June 13, 2025 • 57 mins
We explore the emotional and mental challenges of decluttering during life transitions and how our attachment to possessions can hold us back from moving forward.
• Moving reveals the overwhelming accumulation of possessions that often go unused for years
• The emotional challenge of parting with items tied to significant memories and life events
• How digital alternatives can preserve memories while reducing physical clutter
• The mental clarity and reduced anxiety that comes from simplified surroundings
• Starting small and celebrating incremental progress when tackling overwhelming projects
• Finding balance between honoring the past and making space for new experiences
• Learning from the movie "Up" about the freedom that comes from letting go
• The importance of being intentional with possessions moving forward
Send us an email at scott@scotttownsend.info and let us know what you thought about this episode. We'd love to connect with our listeners!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show brought to you by
Pizza man Productions.
All right, so hey, this isScott Townsend, welcome back to
the Scott Townsend Show, and I'mhere again with Ben, again with
Ben, sweet Ben Townsend.
What's going on, sweet Ben?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Moving, moving and unboxing, so you you know.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
First off, just a little bit about us.
No, I don't think anybody knowsthat we're Delaware Indian, Not
that they should, but there's alittle peek behind the curtain,
and so Ben's Delaware name isLittle Bear or Mokta, and mine
is Little Blue Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Owl in that chewy, so there's a little little uh
bonus material for everyone outthere listening, watching what'd
you have for breakfast thismorning?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
uh, I pretty much went with my regular gentacular
routine.
Okay, two eggs head up two eggshead up.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Two eggs head up.
Yeah, so in in the past, uh,yeah, you uh, how's the move
going?
I mean, it looks like you're inyour house now.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, moving boxes, um, it's going well.
It's uh, we we kind of.
We were fortunate to be able tolike move in like the same day
In fact, I was talking to mybuilder and it's kind of a you
know something that people don'tnormally agree to, but before
we closed on the house, I mean,we pretty much already paid for
(01:32):
it, but before we closed on thehouse, I started moving stuff in
.
Just, you know, the main thingsyou got to, you know, move in,
like your bed and dresser.
Cause our approach was, youknow, know, whenever we can move
into our house, we can't moveeverything in all at once.
So we're going to move in, um,we're going to move our bed in.
(01:53):
Priority items were a bed and adresser, and then our bath, you
bathroom items and a few thingsin the kitchen.
Um, almost like you know, we'rejust going to go stay somewhere
for, uh, a long weekend.
You know, aside from you know,move your bed, but you know had
to have that.
But that was kind of ourapproach because we want to be
in as soon as possible and startenjoying our home space we have
(02:15):
here, because where we wereliving was very small and it
went on for a lot longer than wethought it was going to because
of life circumstances, and sowe were fortunate to be able to
do that, but since then it'sjust been a mad dash.
I have a total of four storageunits, had a total of four
(02:36):
storage units.
The two bigger ones were in atown that's 45 minutes away from
here, so it was lots of backand forth.
I rented a U-Haul trailer, andif you're just going to do it
local, that's really prettyeconomical, because that that
trailer although I would haveliked to had a little bit bigger
trailer still did the job.
Um, and it was 29 bucks a dayfor just a local rental.
(02:58):
You know where you go in andjust rent it in the morning and
drop it back off in the evening29 bucks a day, you know.
I think, it's a great deal, um,so anyway, so I, you know I'd
rent it for several days at atime, you know, as we were going
through this process.
But that's what we've beendoing, and so that's interesting
.
In this process, you know you,you you bring home a big load of
(03:18):
boxes and you move those boxesinto your house along with all
the bugs that have gotten intothose boxes while they've been
in storage for two and a halfyears.
And, um, your new house, yeah,new house.
And then you know you, you'refurious, furiously, trying to
unload those boxes and put themwhere it makes sense.
(03:38):
And you do that and you get toa point where you feel good, you
know about, you know kind ofwhere you are with things.
And then you go after anotherbig trailer load and you get to
a point where you feel goodabout kind of where you are with
things, and then you go afteranother big trailer load and you
dump it back in the house andnow your house is a total wreck
all over again.
So it's been waves of thatactivity and those waves are
finally easing the joys ofmoving, the joys of moving, and
(04:02):
in that whole process I justfeel like we have just too much
stuff, too much stuff and Idon't want all that stuff.
