piles

When we clean our home, we may have piles of clutter that form from our day to day lives. So, we take those piles and move each item back to its original location. After cleaning, we are pleased at the look of our place, but eventually everything becomes a cluttered mess again. These clutter piles formed naturally as an optimization of our lives, and, although displeasing to the eye, allow us to conduct our lives with the least additional effort. The optimization has come from the chaos.

But the chaos breeds chaos in our minds when we try to relax into this optimized home. We are reminded unnecessarily of tasks involving the items that we see. It clouds our natural get-to-do list of things that pop into our minds. So, in my effort to balance the best of both worlds, I placed Vans shoeboxes wherever a clutter pile had formed. Cleaning in this way became much easier. All I had to do was put the things in the box, without even walking around finding places for them. And afterwards, I already knew where everything was without having to reprogram my brain.

So, I now had an aesthetically pleasing homespace to relax into, that was also optimized for go-time; it took less time to organize, and I didn’t have to remember anything new. As Jon Kabat-Zinn might say, “Wherever the trinkets go, there they are.”

I brought peace to my home, not by fighting with the chaos, trying to make it peaceful; but by accepting the chaos, thanking it for its optimization and utilitarian offerings, and integrating peaceful elements into it. Just as the sand, stones, and waters find their place in the chaos of nature, we too can settle where we may, and find harmony in improving, not warring with, whatever life throws our way.