Reducing Clutter

I am on a quest to reduce stuff. My wife would attest that one of my favorite things to do is to take a trunkload of possessions to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. There is nothing more satisfying to me than to find a different home for possessions that we do not use regularly.

This is a problem with most American families I know. We have way too much stuff. Books like Affluenza and Organizing From the Inside Out address this issue. I wrote a chapter on our need to simplify in my own book- Stewardship Mandate.

Being organized and simplifying is a battle that must be fought daily. Clutter like weeds in our yards takes on a life of its own if we are not vigilant to root it out.

I wanted to share a solution for reducing the amount of paper in your home that will take some time to implement. But in the long run, it will make your life a lot easier. And it also protects files from theft- physical and identity- and natural disasters. That solution is to use an online storage facility.

I recently evaluated a host of online storage facilities to safekeep important files and chose http://box.net. I chose them because the site is easy to use and free from advertising clutter. The great benefit of online storage is that once you upload files, pictures and scans, you can access those documents anywhere in the world that you are able to obtain internet access.

I spent thirty minutes talking with one of the technicians at box.net to alleviate any concerns that I had about how this information is safeguarded and protected. As long as you are using this information for your own private use and you protect your username and password, you should never have a problem. These websites are in great competition with each other and the security of information is priority #1.

Box.net and other online storage choices are free if you are uploading smaller documents. If you have needs for larger amounts of storage, the fees are reasonable. I pay $50/year for the amount of storage that I need.

I recommending organizing your documents, pictures and scans into three categories:

1. Essential- birth certificates, tax returns, family contact list, key pictures, passports.
2. Would like to keep- these files should be uploaded to the online storage and then deleted, shredded, thrown out to free up computer or file space.
3. Don't have a use for- throw out.

My personal goal is to spend 15 minutes a day reducing clutter. On every non-business email that I receive, every article I read, every piece of mail, I ask: what are the chances that I will ever reference this again? If it is less than 25%, I throw it away. When in doubt, throw it out.

Being organized is a huge stewardship issue. When you have less stuff, you have more time to devote to things that matter. I have read that close to 45 minutes per day are wasted searching for things that we can't find. I have no way of verifying the truth of that statement. But what if it is true? Wouldn't it be worth investing 45 minutes a day for as long as it takes you to be organized and then using that freed up 45 minutes per day doing something useful?

Ecclesiastes 7:29, "I have found this to be true. God has made men simple. But they have sought out their own complexities."

For His Glory,

Ashley Hodge