Cutting Clutter with Compassion

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Clutter detracts from our ability to function, tangling our physical spaces and muddling our minds. Streamlining can be a relief, even a rush, but then there are those pesky boxes of unwanted stuff. In the Sept.-Oct. 2008 issue of Natural Home, Utne Reader‘s sister publication, editor Robyn Griggs Lawrence suggests a top-notch idea for how to dispose of clutter–and serve the greater good.

Griggs Lawrence hails from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and traveled there this summer to visit family during the aftermath of the floods. She was in the midst of working on her magazine’s Sept.-Oct. issue, which contains advice on how to declutter kitchen space. “While I’m sure it’s little solace to the folks who lost everything, seeing all that stuff lining the streets of Cedar Rapids was a heartbreaking reminder of how lucky I am to be contemplating my own clutter,” she writes in her editor’s note (article not available online).

“When I returned home to Boulder, it was much easier to clear out unnecessary items from my kitchen cupboards. I would love to send them directly to the folks in Cedar Rapids, but wooden cake plates and food processors probably aren’t their most pressing needs right now.”

Isn’t that always the rub? From kitchen appliances and electronic gadgets to appliquéd shrugs and china figurines, most “clutter” doesn’t go far in alleviating those pressing needs Griggs Lawrence saw in Iowa. Not deterred, she decided to take her castoffs to a consignment store and allocate the proceeds for the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation’s Flood 2008 Fund. As September draws near, brining with it the annual migration of college students, I frankly can’t think of a better way to bring “a whole new dimension” to cleaning out closets and bedrooms.

Photo by sindesign, licensed under Creative Commons.

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