The Art of Discarding

by Nagisa Tatsumi

  As for Situation 1, anybody who is capable of keeping a study space neat should have managed it long ago in the corner available. This man’s failure is not because of limited space. It’s simply a question of not doing it.

  It’s the same with the person in Situation 3 and the piles of documents around the desk. Rather than hanker after the big desks she has seen in the other office, she should get on and halve the number of documents she has. But in my experience, if the difference between reality and your idea of “perfection” is too great, you may lose the will to be tidy, and just allow things to accumulate.

  The tidying of the tableware shelves in Situation 4 wouldn’t be so bad if it was a regular day-to-day process. You open the cupboard every day, so whenever you notice something unnecessary just get rid of it. If you try to make everything “perfect” in one go, it will tire you out.

  Think like this!

  The daughter who is happy with disorder cannot be the mother who wants order. Someone whose work space is the corner of a room will never be the master of a huge study…

  To think about what to get rid of and how you relate to the things you possess—this, as I‘ve said, is to really think about how you live your life.

  Lifestyles have to allow people to be themselves. There’s no point trying to do the impossible. What can’t be done quite simply can’t be done. Someone on an unrealistic diet will end up relapsing and wiping out any effect the diet has had. A weight regime has to suit you: give up sweet drinks, but keep on eating chocolate; don’t limit your eating, but always walk to the station. In other words, don’t aim for perfection. A regime that fits you may take a bit of time, but it’s more likely to work.

  Think of this as your “stuff” diet.

  PART TWO

  Time to get rid of it

  Ten strategies for discarding

  1

  DON’T LOOK—THROW!

  Don’t think: I’ll have another look through and sort it out first. Get rid of it now.

  What sort of things?

  • Junk mail/flyers/ads

  • Pamphlets/catalogues

  • Files/documents that have been stored away for a long time

  • Books/magazines

  • Letters and cards

  • DVDs

  • Clothes/household items you’ve been keeping in cardboard boxes, etc.

  Strategy variations

  1: DISCARD AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE IT

  • Junk mail/flyers/ads

  Get rid of them straight away—when you open your mailbox or when you find them inside your newspaper.

  There’s always a temptation to think that even obviously useless ads may contain some information. Don’t look. Just throw them. Only keep ads that may be genuinely useful, such as information on a supermarket’s discounts or a department store’s mailing to account holders. Everything else should go.

  • Pamphlets/catalogues

  If you’ve acquired them on purpose, that’s fine. But if you’ve been given them at a shop or they’ve been put through your mailbox, they should go immediately.

  If they look smart, you may feel like looking at them. Don’t. You didn’t want them in the first place, so just throw them away. There may well have been something attractive in them, but don’t be drawn in—think yourself lucky not to have been tempted into buying something unnecessary.

  2: DISCARD AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME (SEE ALSO STRATEGY 4 HERE)

  • Files/documents that have been stored away for a long time

  Are these really necessary? Don’t start wondering if there was something important in them—just throw them away without looking. The reason they haven’t been touched is because there’s nothing useful in them.

  • Books/magazines

  You bought them, read a little, then put them to one side. You may have thought you’d carry on reading them, but the fact that you haven’t means they didn’t interest you.

  Don’t look upon a row of unread books as “sacred.” Pick them up and throw them out. Don’t even look at them. If you see a magazine lying around, don’t think, Oh I might have another look through that. Just get rid of it. You may think you’ll read it sometime, but you won’t.

  • Letters and cards

  People have put effort into writing letters and cards, so recipients often regard them as “sacred.” And a lot of people enjoy reading old letters because they bring back memories. This makes them difficult to dispose of.

  But if you don’t have a strong reason to keep a letter—if the associated memories aren’t very important—don’t feel you should hang on to it. Don’t let yourself be put off throwing them away because they come from somebody important to you or because you might not have taken down an address. If you hesitate, the pile of letters will just build up forever. You don’t have to keep a hundred postcards just because one of them may include a telephone number that you haven’t written down.

  Don’t leave them in a box or in a letter rack, just chuck them all out. You’re very unlikely to regret it.

  • Clothes/household items you’ve been keeping in cardboard boxes, etc.

  Perhaps you put stuff in a box when you moved house and it’s been in there for three years now. Maybe you put some clothes in a storage bin ten years ago, thinking you might wear them again sometime. Items like this are obviously unnecessary. The container you put them into has become like a “black box”—you have no idea what’s in it. Don’t examine the contents—just throw them all away.

  Why this strategy works

  The key is simply in not looking.

  It’s natural to want to check whether something might be necessary before getting rid of it. But this takes a lot of time, and in the meantime other things are piling up. It’s a task that requires application and energy—deciding whether things should be thrown out is tedious and tiring.

