The Clutter in Your House

The clutter in the home
 (Mies en place)

Clutter in the homes is a direct reflection on the clutter in our. Minds. I know that might not seem right but I promise you It is true more so than you think.
 I come from a family that is pretty organized, I don't think  anyone can say that they are completely organized.I my self think I'm pretty organized but i am not perfect. the one thing that is a blessing and a curse is OCD  but OCD runs in my family weather we want to admit it or not. I know I have my ocd tendencies  which i don't think is necessary a bad thing ,it all comes down to prospective, there are some things that are bad about it but I have learned to keep them in check.But if a person knows how to keep this in check not only will they have an organized mind but there home will be clean and beautiful.
 after reading this hopefully you will see that the clutter in our minds co insides with the clutter in our homes
        If there is one thing when it  comes to having a clutter free house you have to figure out what is something that you really need or something that you want. Most of us have stuff and when i mean stuff i mean we feel we need to keep everything that we find or everything that a relative has ever gotten us. When my aunt died i remember going to clean out here house and when we got there we walked in to a bigger job than we could ever imagined now I'm not talking about like the people that are on that TV show Hoarders but pretty darn close,. My aunt had issues with so called good deals. she would buy crap from the store just because it was on sale and it at the time it seemed to be a good deal so she had about 300...yes,  300 pairs of scissors, now tell me why the heck does someone need that many pairs of scissors. On top of that she had enough socks to keep everyone on this planets feet warm for life No kidding she had so much stuff it just became overwhelming and we didn't know what to do or where to start. Now this situation was better than what i grew up with when i would help my dad on his rental property. I remember this one time that my dad had just purchased this house down on maple st. now one thing with my dad he didn't just buy a house he bought what most people thought should be just torn down and start over. but this is why my dad is such a great business man he knew the potential of things he understood that almost anything is of worth.( I think he could do that with people sometimes also) its funny not everyone can do that or even pretend to do that we just live our lives to how we think it should go and we think everyone should just fall in place to our little plans or they can just get out. shame on us. like i was saying this house was one of my dads great projects well one of the ones that i remember at least this is one of the houses that my dad bought that he got an award from the city because he knew what he was doing.  well the day we were to get started on the house it was a hot, rainy day right before i went to work that morning i went to the  Gravy Boat to get one of their awesome Egg and Cheese biscuits, these biscuits are awesome you haven't lived until you have one of these things. So, I show up at the house eating my biscuit and drinking my chocolate milk a couple of the guys that worked for my dad looked at me like i was a jerk for not getting them one but what did i care i was the one that had that awesome Cheddar cheese sliding down my throat and then followed it with ice cold chocolate milk,life was awesome. my dad gets there and says we need to get everything out of the house before we can hit the hard stuff he looks at me and says Devin I need you to tackle all the crap in the house well i took that as there was lots of stuff int he house that needed to be put on the street so of course i said no problem then he tossed me some gloves now normally i don't use gloves i like to feel what I'm touching when i work so i said nah i don't need them then said trust me you will. then he tossed me the keys to open the house. he said it shouldn't take you but an hour to get it done i will be back in just a little bit and we will start on the roof( just for note my dad when it came to work has no concept of time when he says it should only take an hour you might as well plan on it taking half a day) so he leaves and i open the door that is when it hit me like a ton of bricks covered. not not a tone of bricks but a ton of dog crap bricks. the smell was so bad my awesome biscuit i was still eating even tasted like it i wanted to vomit ( but I didn't) that is when i realized when my dad said Devin you take care of the crap he meant CRAP. when i got my composer i looked int he house it was covered with dog crap about 3 inches deep and it was my job to remove it. Why and how people live like this id besides me i honestly don't get it. so here i with a big problem do i do what my dad asked me to do or do i quit the family business and go get a lower paying job for someone else.... Of course i did my job. I had to get this crap out of the house. so i had to make a plan well it was on carpet that had to go so i started rolling the carpet up but so you know the houses roof wasn't the best so when it would rain it would rain into the house so yes not only was the job smelly but it was runny and sticky also. so i start to roll this poop filled carpet knowing that i was going to have to get it out the door somehow and the only way was to bear hug it out. so you can see how thrilled i was about doing that that is when i saw a pick in the other room. That is when a light went off no seriously the lights went off the other guys were working on the power in the house. yea you thought i was going to give some kind of analogy about a light bulb that went of in my head and i had a great idea well I'm not going to do that. dang i just did. so i grabbed the pick took a hard swing into the carpet when i did poop splattered all over my shoes. You know thinking of splattered poop I know a guy that once went into a walmart and had to go to the restroom so bad that when he pulled down his paints he splattered all over the bathroom stall no joke it was every where and that is what we now call pulling a walmart. yea that is gross but its true. so just like pulling a walmart this crap splattered all over my shoes it was nasty and my dad was defiantly going to buy me some new ones. so i start pulling the carpet out with this pick i am about half way out the door when the guy that lived in the house comes running up and says you are ruining the carpet get out of the way and pushes me out of the way he bends down and grabs the carpet in that bear hug that i was telling you about that i wasn't willing to do and as he did yep you guessed it it went everywhere the poo started oozing out all over his hands his neck where the carper was touching his shirt it was everywhere. he looked at me and do you mind if i keep this and use it at my new house across the street. so obliged. at least i didn't have to haul It out anymore.
So yes that was nasty and yes it is true I don't think i could ever make this up .