I don't want all that stuff and, and you know, I just I told
janet and I've told severalpeople I just simply have to be
better, you know, going forward,I have to be better at
decluttering as I go so I thinkI mentioned to you on the phone
(04:23):
the other night like if, forexample, if I want to buy a
shirt, I'll buy this shirt, Ibring it in.
I need to be looking through mycloset for the shirt that then
has to go.
There's all kinds of mentalchallenges and people.
Some people will hear that, Ithink, and it will completely
resonate.
Other people would hear it andsay that stuff represents lots
of investment.
(04:43):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Sunk cost, the fallacy of sunk cost.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good way of putting it, but you
wind up with clothes that areout of style.
I tried on a pair of jeans.
I don't even remember where Igot them.
They were Nautica jeans.
I didn't really like them.
I don't know why I ever boughtthem.
Maybe I got them as a gift, Idon't know, I honestly don't
remember.
But I put them on and they fit,perfect, perfect fit.
And I went in there and I saidwhat do you think about these
(05:11):
jeans?
I didn't really like them.
I went yes, what do you thinkabout these jeans?
Jen's like well, you know theyfit, they fit you really nice,
but they're kind of out of style.
And I'm like, yeah, that'sexactly what I think were they
bedazzled?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
uh, the jewel, the jewel they weren't.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But you know, they had kind of like strange
stitching.
It was a dark blue denim and Ikind of like.
I kind of like, uh, you know,kind of a stonewashed kind of
look right versus a dark bluelook not necessarily faded, but
just and not light, but kind oflike that middle ground.
That's where I like them.
She has slightly worn, kind of.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah I like that kind of like that middle ground.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's where I like them.
It has a slightly worn kind oflook.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I like that kind of faded, worn, stonewashed
look.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, so that's what I like, and these were like dark
Anyway.
So I just took them off, Ifolded them up, I put them in
our box that is to go toGoodwill, and with the next load
of stuff, and I've had loadafter load after load of things
going to Goodwill and also juststraight out to the trash.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So anybody out there listening, we're going to be
giving away these Nautica jeans,and so you know the first
person to respond to this willget a pair of Nautica jeans.
What's the waist?
44 and length is?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, 48, 42.
Of nautica genes.
What's the waist?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
uh, 44, and length is yeah, 48, 42, 48, 32, sorry no,
but uh, yeah, just uh, hey, ben, send me some of your detrius
send me some of your send me,send me a piece of crap, and we
might be able to do that.
We might be able to do that.
We might be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Send me your sartorial cast-offs.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And we might just be able to pull that off.
So yeah, first person tomention that in the YouTube
comments or on the podcastcomments, whatever, let us know
and we'll see what we can do.
We'll see if we can get Ben toshed some of his uh history
there.
So yeah, I mean, I think a lotof people myself included you
(07:12):
hold on to stuff like.
I'm looking at a collection ofstuff right now.
It's a bunch of little starwars spaceships.
They're still in the box and itlooks like there's 33 of them
and I've had them for a longtime and I don't I can't even
see them because they're in thebox.
So I mean this kind of stuff, Idon't know why.
(07:32):
I thought that would beinteresting I mean star wars,
but hang on a second.
I want to get up and be nude.
If anybody's interested in this, uh, star wars collection, make
me a deal.
Yeah, probably just need to getrid of it.
But it's these little.
Yeah, I remember seeing allthose, yeah, yeah, and so each
(07:55):
one, it's, each box is numbered,you know.
But I collect stuff like thishunter does too.
Yeah, and does he?
Yeah, oh, I'll just, I'll justsend him to hunter, okay that's
easy, that was an easy one.
Um, it's okay, hunter, you got,uh, some star wars ships coming
your way, but I've had these fora long time and my point is,
(08:19):
there's a lot of stuff I havethat I've had for a long time
and you keep them for variousreasons.
The hardest ones to get rid ofare your children's crayon
drawings, when they were fourand five, you know, and you
still have them, with goodintention, you know.
But really, really, what areyou going to do with those?
(08:40):
You know, I mean, and then youfeel like such a jerk for, uh,
being callous enough to throwthem away and and move on.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So it's, it's sticky right there so that is the
mental challenge, right?
This, the emotional attachmentyou have to those things they
made when they were inkindergarten or they were in the
church, uh, preschool, and youcome, you, you come out of
church and you have a Polaroidpicture of your child, all the
smartly dressed and hair likefor little boys which we had,
(09:14):
you know, hair, you know, um,very, um, um, cut and combed,
and they're there and they, theylook just adorable, adorable.
