focus on the thing on the top of the pile, the thing I need to focus on at that moment. Even when I clean my desk but leave the periphery of my office cluttered, I’m limiting myself. I focus just on my desk and the work that’s closest at hand and rarely think about the big picture. But when my whole office is clean, that’s when I do my strategic planning, my brainstorming. That’s when I feel free. And when I feel safe.

From now on when I drag my feet about cleaning up my office I’ll think about the contrast between driving my car behind a filthy windshield and driving a sparkling clean one. Decluttering my office, or my house, or any other space helps me take the blinders off and see what I need to see. It helps me accomplish the bigger, more important things in my life, not just the urgent ones.

Tagged with: big picture, car, clutter, focus

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