QUOTE: TOSS, RESTORE, ORGANIZE. Household disorder was a constant drain on my energy; the minute I walked through the apartment door, I felt as if I needed to start putting clothes in the hamper and gathering loose toys. I wasn’t alone in my fight against clutter. In a sign that people are finding their possessions truly unmanageable, the number of storage units nationwide practically doubled in one decade. One study suggested that eliminating clutter would cut down the amount of housework in the average home by 40 percent. To use the first month of my happiness project to tackle clutter seemed a bit small-minded, as if my highest priority in life were to rearrange my sock drawer. But I craved an existence of order and serenity—which, translated into real life, meant a household with coats hung in the closet and spare rolls of paper towels. I was also weighed down by the invisible, but even more enervating, psychic clutter of loose ends. I had a long list of neglected tasks that made me feel weary and guilty whenever I thought of them. I needed to clear away the detritus in my mind.
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NOTE
DISCERNMENT QUESTIONS
What gets your attention?
What human needs or problems relate to the quote?
What is it like to have that problem?
What other resources connect to this idea?
What is the solution suggested in the quote, if there is one?
What would a camera see if the solution was implemented in my life, in my family’s life, or in my church or community?
What are the steps that I would take on Monday to implement that solution?
CONTEXTUALIZING QUESTIONS
What does this say to my context as a …
… person?
… follower of Jesus?
… to a church?
… to a community – my neighbors?
RESOURCES
The quote is from The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin, located at page
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