Simplify: Keep What You Are Grateful For

I've written recently about looking around and inside and being thankful for the abundance that surrounds me day in and day out. I've also mentioned how refocusing in this way has had a wholly unexpected side effect in my newfound urge to clean, organize, and simplify. I've had the desire to do these things before, but them actually happening is pretty much unheard of. Them becoming something I actually look forward to borders on ridiculous.

Last night as I pulled out an old toothbrush and some soapy water and commenced to scrubbing the nooks and crannies of my stove, I imagined a question mark floating over my head as I puzzled over what strange phenomenon it was that had me acting so atypically. This morning as I lovingly scrubbed the sink following completion of the third load of dishes in as many hours, I bit my lip and shook my head in confusion. Half an hour ago, as I ground spices for my chai, silently expressing gratitude for their delicious smell and the clean stovetop on which they would soon be boiling, it clicked. When you consciously appreciate something, it is far more difficult to see it languish in an unkempt state. How can I be thankful for my cozy bed, and be okay with it wearing dingy sheets? How can I acknowlege how lucky I am to have my own washer and dryer, only to ignore the thick layer of dust and lint and dried out detergent caked around the rim?

Here's my tip. If you want to get organized and jump on the simplification band wagon, take stock of what you are grateful for. Those are the keepers. My buddy Lindsay, who has a wonderful blog called Little Mudpies, posted this great quote the other day:

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

Hans Hofmann

A quick way to decide if something is necessary is to take a moment to examine how it makes you feel. Are you grateful that bank statement from 1998 is in your filing cabinet? Do you feel grateful for the sample of expensive perfume that sits in your medicine cabinet unused because frankly you can't stand the way it smells?

Ask yourself this question, and if you answer in the negative, let it go! There are other things that you are grateful for, and you can't see them because they are lost in the mix. When we clear out all the unnecessary, we are left with items that we need. That feed our souls. That's why I've been cleaning. I am excavating the beauty out of a forrest of things I have accumulated in a covetous frenzy. I am polishing my diamonds. That piece of shit stove that I never appreciated before? That thing makes our FOOD. Really good, healthy FOOD that feeds my family and makes us GROW. I allowed it to become dull and kind of greasy and gross because I didn't appreciate that.

 Today? It sparkles.