Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

The Illusion of Nonattachment

Being “Zen” is very in. People like to show off their minimalist homes, clutter free and white. But beneath every spare, modern shrine to minimalism is a pinwheel whirling endlessly under the weight of an overfull hard drive.

Clients always say, “I’ll throw it out, just let me take a picture.” I let them, of course, because at least they’ll get rid of the physical object, and that will free up physical space. But let’s be honest, this isn’t really letting go. To be honest, it’s a little bit of a cop out.

Technology gives the illusion that you are less cluttered than previous generations were. You can scan, compress, save things to flash drives the size of your thumb. You think you don’t have to let go, that you can hold on forever because you’re saving everything in ever-smaller, endlessly retrievable (or so we’ve been told) bytes.

But it’s work, all this compressing and transferring. And part of your work, here on earth, is to learn to let go of the photos, of the past, of your fears, of your kids, and one day, your life.

I get it. It’s like a reverse Pandora’s box. Everything you ever were, or hoped to be would all be stored and easily searchable on one slim, chic laptop, so that when you die, your children or heirs would open it up and read all of your brilliant thoughts, and look at all of your wonderful pictures, and be impressed by your long and illustrious contact lists.

But I’m betting on the photo album. I think that my kids will want the heft of the albums that I put together and looked at with them on the couch. I think they’ll be thrilled to find their father’s early romantic missives among the items in my small memento box.

Sure, digital is great. Who wants to fill up their house with bills and receipts? But don’t fool yourself: Scanning isn’t letting go; taking a photo isn’t letting go. Letting go is hard, but it is freeing. So don’t hedge. Set yourself free and really let stuff go.