And they've got a Polaroidpicture coming out of class put
into a tongue depressor framethat they made and colored on
while they're right there inclass.
(09:35):
You know, and you see thosekinds of things and you know
there's a lot of sentimental, novalue that those things have.
But you collect all thosethings and so there's just lots
of ways of dealing with it.
Maybe we can talk about that ina minute.
But all those things so thoseput together with all their Boy
(09:55):
Scout uniforms, all the otherthings that they collected over
the years, all the things thatyou bought, because the things
you were into at the time whenyour children were small, at one
time I know Matthew was intosoccer, so he probably has lots
of soccer stuff, soccer awards-Rugby.
Rugby, those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Karate.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Sports Karate Yep, mine too.
And then I have all thiscamping gear and I got camping
gear on top of camping gear.
I got fishing gear on top offishing gear.
I got hunting gear on top ofcamping gear.
I got fishing gear on top offishing gear.
I got hunting gear on top ofhunting gear.
Seriously like repeats ofeverything, like you know.
And I'm sitting around lookingand so it causes me, you know,
(10:34):
as I'm looking at it, I realizethese things that I stored in a
box because I had too much of anemotional attachment to let go
of.
The truth is, I never looked inthose boxes.
So what good is it doing?
What I know for sure?
One thing it was doing to me isit was kind of reducing my
mental clarity, you know,because I had all this clutter.
(10:57):
So I just like this, all this,uh, this mental noise, and it
kind of causes stress andanxiety because I'm, when I'm
looking around at my newworkshop, I got racks on
covering two walls.
It's a 30 by 30 workshop.
I got racks covering two wallsand they're full of stuff and I
still have stuff in boxes on thefloor that I still have to go
(11:18):
through and I'm like this has tostop.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I just simply have to be better at this yeah, you
just built a big closet,basically what it sounds like
yeah, and so it's not going tostay that way.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like I'm, I'm totally , absolutely committed, um, to,
you know, being better at it,going through each box and not
losing steam in that process andgoing through a process of
decluttering and what.
What kind of amounts to toughdecisions.
It feels that way, but on theother side of those tough
decisions, I think is a betteremotional state.
(11:52):
Honestly, that's what it is,because when you have stuff
piled up in everywhere, I feltlike I was just drowning in all
that stuff, just drowning in it,and I couldn't even use it all,
and it takes a lot of effort todeal with it mental more than
physical, for sure yeah, andthen you look at it.
You look at all this stuff, likeall the clothes we, the clothes
(12:13):
that I've given away we'vegiven away, you know, amounts to
thousands of dollars worth ofjust clothes, not to mention all
the other stuff we've thrown.
We've thrown away stuff or putus into goodwill so it has tags
on it and we don't.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
We don't normally do that, but we were surprised that
you know the few things wefound that still have tags on it
you know, a lot of times whenyou're holding on to clothes
this is me a lot of times I'llhold on to them, thinking I'm
going to wear this at some point.
Uh, and there's a differencebetween seasonal clothes, you
know.
So of course you're going tokeep your long sleeve shirts and
your short sleeve shirts.
But then there's other shirtslike uh, maybe it's a holiday
(12:50):
themed shirt, uh, maybe it's.
I have one shirt that's a red,white and blue shirt I wear
every memorial day and fourth ofjuly, but other than that I
don't wear it and and andthere's.
I think there's a lot of timesI'm thinking you know, I got
this denim vest.
I might go to a country westerndance sometime.
I might need that vest.
(13:11):
I'm not gonna go to a countrywestern thing.
You know, I've had that thingfor so many years.
It just needs to go on, like somany other things.
But I've got an excuse for why.
It's easier just to make anexcuse, roll over and say well,
you know, I might, I might needthis one of these days.
I'm gonna really kick myself ifI don't have it, that's that
(13:31):
day's not coming.
And if it does come, then youjust roll with it and move on,
but you'll survive.
You'll survive.
It's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So yeah, and some of those things, and so where
people get hung up is you'reabsolutely right, some of those
things you probably will find anoccasion to use, so that's
going to happen 5% of the time.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So why are you keeping 100% of the junk and 95%
of stuff that you'll never useagain?
So you know.