you ask what does this have to do with the clutter in the homes well if you are that branded then you need more help than i do.
  We as consumers buy more stuff than we could ever imagine we just keep on getting it we fill our lives with meaningless garbage and we think it is ok and normal . now I'm not saying that we don't need things in our homes but we need to be very causes on what we get what we buy and what we get other people. yes other people I have always said it the choices that we make effect those around us and has an impact on everyone lives agency is a huge responsibility that is why we need to be careful with the clutter in our homes. do we need to keep magazines that are several months old do we need to keep that birthday card that was given to us when we were 5 for me the answer is no. for you it could be yes. could that yes hurt us most likely no but could it hurt someone that we love well it could we need to free our lives of all the crap. we don't need to take it from house to house like that guy did literally we need to loose it and when we do we will feel a huge relief off our shoulders. now its fine to keep some things but you have to figure out is this really important or can i keep it in a different way. a few years back my wife and kids were moving and we were packing things up when i found an old card that my brother Patrick gave me it was a snoopy card that said What do People in Greece do on their birthdays. when you open it up it read they slide around a lot. yea its pretty funny. at the time i was wow i  haven't seen this in for ever and i remembered what it said from when i first read it. that is when realized Why am i keeping this stuff i know what it said i know the feeling that it gave me and i know with what love it was given to me i don't need to keep it. that was i think the changing point in my clutter free life. I use what God gave me this great computer in my head. so now that is what i try to do. this sounds like i don't like things well that is where you have me wrong i like stuff like everyone else but i for my self have figured out what i need to make important,  that is the key if it is important than keep it but only if it is really that important.

 
             Its like when i was a kid and we had this tree in or back yard and my dad wanted to put in a garden but i didn't want him  to cut the tree down because i liked the tree. I cant say that the tree was a huge part of my life up to that point but for some weird reason i didn't want him to cut it down and thinking about it i never once paid much attention to that tree up until that point. I asked him not to cut it down. My dad being the man that he is was going to humor my request even if it meant that we would have a poor garden because of it. so after thinking about it i said dad cut it down its fine. he said nope if its that important to you then we need to keep it. But the facts are it wasn't that important to me it was just a tree that was in the middle of a small Field in the way of food for my family. So i told him its fine just cut it down. I don't know if my dad thought i was crazy for putting up such a fight like i did before hand just to turn the other way on a whim but. its fine it was one of those growing moments for me i learned that day that my dad loved me and would do anything for me no matter how stupid he thought it was and i also learned that the betterment of the family was more important than an old half rotten tree.

Just like that tree the guy that loved the poo carpet we need to organize or lives in such a way that we are free of all of that our homes literally need to become a safe haven for our families clutter free from the world and all its influences we don't need to drag any of that carpet we don't need to keep a tree especially if it is in the way of our progression.

