Why You Should Decide What Enough Is

Setting limits is a critical part of keeping your space free from clutter. It's hard to let go of the excess if you don't know what enough is, so you need to decide just how much you really need. As you lighten up, you free yourself from the burden of being responsible for so much, which means more time to enjoy life!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome.
It's Kelly, Jayne McCann,professional organizer and
clutter coach.
And you are listening todecluttered by design, a podcast
where I provide practicalguidance to help you declutter
your life with ease.
So a few weeks ago I waslistening to a radio show, it
was actually Marketplace on NPR.
It's a show that focuses on theintersection between our economy

(00:23):
and our culture.
It provides some really goodcontext for what's going on out
in the world so that we canunderstand how it applies to and
affects our own lives.
In the segment I was listeningto, they had a guest on who had
decided to pay her partner to dothe dishes.
Yes, she was going to pay him todo a household task, and just to
be really clear, this was not achild that she was giving an

(00:44):
allowance to.
It was her partner.
The issue was that he let thedishes pile up until there was a
mountain in the sink and shejust was not down with that.
You see, they actually had adeal where she did the cooking
and he did the cleaning up, buthe was not following through in

(01:04):
a timely manner on his end ofthe deal.
Hence the idea to pay him as away to motivate him to wash
stuff up sooner.
Sounds kind of extreme right?
But she was to the end of herrope.
It sounded like she was tired ofarguing, sick of pleading, done
with nagging and she just wantedthe dishes cleaned on a daily

(01:25):
basis.
So why am I sharing thisanecdote with you?
Because they could have solvedthis problem if they had done
just one thing, they could haveeliminated all of that tension,
all of that arguing if they hadsimply set tighter limits on the
number of dishes they own tobegin with.
You see, from what I gleaned,they had multiples of

(01:47):
everything.
So there was no sense of urgencyto wash things up, which meant
stuff could pile up and shecould still cook.
So he could let all of all ofthe dishes pile up and she could
still, um, go ahead and make ameal, which meant that obviously
right, the quantity of dishesand cookware that they owned

(02:10):
exceeded what they really needed.
So if they had simply set somelimits on what they owned, it
would have been impossible forthis problem to have ever become
an issue between them to beginwith.
Now I know at first blush,setting limits probably sounds

(02:30):
like a constraint and it is, itis definitely a constraint.
And I know people generally tryto free themselves from
constraints, but in this case itis a constraint that's going to
empower you.
It's an a constraint that weshould all welcome.
It's going to reduce our levelof responsibility and our
workload.
Like in the example that I wasjust talking about in that story
with the dishes, if they hadsimply set some limits, he never

(02:53):
would have had to face amountain of dishes again because
there, there wouldn't have beenenough dishes to create that
mountain to begin with.
So what exactly are limits?
Well, the idea with limits is todetermine just how much of any
one type of item you need.
It's about deciding what enoughis and why would you want to do
this well so that you can beginmaking really deliberate

(03:14):
decisions about what you letinto your house.
It's a way to free up space andit's also a way that we can
enjoy a greater sense ofabundance.
You see, if we feel like we haveenough than we can't be in a
state of lack, right?
If I feel like I already haveenough, I can't be wishing for

(03:34):
more or feeling like maybe Idon't have enough.
Unfortunately, most of us nevertake time to consider what
enough is and if we don't knowwhat enough is, we will never
know when to stop acquiringmore.
And that's really importantbecause if we don't know when to
stop acquiring more, we're goingto wind up with clutter.

(03:55):
So that's why setting limits isso essential.
This week I want to challengeyou to set some limits of your
own.
I'd like you to choose onecategory of belongings.
It could be a certain genre ofbooks.
It could be summer tee-shirts,it can be sets of towels per
family member, could be juiceglasses.
It could be anything.
Just choose a category and thenchoose a limit.

(04:18):
Decide what enough is, and thenbegin to let go of the excess
and see how it feels.
I'll close this episode bysharing a Buddhist proverb with
you.
It is one of my favoritesayings, and it is so simple.
It is enough is a feast.

(04:39):
Yeah, enough is a feast.
That's why you set limits sothat you can feel that sense of
abundance, so that you cancontrol the clutter, so that you
can free up space, so that youcan free yourself from
responsibility! I'd love to knowwhat you thought about this
episode.
You can find me everywhere at@organizingmaven and you can

(05:00):
provide whatever kind offeedback you would like.