And then so you get into theseboxes, man, and you know it's
tough, it's really, it's reallykind of hard In some these boxes
, man, and you know it, it's,it's tough, it's really it's
really kind of hard.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So in some cases it is, in some cases it's not right
.
Um you know, it's tough whereit's not hard.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
It's tough where it's not hard, but when when you're
a cancer survivor, like janet isand you open a box, like she
did last night, and had her wigsin there because she had no
hair.
You know, during that time, andthen the, the mannequin that
you set the wigs on to like youdon't like groom a wig on your
hair.
I mean, we don't know anythingabout wigs but she had to learn
(14:31):
her, her, her process, right,but you know, I think also, you
know those kind of things arekind of like a, a reminder of
emotional triggers 100% andtriggers 100.
and the other thing is it kindof like it will trigger thoughts
like, well, do I need to keepthis, do I need to keep this,
this wig and this mannequin?
Because what if the cancercomes back and it triggers
(14:53):
things like that?
And so she burst into tears andthe next thing, you know, you
know I get tears rolling becauseit's so hard they remind you of
all that hard time.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And one thing leads to another and you're going down
this road just because ofsomething that you're looking at
.
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, so it's kind of painful, some of those things
are kind of painful, but justletting go of them and just
living your best life goingforward.
And yeah, there's all kinds ofthings a small airplane that
comes crashing through my livingroom, but I can't, you know, in
the future, but I can't live mylife worried about that or
worried about being in a carcrash, or you know, those things
(15:37):
can happen, you know.
But you can't live your life infear, um, you know.
But when you've been in a carcrash, a bad car crash, and I
haven't, and, um, preferably Iwill never be, but I think.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Those are the things you think about when you get in
a car, you know, because thoseare hard memories to shake for
people.
Thank you for joining me.
Scott Townsend Show.
We'll be back right after this.
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(16:08):
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So thank you so much for yoursupport and so there's just
(16:28):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
But you can't let those things dominate your life,
and so we're just trying tokind of put those things into
practice, um increase, increaseour mental clarity and have this
kind of like emotional releaseof letting these things go and
having that, that relief, andnot be dominated by all the
stuff that you you can't use,don't want, um, and nobody else
cares about either.
So this is why people don'tlike to move.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
This is why people don't like to move.
Number one it's physicallydaunting.
Number two, it's emotionallywrecking.
You know, when you have to makethis, okay, I have to make this
decision now.
Do I keep this?
You know, it's really easy toput in a box this metaphor
everybody uses.
You know, put in a box and justkind of tuck it away and you
don't deal with it, and sothat's safe and uh, you've
(17:13):
delayed a decision.
But all these decisions startpiling up and then you get into
a position like you are whereyou move and it should be a fun
time, exciting time, and I'msure that it is, but it's also
also tainted with all thesememories that now you have to
deal with that you didn't dealwith back then, or that I didn't
(17:36):
deal with back then, and so wedelay the pain, and so when
you're moving into a new andexciting chapter of your life,
unfortunately for a lot ofpeople out there, it's smeared
with this.
Okay, okay, I really have todeal with what I want to do with
(17:56):
this stuff, you know.
And so it kind of takes away alittle bit of the fun, you know,
because the decision hasn'tbeen made.
No one wants to make thosedecisions.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Well, it prevents you from living your best life,
going forward, because you'reall that stuff, really your
house, you know your garage,wherever you're storing, on your
attic, basement, whatever it isyou know these things are you
basically become a museum youknow, your family's history and
your extended family history.
Right, you know my grandma orwhoever passed away.
(18:27):
Now I have.
You know, all these uh quiltsyou that were handmade and sort
of sit there.
We never use them, but we havethem you know, but, but.
All these things, I think,prevent you from living your
best life, going forward.
I think they reduce your focuson what's bringing your, what's
bringing the most joy to yourlife.
Now you know and where you'retrying to move forward because
(18:48):
it's a constant reminder andyou're too cluttered literally
cluttered from the past to moveforward.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh damn it, we just had another outage.
Call sweet ben mobile, allright.
So hey, we're back and um herevisiting with ben about, uh,
moving and decluttering.
We just had a power outage awhile ago.
So this is the next day.
(19:15):
The next half of this show isthe next day.
I think some squirrels got upinto the transformer in the
backyard and it happened againthe other day.
Two days in a row Squirrelsgetting up in transformer, uh,
blowing the power out in theneighborhood.
