I’m not a very tidy person by nature, so I don’t manage my work room in a particularly systematic way. But on the whole I only keep documents that are essential, so I can always find what I’m looking for quite quickly. Knowing roughly where they are is generally enough.
Before finishing this section, I’ll suggest one way in which storage and organization methods can be useful. Let me quote a proponent of the simple life:
I have read books and magazines about organization techniques and storage methods. I tried a special storage method that said it would enable me to declutter without throwing anything away. But I found that I was just moving piles of stuff around and only making it look slightly better… So I made up my mind to get rid of everything that was unnecessary… I decided on this basis that 80 percent of the stuff in and on my desk should go… Throwing things away is tougher than you’d imagine. Sometimes it makes you feel guilty. But you just have to think carefully, face those feelings, and carry on. That way you’ll end up with only the things that are really necessary for you and your family. And because of the pain you’ve experienced discarding things you’ll begin to hesitate before buying new things too readily. I think you’ll also begin to appreciate the feeling of taking care of things that are really necessary.
Eriko Yamazaki, An Economical Life
That is the message of someone who really thinks about her relationship with the things she owns. If borrowed storage methods have any use, it’s simply to show us that they don’t lead to a tidier house.
A final thought: we often come across methodologies that promote “simple life” ideas from Britain and elsewhere. Yamazaki, for example, is basing her lifestyle on a German model. Her experience prompts us to think about how we relate to things. But I think it is best not to suppose we can easily introduce a different lifestyle from a foreign country. The fact that the expenditure-centerd lifestyle of the United States doesn’t work in Japan doesn’t mean that we should look to another country for a model.
8
“MAYBE THIS COULD GO…”
This underlies each of the seven attitudes described so far. Whenever something catches your attention, whenever you start thinking about what it is or why it’s there, always ask yourself whether you might discard it.
Danger items
Anything you see. Anything you pick up. Especially things that you normally wouldn’t think were very important.
When does it happen?
It’s a very simple idea. Look at everything from the point of view of getting rid of it. The following situations show the behavior of people who don’t have a discarding mentality.
SITUATION 1: SEEING AN ENVELOPE ON THE TABLE
I wonder what this is. It’s open… The telephone bill breakdown. The bill was bigger than I expected this month. Perhaps we should switch to a cheaper company like Tokyo Telephone. What’s all this other paper in the envelope? Telechoice? ISDN? Guide to NTT Services? Perhaps the wife wants to have a look. It’s been left here, so I won’t move it.
SITUATION 2: A PILE OF NEW YEAR CARDS TUMBLES OUT OF THE LETTER RACK
They’re all from last year. They’ve just been left here. Mm… a lot of these people I haven’t seen for ten years at least. Oh dear, all these pictures of people’s children. That’s not going to cheer me up. Well, that was a waste of time. I’ll put them back in the rack.
SITUATION 3: TAKING A GLASS FROM THE SHELF
Which glass to choose? I’m never sure, but I suppose this is the best for beer. Oh dear, I nearly knocked over the one next to it. I got that as a giveaway. It’s got the name of the beer company on it, so I don’t really like to use that. Still, I’ll keep it just in case.
SITUATION 4: WORKING ON THE COMPUTER
It’s good having the Internet. I don’t have to go all the way to Kasumigaseki to see official statistics. I just print them out. For some reason it’s much easier to look at figures on paper than on the screen—at least if you want to study them carefully. Good. That’s that. I’ll file the printout. I may want to use the data sometime. It would be a pain to have to look it up again.
SITUATION 5: STEPPING OVER A MAGAZINE ON THE FLOOR
Why’s that in the way? I nearly trod on it last night too. Who put it there? Well, I’m the only one here so it must have been me. Last week’s Weekly Asahi? Have I read it properly? I’ll put it on the table.
Why we don’t think of getting rid of things
Changing a situation requires energy. The easiest course of action is to do nothing.
If you see something, and it’s what you’re looking for, you’ll pick it up and use it. You probably won’t notice anything you’re not looking for, unless there’s a particular reason.
You’ll notice some things just because they’re in the wrong place—toilet paper in the living room, pajamas on a dining chair, your travel pass on the washing machine. Whether you actually put them back in their proper places depends on how tidy you are. But there are other things you’ll notice because they look bad, redundant, or in the way. These may be good candidates for disposal.
It’s the same with things you pick up. Some will belong in a specific place, so you may just want to put them back there. That’s fine. But if you stop and wonder for a moment what to do with something, then it’s very likely that you could discard it.
All of the things that feature in the situations described above could be discarded—the telephone bill details, the New Year cards, the beer glass, the data printout, the magazine. If they were obviously trash, they would have been discarded straight away. But because they appear to have some value you forget that getting rid of them is an option.
Think like this!
The moment you notice something is the moment to get rid of it. If you don’t, it may stay there for a long time.
