Is Your Scary Open Brain App Running?

It was 89 degrees and humid as all get-out when her brothers asked me, “Would you like to play some basketball?”

The whirling electric fan was just a few feet from my face. It was the only place I felt comfortable since my arrival in the Philippines.

They say you get used to the heat, but they don’t say how long that takes.

My eyebrows winced down to reflect the thought in my brain shouting, “Are you out of your freakin’ mind? Basketball in this heat? Can I take the fan with me so I don’t die!”

Luckily, discretion overruled thought and the words never formed upon my lips. My fiance’s brothers would have been deeply offended I’m sure.

Instead, a polite “Oh, no thank you.” escaped meekly.

Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, I’m no stranger to hot, humid days. We have a dozen or so every summer. But we also have 4 months of winter and subfreezing temperatures.

My body’s thermostat is set to be comfortable in the 70 to 80 degree range with low humidity.

When my wife came here to Buffalo from the Philippines in winter, December actually, she was perpetually cold; even in the house which was 75 and dry.

Comfort is relative.

I know when the first Spring day of 55-degrees comes, I’m outside in my short-sleeve shirt. That same 55-degree day mid Summer has me shivering and reaching for my jacket.

My dad used to work in an oil refinery. Smelled horrible of sulfer and oil. But after you’re there in it for half an hour, you don’t notice. Our nose becomes “numb” to it. Smell becomes relative to the surroundings. The brain resets. It says, “this is usual, OK, ignore it.”

Clutter in our homes is dealt with the same way. After a while, we just don’t pay any attention to it. Our eyes have been programmed by the conscious brain to search for “What’s different?”, “Is there danger?” essentially overlooking everything that’s the same.

Sadly though, the vision of all that clutter has been stored and is running in the background, registering in our subconscious brain.

The Subconscious Clutter App is playing in the background, secretly sapping energy from our body just the same way open but unused apps on our smartphones do.

This causes us to feel a sense of low energy, stress, anxiety and a sense of hopelessness without our knowing why.

Subconsciously we’re telling ourselves, “How can I have more? I’m burdened with so much already!”

And this bothers us because we always want MORE!

Having been genetically programmed with the gene by both my pack-rat parents, by the time my 50’s hit I had assembled a house full of clutter. My stuff, my wife’s stuff, my 3 kid’s stuff. Lots and lots of “stuff”.

The straw that broke the camels back came when my father died.

Then I had his house full of clutter to deal with too!

His house consisted of 4 floors and 3 generations of furniture, dishes, glassware, holiday decorations and every screw, nut, bolt and nicknack you could imagine. And more!

Some of it, family history stuff, sentimental stuff, and antiques were stuff I wished to keep. But where would I find room for it in my already cluttered house?

Something had to go from my house to make room for more.
But what to throw out? How do you decide?

That’s when I heard of a great book by Marie Kondo, “The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. This was the book that became a NY Times bestseller and inspired the hit Netflix show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”. Lots of great tips in this book.

The book really helped me get clear on what “stuff” I needed to keep. More importantly, showed how to decide what must go. Marie has a very unique approach. I highly recommend this book. Best ten bucks you’ll ever spend to finally free up massive space in your home.

What’s the point of all this you ask?

Sorry, Elder drifts off on these tangents leaving me to pull it all back together.

Point is, we get used to stuff, Then we start to consider it “normal” when it isn’t. It’s just what has come to be.

But we can change our environment to suit us. And we should.

If it’s physical stuff, we gotta sort through it all and throw out the crap.

If it’s mental stuff that’s bugging you, stop thinking about it and take action. Which action? Who knows!

Nobody knows. We discover by iteration. We try something. If it gets us the result we wanted, great! If not, we learn from that and try something else.

We may not like it, but if we’re feeling stuck, anything is worse than doing nothing. Whether its mind clutter or stuff clutter, that stuff’s got to go.

Clutter is a scary open brain app running in the back of your mind, secretly, silently, sapping your energy daily.

Do something about it. When? Right now!

De-cluttering is an ongoing project that’s working for me!

Let me know what areas of your brain or home you need to de-clutter? I’ll bet you’re not the only one!

De-clutter. Try it. You will feel better, I promise!

“Bene Vivere!”

Elderbob Schwarztrauber