Eliminating Too Much?
Getting rid of all of the excess, eliminating waste, going paperless, all of these steps move us closer to some sort of imaginary organizational perfection. Could organizational bliss be setting us up for problems as well? Hmmm, let's discuss it. Shall we?
Choosing to stay on the "everybody stay calm and listen closely to the Lord" side of things instead of a a "Oh my goodness! We're doomed!" viewpoint of the current state of world affairs, I still find myself growing more and more concerned with the amount of advice encouraging individuals and families to go completely paperless. Sure doing so is convenient and eliminates paper clutter, but is it really wise? I'm just not convinced that it is.
That being said, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that this is my blog and that I have been the ripe old age of 4-0 for several months now to share a bit of practical wisdom. No matter how advanced technology becomes, situations beyond human control do still occur. Electricity is NOT A GIVEN. There has not and never will be a guarantee that electricity will always be available to any of us - ever. Hardcopies aka paper copies of documents, receipts, prescriptions, and all other necessary, vital information must be kept available at all times. Period. Also, an unending supply of batteries and/or fuel to run back up generators is not a given either. No matter how many solar panels and wind chargers are sold, the potential for no electricity and no back up power is very real. To plan and order our lives and homes as if it were is at the very least naive.
Here is the scoop. If eliminating something from our lives and homes to clear clutter has the potential to place us in a compromised or dangerous position at a future date, it did not clear any clutter. What it did was open up the door for future emotional and mental clutter aka stress. Hmmm. Perhaps we can find a better, more effective way to deal with our clutter. Maybe an investment in the practice of self-control and discipline will help us out more than all of the scanners and homemanagement binders ever could. Whatever choices we make regarding paper storage/elimination, we'll keep it happy and shelve the entire self-discipline/control thing for another day.
Choosing to stay on the "everybody stay calm and listen closely to the Lord" side of things instead of a a "Oh my goodness! We're doomed!" viewpoint of the current state of world affairs, I still find myself growing more and more concerned with the amount of advice encouraging individuals and families to go completely paperless. Sure doing so is convenient and eliminates paper clutter, but is it really wise? I'm just not convinced that it is.
That being said, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that this is my blog and that I have been the ripe old age of 4-0 for several months now to share a bit of practical wisdom. No matter how advanced technology becomes, situations beyond human control do still occur. Electricity is NOT A GIVEN. There has not and never will be a guarantee that electricity will always be available to any of us - ever. Hardcopies aka paper copies of documents, receipts, prescriptions, and all other necessary, vital information must be kept available at all times. Period. Also, an unending supply of batteries and/or fuel to run back up generators is not a given either. No matter how many solar panels and wind chargers are sold, the potential for no electricity and no back up power is very real. To plan and order our lives and homes as if it were is at the very least naive.
Here is the scoop. If eliminating something from our lives and homes to clear clutter has the potential to place us in a compromised or dangerous position at a future date, it did not clear any clutter. What it did was open up the door for future emotional and mental clutter aka stress. Hmmm. Perhaps we can find a better, more effective way to deal with our clutter. Maybe an investment in the practice of self-control and discipline will help us out more than all of the scanners and homemanagement binders ever could. Whatever choices we make regarding paper storage/elimination, we'll keep it happy and shelve the entire self-discipline/control thing for another day.