  So for the kinds of thing I’ve mentioned above, don’t bother. Just get rid of them. Then it’s all over in a second. Things that were getting in the way are gone. It feels good.

  2

  CHUCK IT THERE AND THEN

  Don’t give your junk a stay of execution. Don’t say “someday,” “temporarily,” “for the time being,” or any of that. You’ve got it in your hand—get rid of it now.

  If the stuff is in a box or some other kind of container, open the container up first. If you don’t open it, you can’t really decide straight away. And leaving it as it is in the box is the most dangerous thing to do—it will be there forever.

  What sort of things?

  • Junk mail

  • Bills/statements

  • Giveaways (novelties, calendars, etc.)

  • Photographs (prints and negatives)

  • Chopsticks, spoons, forks, and sachets from takeout, meals

  • Souvenirs, presents, seasonal gifts, etc.

  • Damaged plates, pens that don’t write well, blunt screwdrivers, etc.

  • Electrical appliances, furniture, pans, tools, etc., that you have bought replacements for

  • Packaging

  • Store receipts

  • Work papers

  • Magazines

  • Leftovers

  • Food past, or very close to, its use-by date

  • Items in the fridge

  Strategy variations

  1: OPEN AND DISCARD

  • Junk mail

  If it’s your favorite brand or department store, you’ll probably want to take a look. You open it up. You like what you see. You think, Wow! I wish I had that! You decide to keep the envelope for the time being…

  Stop! Throw it away there and then. It’s nice to dream. But the fact is you’re not going to buy the product.

  So just open the envelope, have a quick look and unless you see some really essential information inside, throw it away immediately without a moment’s reflection.

  • Bills/statements

  When you get bills for the telephone or a credit card, the envelopes always
contain other bits of paper, advertising this or that. Open the envelope, take out what is actually necessary and throw the rest away immediately. Check through the breakdown of payments or calls then and there. Don’t put it back in the envelope—if you do, you’ll just end up going through the same process again later.

  If you’re worried about security, rip the paper up into small pieces and divide them between different trash bins, or use a shredder.

  • Giveaways (novelties, calendars, etc.)

  It feels good to get something for nothing. If you really like it, then hold on to it. But if it’s a question of “keeping it for now,” just let it go. It’s important to take it out of its box or bag first, though. If you don’t check the contents, you won’t be following the process of “open and discard.”

  If you don’t want to throw it away, another option is to pass a giveaway on to someone else: if you’ve been given something at a fast-food outlet, give it to a child who’ll like it; if you get a glass at a drink shop, give it to the sales assistant; if you get a calendar you don’t much like, give it to someone at work.

  • Photographs (prints and negatives)

  You’ve had some photos developed. Some are bad quality, others are OK, but of no particular interest, even to the people in them. Throw them straight in the bin. The moment you open the packets up is when you’re going to be checking through them most carefully—so that’s the best time to decide on throwing them out. And if you’re not going to be making reprints, chuck the negatives out too. It will be difficult to check those later to see what’s in them, and they’ll end up being put away somewhere, despite being no use to anyone.

  • Chopsticks, spoons, forks, and sachets from takeout meals

  Some people who keep such items may actually use them, but others just hoard them in a drawer. If that’s what’s likely to happen in your case, you’re better off throwing them out as soon as you open the box.

  2: DISCARD ONCE THEY’VE SERVED THEIR PURPOSE

  • Souvenirs, presents, seasonal gifts, etc.

  Gifts are all about the act of giving. So as soon as they’ve been given/received, we could say that their function has been fulfilled. But you wouldn’t want to get rid of a gift when the person who gave it to you is there, so better leave it until later…

  Of course, if you’re given something you want to wear, display or use, then keep it. And valuable things like rings and watches can be sold.

  • Damaged plates, pens that don’t write well, blunt screwdrivers, etc.

  Things that you can still just about use are hard to part with. You’ll replace them sometime, but until you do, you’ll put up with them. But is it really more wasteful to replace something straight away than to put up with it?

  When a plate is cracked, when a pen stops working well, when a screwdriver becomes blunt, carrying on using them comes at the mental cost of irritation. (Worse still is if you hang on to something after you’ve obtained a replacement—see below.)

  • Electrical appliances, furniture, pans, tools, etc., that you have bought replacements for

  If you’re replacing something because it’s broken, then you probably won’t hesitate to throw it away. But sometimes you might buy a replacement just because you like the design, or because it’s more efficient. In cases like these, the old one may still be useable, and you may find yourself keeping it “for now” or because “it may be useful sometime.” But the truth is it will do nothing but take up space. You might also keep it because it costs money to have it taken away. But you’ll have to get rid of it sometime, and you’ll feel better if you do so straight away.

  If you intend to get rid of something, don’t put it out of sight. If you do, you’ll forget about it. Even if it’s large and gets in the way, leave it somewhere you’ll see it. Then you won’t forget to dispose of it.

