I recently just went through a move and learned a few things that I thought I would share.
Prior to the move, I thought I had a great plan. I ruthlessly got rid of stuff. In the past six months, I probably downsized my physical posessions by about half. Ebay and Craigslist became my best friends as I reduced the clutter and things that I didn’t want to move.
The end result is that I’ve been at the new place for 6 weeks and still have hundreds of unpacked boxes. I unpacked the stuff that I use every day and left the rest in the attic. Now that I’ve gone through all the trouble of packing things, I realize that I don’t have the need or gumption to unpack it. Now I know what I REALLY need, and it’s quite a bit less than I ever thought possible. It is going to be much easier to go through the rest and get rid of tons more stuff.
So a few lessons here.
- Even thought I thought I was being ruthless in my pre cleaning, I wasn’t nearly ruthless enough.
- The thought of getting rid of more stuff, actually makes me happy. Decluttering my life is a wonderful prospect.
- Having less stuff in the way allows me to get more done.
- If I had an outside opinion, I would probably have been more strategic about what I kept.
So how can this apply to you and your current situation? You don’t have to be facing a move to clean up. Consider your digital pictures. Do you have 10,000 old digital photographs? Why not take the top 10% and save to a separate album and archive the rest. I bet the archive will never be needed or looked at again, and the 10% will be looked at more often. What if, while you were doing this review of photos, you had the help from a neutral friend who told you which pictures were worth keeping? I bet you would end up with a more concise group of pictures. Why do you think many directors hire editors? It’s hard to get rid of footage that may have an attachment.
I guess I’m trying to make the case that it’s good to have help. I think many organizations are hesitatant to solicit an outside opinion either out of fear of knowing the truth, or the perception that paying for an opinion is not worth it. I believe that peace of mind is priceless, and often profitable 🙂
What about you, any thoughts or opinions? I’m sure there are many analogies that are worth hearing about. Please post a comment!
