Clear all the clutter and feel lighter

ANYTHING BROKEN OR NOT IN USE IS PACKED SAFELY IN THE STORE WITH THE THOUGHT THAT WE MIGHT NEED IT SOMEDAY AND THAT DAY NEVER ARRIVES

While studying literature in college, there was a story of Leo Tolstoy in our syllabus called, How Much Land Does A Man Need? At that time, we didn’t ponder deeply into the meaning of it. The story is worth contemplating in today’s perspective. The theme is that our inner lust makes us run for more and more, and in the end exhausted fully, we collapse.

How does a man or a woman need for his/her day to day survival. Be it roti, kapda or makaan (food, clothes or shelter), our lust is expanding beyond our expectations. Everyone from the upper middle class to the middle income group has a perpetual problem, ‘we don’t have anything to wear’. This when our cupboards are full to the extent that if we pull out one outfit, the rest of the clothes come tumbling out, too.

As for the roti, this generation looks down upon homecooked food and is drawn towards fancy, junk food which most of the time is harmful for health.

We are a few of the privileged ones who have stores for storing irrelevant things. Anything broken or not in use is packed safely in the store with the thought that we might need it someday and that day never arrives. Half the time, things are forgotten in the store.

One day, I had a chance to hunt for something in my storeroom, and when I opened it, to my horror there were piles and piles of things that I ever imagined had belonged to me. Out-of-order pans, heaters and many other electrical appliances, old cotton quilts replaced by new ones, broken suitcases and even utensils that haven’t been used for years. I was dumbstruck and thought I will clear the stuff. I asked one of my staff members to help me and unabashedly rearranged everything without throwing out any of the items. But it kept haunting me, “What will I do with all this stuff?” So a novel idea came to my mind: I’ll set a five-year cutout period. All things that haven’t used for five years can be thrown away. That made my task a lot easier! Half the storeroom was empty. I felt lighter and so did the store.

I promised to myself that I will stop hoarding things. Gradually, I decided to bring down the cutout period means from five to two years. Things older than two years and not used will be discarded. I shared this idea with friends and family and everyone approved of it. I’m not sure if they practised it or not.

Now it has become a habit with me, I don’t think of putting anything in the store. If not needed, I give it away to the first needy person I come across. I think twice, rather umpteen times, before buying anything new, be it a bag, or shoes or clothes or any other household item. Markets are flooded with tempting offers but I ask myself: “Is it needbased or greed-based?” Most of the time, the answer is ‘greedbased’.

I feel lighter these days and many alluring items displayed tastefully at the malls don’t tempt me anymore. My storeroom is also cleared of all the clutter.