  • Packaging

  People often hang on to boxes. They think a PC’s box, for example, may come in handy if they move. Or they’ve received a parcel and think they might use the same box when sending something themselves. Or they’ve bought a luxury brand product—the box is attractive and they think they might use it in the future.

  But a box that was there to package a product loses its function once the product is taken out. If you want a box when you move, you can get one then. And keeping brand boxes is absurd. A pretty box full of air in the cupboard just occupies space.

  Simply dispose of them.

  • Store receipts

  Some people keep records of every item of household expenditure. But for everyone else, store receipts are just something they’re given. If you’re one of the latter, don’t put your receipts in your wallet or in your pocket. Throw them away immediately. Supermarkets sometimes have waste bins under the tables where you bag up. Many convenience stores these days also have places for you to throw away receipts. When leaving a café, keep the receipt in your hand and throw it away in a bin outside. Only keep receipts for high-value items that you may need to return, and periodically sort through these, getting rid of any unnecessary ones.

  • Work papers

  As soon as you’ve finished a piece of work, decide whether to dispose of the related documents. Don’t just keep them all “for the time being.” If you find yourself thinking the documents may be necessary again “sometime,” refer to Part One, Attitudes 3 (“‘Sometime’ never comes”) and 5 (“Nothing is sacred”).

  • Magazines

  It’s surprisingly difficult to throw a magazine away you subscribe to after you’ve read it. But as long as no one else expects to read it, dispose of it straight away. If you find an article you particularly want to keep, cut it out when you come to it. This will save you the trouble later. If you leave it until later, you’re likely to have forgotten what it was you wanted to cut out. Make sure you get rid of your magazines before they start turning into a collection.

  3: IT’S FOOD, BUT IT SHOULD STILL GO

  • Leftovers

  Readers may take me to task, but I would nevertheless like to suggest that leftovers can be thrown away. How many times have you wrapped up leftovers and put them in the fridge, only for them to go bad? Or perhaps you’ve left food out until it’s become dry and shrivelled.

  When you have leftovers at the end of a meal, think about what to do with them. Don’t just automatically put them in the fridge. Either eat them immediately or decide definitely to have them tomorrow. If you can’t do either of these, then it’s reasonable to throw them out. It may seem a waste, but it’s the best thing to do. If you keep up this policy, you’ll soon find yourself not throwing food away—either you’ll have stopped preparing too much or you’ll always eat the leftovers the following day.

  • Food past, or very close to, its use-by date

  You think it’s still edible, so you can’t throw it away. But if you’ve kept it for so long already, are you really going to eat it “sometime”? Now that it’s got your attention, either eat it or, if that’s not practical, throw it away.

  • Items in the fridge

  Again, the important thing here is to take action as soon as you notice something: pickles, etc., you thought you were going to use but haven’t; food that’s near its use-by date; Tupperware containing—you’re not even sure what. Take them out and decide there and then whether to eat them or throw them away.

  Why this strategy works

  “For the time being,” “temporarily,” and “sometime” are, as I said in Part One, phrases that reflect a natural human response. When we’re troubled by a sense of waste, delay seems to make disposal easier.

  But if you’re going to get rid of something anyway, you may as well do so straight away. It will stop things accumulating, so there’ll be less stuff to sort out at a later date. Just like summer-vacation homework, it’s best to do a little at a time, rather than leave it all until later. And, of course, discarding things is easier than homework!

  If you stop delaying disposal, you’ll also stop diluting y
our sense of waste. Keeping a keen sense of waste—guilt at throwing things away—can have a very positive effect, especially when it comes to food. It may encourage you to think more carefully when shopping and when planning how to use your stocks. If it does that, then implementing the “discard-there-and-then” strategy will have been worthwhile.

  3

  DISCARD WHEN YOU EXCEED A CERTAIN AMOUNT

  Set limits. The limit may be the capacity of a particular container—a bookcase, say, or a closet. Once your possessions exceed that capacity, get rid of anything that isn’t required. Or simply decide how much of something you are likely to use—for example, wrapping paper—and don’t allow your stock to exceed that.

  What sort of things?

  • Clothes, towels/sheets (cabinet; closet); shoes (shoe rack); food (food shelves); books (bookcase);

  • Pens, pencils (pen holder)

  • Wrapping paper; string; boxes

  • Used paper

  • Pajamas

  • Bath towels, sheets

  • Mugs

  • Chopsticks, spoons, etc.

  • Cloths

  • Pots, kitchen utensils

  Strategy variations

  1: DISCARD WHEN THEY EXCEED A CERTAIN SPACE

  • Clothes, towels/sheets (cabinet; closet); shoes (shoe rack); food (food shelves); books (bookcase)