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The Two Ways to Clean a Closet
The first is the "easy" way. What we're most accustomed to. Open the door, browse the shelves, remove the things we see that are no longer desired. Then try to organize the rest. But there's also a second way.
Start by removing everything from the closet. The dirt that is hiding in the corners can be seen and cleaned, and the full shelf space available for use now visible. Only once all has been stripped away - every inch cleared - begin to add back the things that are most important, leaving the rest outside.
In the end, both ways leave a clean closet. But one involves intentional removal. The other, intentional addition.
I find that the reality of life today can be summarized by the constant barrage of "things" demanding our attention. We're overwhelmed with stimuli that - consciously and unconsciously - fill our waking time and leave us struggling to approach any single thing with true presence, focus, and intentionality.
But even in the rare times we stop to reevaluate our priorities (cleaning our own closets), we still only remove enough to cram others back in.
After nine months living on a motorcycle, I'm often asked what the biggest lesson has been. It is this. The true, stunning richness of life when forced to treat every day as if it is the second closet.
Instead of waking to a sea of priorities I need to sift through, I start from zero. Every day. Health. Food. Place to sleep. All else is seen for what it requires: things that require conscious efforts to be added back in. Possessions. Relationships. Vices. Comforts of any kind. But also things that occupy my mind. Thoughts. Regrets. Aspirations.
Living this way, I'm reminded day-in and day-out of how the things that I choose to re-add are suddenly more valuable, and how I have the capacity experience them with more intensity than ever before.
Food, when it's there, has more flavor. Conversations, when shared, deeper. Curiosity, more insatiable. And desire, richer. A shower that was once drowning, now felt and appreciated in each, individual drop.
What will you add back into your closet?