This makes me reflect on just how good a custom the Japanese people have in the end-of-year clean-up. I’m not sure how it was in the past, but these days it’s a major event—an occasion for getting rid of things that have built up over the year. Families clean everything inside and outside the house and throw away what they don’t want. The clean-up makes us notice things and consider whether they can be discarded. The piles of garbage in the streets at New Year clearly mean that thinking “maybe this could go” is far from extreme.
9
DON’T WORRY THAT YOU’LL GET RID OF SOMETHING YOU SHOULDN’T
You may worry that you’ll throw away something only to regret it later, and this might stop you in your tracks. But would you really regret it?
Danger items
There’s an overlap here with things that are thought “sacred”—documents, mementos, books, etc.—but it happens with other things as well.
When does it happen?
Regret is probably the biggest fear for people who can’t get rid of things. Let’s think about situations where this fear is at work.
SITUATION 1: AT YOUR DESK
That’s strange. It’s not here. When did I do that job? Last year? But it’s not in last year’s folder. Those documents would help with this next project. What happened? Oh, I’m beginning to remember. Yes. When I finished the job I thought I wouldn’t use the documents again, so I threw them away. What a waste… I should never have got rid of them!
SITUATION 2: LOOKING THROUGH YOUR ADDRESS BOOK
Her address is still down as Osaka, but I’m sure she’s moved to Kyushu. I remember throwing her letter away in last year’s end-of-year clean-up. I thought I’d written her new address down. I got a New Year card from her, but I must have thrown that away too. How stupid! I can’t contact her now.
SITUATION 3: TALKING WITH YOUR SON
What? You’re planning to build something that complicated at school? Well, you’ve always been good at making things. Your teacher in Year 5 said she was very impressed. Your Godzilla was great. I remember that. What? You want to see it again? I wonder if we’ve got it. I’ll ask your mom. Oh. We threw everything away when we moved. I�
�m sorry. We shouldn’t have done…
SITUATION 4: AFTER TALKING WITH YOUR FRIEND
Gone out of print? I didn’t know that. I should never have sold my copy. I didn’t think I’d read it, though, and he told me to sell any books that I didn’t want. I only got about a hundred yen for it. I might have got a thousand for it now. Well, I don’t want to be money-grabbing, but… Anyway, it’s worth keeping a book that’s out of print. I shouldn’t always do what people say.
SITUATION 5: AFTER TALKING WITH YOUR BOSS
Oh, how stupid! I didn’t think there was any point in keeping that receipt from last week. He told me at the time that I probably wouldn’t get it back on expenses, so I thought I’d have to cover it myself. Now he says there’s an expense surplus, so I can submit the receipt, after all. I had a feeling it might be a mistake when I threw it away. It’s so irritating!
SITUATION 6: ON A COLD WINTER’S DAY
It’s been really cold today—as bad as Hokkaido. The ice didn’t even melt in the city center. What about tomorrow? What? Even colder? They must be joking! I hate the cold. Where’s that down jacket I had when I was a student? I thought I might wear it one day, so I put it away somewhere. “Hey! Where’s that old winter jacket I used to have?” “I threw it away ages ago, dear. I checked with you first—asked if it was OK to get rid of it.” Oh, I remember now. I thought it was a mistake when she threw it away. I said I might want to wear it sometime and she said “sometime” never comes. Well, it’s come now, hasn’t it?
The “regret” mentality
If you throw away something important and irreplaceable, then, yes, there’s a problem. So what sort of thing might this be? Can you think of anything straight away? A wedding ring, for example. Or something left to you by your father, which you intended to look after for the rest of your life. Or maybe a calendar packed with engagements. Or your wallet. What about documents? According to Yukio Noguchi:
Documents and memos… can still be important, even if they are old and torn. Discarding important documents by mistake can cause extremely serious problems.
Yukio Noguchi, Super-Organization 3
Is that true? I suppose it would be, if you really couldn’t obtain another copy. And while a problem would arise if they were lost or stolen, they’re certainly not the type of thing I’m suggesting might be deliberately discarded.
So what of things that we might consider discarding? Would we really regret getting rid of them? Let’s look at the situations described above.
In Situation 1 some documents have been assembled and then thrown away. To get the same documents together again would involve repeating the original groundwork. And there’s no guarantee that the data would all still be available. So it feels as though throwing the documents away was a mistake. But, in fact, old documents are seldom of any use. For people like me who use data a great deal in their work, documents that are even a few months old rarely have any application. This is because they are put together from the perspective of work being done at a particular time. The truth is that any documents that are really important would be ones that come to mind straight away. It’s unlikely that there might be something useful in a pile of documents you have no clear recollection of.
The address book problem in Situation 2 is straightforward. You’re bound to have a friend in common—you can ask them for contact details. Or you could ask the company she works for. It’s just a matter of effort.