Education

Education 

     Well now your probably thinking his guy has  just said that I'm lazy and don't want to work... well he doesn't know me. I have worked my butt off been in school to get the education that I need. Well that isn't what I'm talking about . Get an education get as much as you can that was a quote by Gordon B Hinkley . And that is as true now as it was  when he said it . Getting an education isn't just going to school even though it is the most know way to do it. but read, study things, study life and our  surroundings  that is what education is . But there is one little thing that is missing these days and that's common sense which it seams  isn't that common. there are very few that actually practice it these days. We proclaim to be educated but what happens is that we have become educated idiots we spend thousands and thousands of dollars on our education's but we aren't willing to use common sense to govern our lives.  I as for my self don't have an formal education I didn't go to college, even though I most likely will be enrolling when my kids enroll because the more education we have the better off we are. I didn't even graduate from a normal high school. My situation is a little different.  As I say that it isn't that different, when I was in the fifth grade my parents pulled me out of public school and started to home school me and my little brother . Now it wasn't for the reasons that my parents didn't like public schools but the school system was failing when  it came me. I had teachers calling me stupid, and unteachable. And a you know I'm not a stupid guy I am quite teachable but the problem wasn't either of those it was the fact that i have dyslexia. And the teachers just didn't know how to deal with this kind of problem ( well its not really a problem ) what makes it a problem is that the teachers either don't want to help the kids with this kind  of issue or can't, because they are overwhelmed with the work that currently have.
 Now being dyslexic hasn't been a burden, It hasn't been a crutch at all in my life. In many cases,  it has been a blessing , by blessing I mean that I have learned to actually study the one thing that most people out there don't know how to do .
Did you know that  before the Civil War or as I like to call it the war of northern aggression (your welcome dad) That the South had more Private Schools and Colleges than anywhere else in the country. People came from all over the world to learn at the great places of learning. But then came reconstruction, which is a an institutionalized way of teaching. This way of teaching can be forced to where proactive thinkers don't have a chance to stretch their minds and grow both physically and mentally.  During Reconstruction all these schools were disbanded and the public school system of the north was instituted. Now here in the modern days public schools are just as bad. the reasons they are bad is several reasons, teachers are underpaid, overworked I say over worked because the student teach ration is way off balance, and we have just plain bad teachers that have forgotten why they became teacher in the first place. the last one unfortunately seems to becoming a larger group than it use to be.  we need a private rating system for teachers that can be used for the public side to rate teachers this will hold teachers more accountable than what they are currently being held to. this way the good ones can get paid more and the bad ones will be pushed out and forced to find new employment. I know that sounds harsh but if i wad a construction worker and my job was to finish Sheetrock and i was really bad at it then i would be fired from that kind of work and i would have to find a new type of work. it needs to be the same for teachers.
 Now it seems that i am being hard on teachers and putting more responsibility on their shoulders for teaching out children well i am but in turn i have more responsibility on my shoulders as a parent . I in turn as a parent will need to support the teacher on what they do and how they teach out children. which means that i have to actually take an active roll in my child's life. Wow what a novel idea you mean that i cant just use the school as a baby sitter service for 6 to 8 hours.
And so you know, no money isn't the solution to fixing the schools it all starts with us as parents. i will say it again We Need To Take An Active Role in our Children's Lives. I had one Scout leader that did this No I'm not talking about the sick Pervert scout leaders that end up serving time in jail but I'm talking about an awesome Scout leader that i had as a youth that would challenge us to not only do our best but he made us feel like we were going to be great.  You know who you are if you are reading this so stand up and be proud. You were and are the best.
   Well back to education what ever you love go do it learn about it. My grandfather told me  that if you love something then be the best at it and people will pay you to do it.  that is essentially why we go to school and get an education is to make a living. Look at the recently descended Steve Jobs do you think he hated computers and creating new tech. I am pretty sure that it was one of his passions and that he learned as much about it as he could. and continued to learn up till his death .

