An Excerpt from
Charging the Human Battery
by Mac Anderson

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday morning. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.” I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It’s too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital,” he continued; “Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I’m getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There’s nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

It was nice to meet you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 year old man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

You might want to check out my Facebook page at

www.facebook.com/thedeclutterqueen

1 * Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue!

2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

3 * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

4 * Drive carefully… It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

5 * If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

6 * If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

8 * Never buy a car you can’t push.

9 * Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.

10 * Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.

11 * Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

19 * Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

20 *Save the earth….. It’s the only planet with chocolate!*

Check out my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheDeclutterQueen 

How does square foot decluttering work?  Just the way it sounds.  After much experimenting, I have found that the method that works best for me is as follows:  Before starting, I bring my boxes marked donate, sell, give away to friends/family, toss, or keep and place them in the room where I’ve decided to start.

I look around a room and select one square foot area that I want to clear out, taking everything out of the space and pile it elsewhere (preferably a flat surface) before sorting through it.  The idea behind this is that trying to sort items one at a time often results in my becoming distracted before I get very much removed from the space.

Next, I decide into which box everything will go before moving away from the pile.  That way, I do not find myself wandering all over the house randomly placing the things I’ve decided to keep in their new homes. 

More often than not, I will clear the space next to the one that is now completely cleared off.  If I don’t go on to clear an adjacent space, I keep the boxes in the room because the next time I have a few minutes, I’ll declutter another square foot right next to the previous one.

When a box is full, that’s when I take whatever actions are necessary either to dispose of all the items in the box, whether that means taking a donation to the nearest thrift shop, taking items for sale to the nearest consignment shop, giving things away, or tossing them. 

The only box that I don’t deal with immediately when it’s full is the one containing items that I want to keep because often the space where I want to put it might not yet be cleared off.  This box can be set aside and another box used for items that I want to keep.

This method works well for me no matter how much time I have.  Try it; you might find it’ll work for you, too.

Margaret “Sam” Sansom, also known as The Declutter Queen

By Sarah Aguirre, About.com Guide

Maybe you have gone through the 4 Container Clutter Method (Toss, Sell, Donate, Keep) and found that almost everything ended up in the “Keep” box. If every piece of clutter in your home seems necessary for your existence, it may be time to ask yourself honestly some questions about the items you can’t get rid of.

1. When did I last use this item?

If you haven’t used it in the last year, chances are you’re not going to any time soon. Allow yourself to purge old items, interest, hobbies, and unfinished projects to allow room for the really important parts of your life.

2. Am I going to need this item on a specific date in the future?

If your best friend just set her wedding date for a couple of months away, it might be wise to keep your mint in the box punch bowl for future use. But if you are keeping a household full of furniture stacked in the garage for when your 5 year old daughter moves out on her own, it may be time to free up some space. If it doesn’t have a definite date of use, the clutter isn’t worth it.

3. Does this item have a legal or tax purpose?

Paper can be our worst clutter enemy and we often use the excuse of the legal and tax purposes associated with a thirty year collection of receipts. Go through your papers and keep only items that are really needed.

4. How hard would it be to replace this item again someday if I needed it?

If items are priceless emotionally or historically, they may not be the best items to toss. Consider how hard it would be to replace the item and get rid of things that are a dime a dozen.

5. In what way is this item making my life more purposeful or better?

If the items are not making you happier, healthier, or better, they are just taking up space and cluttering up your life. Removing these stacks and boxes of stuff will free up your home and your space.

If you use any other questions that work for you besides the ones suggested in the article above, please add them to this blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2DuXxoG8d8&feature=relmfu

I’m thinking that all of us can think of other quick and easy projects that we can do to make our environments clean, organized, and clutter-free, one small step at a time.

Share your great ideas below to help all of us with our organizing efforts.

Step by step by step to a clean, clear, clutter-free existence!

A huge problem for those of us who are experiencing clutter overwhelm is that once we get into an emotional place from which we can’t begin to figure out where to start is that way too often we don’t start at all.

How to Escape from Clutter Overwhelm

First of all, the best way is take one area at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time.  Once we’ve cleared one kitchen counter, then it’s easier to go on to clear another and another; however, if we just keep saying to ourselves “I’ll never be able to get this cleaned up,” that is exactly what will happen.

How can we get started in clearing the clutter out of our homes and become more organized in the process so that we don’t end up in the same situation just a few months down the road?

First of all, pick just one area and concentrate on decluttering it completely and keeping it that way for at least a week before going to another area.  Repeat the process of keeping the next area clear for a week.  After a while, we won’t need quite so much time between tackling new rooms, drawers, closets, desks, or whatever area we choose, partly because we have succeeded so often in the past.

A quick suggestion for an area to begin your decluttering journey is your refrigerator — not the inside, but all the stuff you have posted to the front and sometimes the sides of the fridge.  Take everything off, set aside those things you want to consider putting back on the fridge, file those things you need to keep, and toss the rest.  Select only 5 to 10 items to put back up.  What difference you’ll see and feel in your kitchen!

If you continue using these same steps — remove everything from whatever area you’ve decided to declutter, select those items to keep, toss, donate, give away, or sell; and then replace a limited number of items in that area — you’ll soon have many clutter-free areas and become more free of your sense of being overwhelmed by clutter each succeeding day.