Situation 3, the child’s model, relates to the loss of something that is valued for its associated memories. It’s a question of “sacredness,” which I’ve already covered in Attitude 5. It’s a shame, but if you took it too seriously you’d have to keep absolutely everything. Would you really want that? Parents have been criticized recently for taking videos of the whole of their children’s school sports days or school shows. If they record it all, what are they left with? Is a memory no more than a recording?
The person in Situation 4 (the out-of-print book) may regret what she’s done. But if you’re not going to read a book and it’s not that valuable, then I think getting rid of it is the right thing to do. And the person in Situation 5 is bound to regret the possible financial implications of getting rid of the receipt. But it’s not the end of the world.
In Situation 6, it’s a shame that the man wants to wear a jacket that has been thrown away, but he didn’t object when his wife suggested discarding it. And he might never want to use it again. The question is simply whether it would have been worth the jacket taking up space in his closet for this one occasion.
Think like this!
If something seems a candidate for disposal, you’re very rarely going to have a real problem if you go ahead and get rid of it. If it was going to cause a problem, you wouldn’t even be considering getting rid of it. Think of examples from your own experience.
And don’t worry too much about regretting what you do. Of course, there is a degree of uncertainty when making any kind of decision. But once you go ahead and start getting rid of stuff, I think you’ll be surprised how little you regret.
10
DON’T AIM FOR PERFECTION
My final point is to take things easy. Over the previous nine points I’ve presented a kind of ideal. If you follow everything I’ve said, then you’ll certainly be able to get rid of stuff. But even I can’t claim to stick to all this advice all the time. Just take the points that feel right to you and implement them as far as seems reasonable.
Danger items
Anything that you find yourself worrying about regularly may find you suddenly wanting unrealistic changes.
When does it happen?
When you suddenly get enthusiastic about a new idea, or about making a change—it’s easy to try to do too much too quickly.
SITUATION 1: READING ABOUT MANAGING A STUDY
Perfect—an ideal study! So functional. A real man’s room. If only I had a room like that. I could enjoy being at home then. But with a house this size it’s not possible. But why do the children have their own rooms while my study is just this little corner of our bedroom? Study management’s not going to sort this place out. It’s just piles of documents and books around a desk. If only the house was bigger… Ah well… This is all I’ve got.
SITUATION 2: A MOTHER VISITS HER DAUGHTER
Oh dear! Why are you so badly organized? Your sister’s so neat and tidy. And people say I’m good at storing things too. In fact, none of my relatives is like you at all. Every time I come here, I find things all over the floor. Necessary? All of them? Well shouldn’t you tidy them up a bit, then? Don’t be cross! OK. I won’t touch them. I certainly don’t want to be blamed again if you lose something. OK, OK, I’m going. I do apologize, your ladyship. I was getting above myself.
SITUATION 3: ABOUT TO GO HOME FROM WORK
That office we went to today was so spacious. Everybody had a large desk and their own computer. It was like something in a TV drama. With desks that size, people can put all their documents away, so the place is bound to look neat. But here? Just one file cabinet between two. Aargh! The pile of documents from the next-door desk has collapsed onto mine. He’s so messy. But I shouldn’t criticize others. I’m surrounded by great walls of documents myself. I can only just manage to find space enough to do my work. If only they’d give us bigger desks… There’s no point even trying to be organized with these.
SITUATION 4: LOOKING AT THE TABLEWARE SHELVES
Full of stuff we don’t use… I think I’d better sort things out a bit. “The moment you notice something unnecessary, get rid of it.” Mm… OK. I’m going to get this done now… Mm… I’ve only got one of these plates left. It’s a shame—I always tried to look after them. But there’s no point keeping this one now. What about this bowl? We used it a lot for snacks with beer—put a bit of fish in there, it looks very nice. But he doesn’t drink much these days, so we don’t really use it now. I think I’ll throw it. Oh dear… I’ve been at it for two hours already and I’ve onl
y managed one side of the cupboard. I’ve had enough. I’m exhausted. I’ll do the rest another time. Getting rid of stuff takes such a lot of energy.
The “perfection” mentality
When I was talking about storage and organization methods, I mentioned the danger of “borrowing” other people’s approaches. Everybody lives in a way that’s easy for them. Without being conscious of it, we always choose the method that’s gives us least trouble. We may feel that other people’s values make sense, but it’s not going to be easy to do exactly as they suggest—and if we try too hard, we’re almost bound to fail.
In Situation 2, the daughter is discarding things in her own way, but the things she regards as necessary seem to be in a jumble. The mother doesn’t like this lack of order. She wants her daughter to organize her house in a way that she regards as “proper.” The daughter agrees that things should be done properly. But for her, disorder is natural. As far as actually getting rid of things that aren’t necessary is concerned, she’s doing as her mother says. But the mother is after “perfection.” So the daughter gets cross and they have an argument.
The Art of Discarding Page 6