Work Work Work

Work Work Work

        Your probably looking at this title and think what does work have to do with anything. Well actually more than you think. Work is essential to life. It makes us who we are and who we will become. Being that I grew up in a family business I had many opportunities to work. More than the average person. It would be an understatement to say that my dad is very creative when it came to having us do things. As a matter fact that reminds me of this time that. My dad had this idea to add on to the house, your thinking well that isn't that bad . Well that's because you are think of the normal way of doing it.  Like let's build a new wing to the house but not this time , his idea was to build down , yes I said down. My dad wanted to add a bedroom for my brother in the basement .nope this wasn't the kind of place that had a basement already. Well it did but it was a crawl space, about  a three foot  crawl space. And thinking about that little job reminds me of when my brother and i were digging in that pit of despair and we didn't want to be down there so we kept on arguing and climbing out the little door in the foundation and do like most kids do and go tattle to mom. I don't know how many times we did that, first me then my brother over and over until i know we must have been driving my mom completely nuts we both climbed out and went running as fast as we could  like kids do we got to my mom just seconds from each other and that was the last draw we had finally taken our mom over the edge and we had just pushed her. ( now before I finish the story let me tell you about my mom,my mom is probably the most wonderful person in the world, now im not trying to suck up, it's the truth she is so innocent it's actually refreshing. Especially with  a world  like we have right now. to show the amount of innocence my wife and my mom were driving to bring my dad and i some lunch we were working on one of my dads rental houses. Now this house wasn't in the most desireable part of town but while they were driving to us they passed a bunch of guys at a house on the corner that were grilling out and smoking  pot . Because you know you can't have bar b que without a little mary jane,  no i have never done any type of drug but you might think so with all the thoughts inside of thoughts.so my wife says "now that is a pot luck" so my mom replys "yea it looks like they have a lot of food there". Now if that doesn't speak volumes about the innocence of my mom then I don't know what will. My mom is one of the most  knowledgeable persons out there except when it comes to things of the world. Now back to my story about the pit of despair  we got to my mom just seconds from each other both speaking at the same time and that is when it happened . One of the most shocking moments in my life. My mom looked at us and said "GET in THAT DAMN BASEMENT AND DIG". It was a huge shock to the system the world completely stopped. Birds stopped singing, hell actually froze over, I even think that was the day that all fairies died that is why we never see them, I don't even remember going back down to the pit, time seamed to stop.  Yea that was the only time in my life that i have heard my mom say a swear word. I know your thinking that isn't bad people say stuff like that all every day well that is where you would be wrong . And if you actually think that then don't you think that is incredibly sad. When we don't get upset or are even shocked when  people use foul language .Bear in mind i was around 12 when that happened and now im in my thirties  Now if that wasn't shocking enough. It wasn't until about a year or two ago that I found out that after my mom said that to us that she went into the bathroom after saying that word and washed her mouth out with soap.   I asked her when i found  that out why did she do that . My mom humbly responded would I have washed your mouth out. .so now your think what did all of that have to do with working . Well guess what I'm about to tell you , but you knew that already . Well we need to work  we have a generations that are not working by choice and by force. But mostly by choice. and when i say by choice its because we seem to look for the loopholes to get money. Money doesn't solve anything it is a means to live. so all of you out there that say that there arent any jobs out there and i cant get one its time to grow up. and get over yourself. I have been there i have made lots of money and i have made no money. let me tell you not having a job is hard but the best thing for me was to loose my pride and just go to work.we have become lazy, I always say that my generation and younger are totally worthless . That's may sound pretty harsh but it's true look at us we don't want to work we just want hand outs my grandfather would be ashamed . I was talking to my brother the other day about many different things and work and living better came up  he lived in hawaii for a couple of years  while finishing  his  college education  he was told by a good close friend of his that described the differences in americans and most of the world, he said that  Americans live to work but a lot of the world work to live , if you think about it that speaks volumes on how we are. I myself am tired of the great run around we need to use our minds better and become more efficient on how we work . Im not saying don't get rich, what i am saying don't for get what is important in life we can have the nicest car the nicest house but if we don't have a good family life or pay attention to what matters most we dont deserve it. This  is why i say Work work work . Get outside and work, work with your family do something creative but just get to work 

Wednesday

New post on Wednesday , you have been warned