So I kind of got that figuredout.
I got my have a heart traps out.
(19:36):
Now I'm trying to trapsquirrels so we can depopulate
the squirrel population heresave our power.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
We had, um, we had some problems with squirrels, um
, when we lived at our otherhouse and, um, it was
interesting because I had somenotes.
The other day I'm trying torecover my notes from stuff I
wanted to say in this podcast,but anyway, I started trapping
squirrels and I trapped them inmy backyard and I drive them off
into the countryside and letthem go.
(20:04):
I stopped, I I thought I hadmaybe a dozen squirrels or
something.
I stopped counting.
After 30.
You have way more squirrelsthan you think you did dang yeah
.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So anyway, that happened, so we're back and
we're uh if you're listening,you probably won't uh notice too
much of a transition here uh,if you're watching different
clothes you're watching, you'llsee different clothes, but
that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
But these things are just like hooks to the past and
memories of the past and stuff.
I think are really good,especially for somebody who's
like you know, I'm moresentimental than I ever thought
I really was.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, I know I am way more sentimental than you'll
ever be.
I cry at the tissue commercials.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
but yeah, but they're hooked, they keep you in the
past and and they and they um,because they prevent you from
moving forward and they'rethey're not like emotional.
I won't say that either.
I'm not gonna say that it's notemotional baggage, because it
is emotional, you know but butit just kind of keeps you
anchored in the past and itprevents you from moving forward
.
And the truth is your kids havemoved on and you know they
(21:16):
probably haven't given it asecond thought.
They don't care, they reallydon't.
And if you think they do, thenoffer it back to them and see if
they want it and they'll say,ah no, I'm good.
Yeah, because they're moving onwith their lives.
And you know our boys andMatthew too.
You know they're married, theyhave their own lives or they're
raising their own kids.
That's their focus.
And if you want to impact theirworld, do something that that
(21:37):
helps them out with that Rightand that makes those experiences
great and rich and all thatkind of stuff moving forward.
And just you know, keep thosethings that are in the past.
Keep that group of things verysmall.
Keep the in the past.
Keep that group of things verysmall.
Keep the things in front of youvery large.
Challenge yourself, liveoutside the box, outside the
rules.
Do something every once in awhile.
(21:58):
It kind of like is a challengeto societal norms.
Do something you know to keepyour life interesting.
Focus on your marriage, yourkids, your work if you're still
working all that kind of stuffand move forward where you want
to go.
You know what.
You're still working all thatkind of stuff, um, and, and move
forward where you want to go.
You know what, what you wantthe next uh, 20 to 30 years,
look like you know.
Do you want to do sometraveling?
Do you want to just stay athome and garden?
(22:19):
Do you want to?
You know, do some volunteerwork, or or do some stuff with
your, with your church or civicorganization, you know, just
kind of building a community.
However you do that, however,however you define what that is
for you.
I think those things areimportant to me anyway, and
different people have differentthings.
But if, but, if you have a 30by 30 shop and you you have to
(22:44):
slide sideways between all thejunk.
Now, I have a tractor in theretoo.
It takes up a lot of space, butI still I I'm telling you, I've
got, I'm going to get rid of,I'll say, at least 40 of the
stuff that's in my garage.
I'm going to do that, whether Igive it away or have a garage
sale or whatever I do, I'm it'sgoing, it's happening, I'm
(23:06):
committed to it and I'mcommitted also to being better
at it as I go forward.
Right, because, because it'sit's preventing me from going
forward, right.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
How is it preventing you from going forward?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, number one, I simply don't have the space to
really to put other things, andthen when I, when I try to, you
know, just keep stacking moreand more stuff in there, um, I
wind up with a very clutteredspace, you know, and therefore,
kind of it amounts to me, itmakes me feel, as I look at it
and try and start to deal withit, it makes me feel anxious, a
(23:38):
little bit anxious, and I losekind of like my mental clarity
because I got to deal with that,and dealing with that and the
enormity of the mountain I gotto climb to get back on top of
this situation is preventing mewhat I want to be doing right
now.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
If you think about it , it's really crazy.
You know, you just got throughbuilding a brand new let's call
it a $200,000 storage unit.
Yeah, Is it a house or is it astorage unit?
Is it a home or is it?
Yeah, is it a storage unit?
And I don't think we don't wantit to be.
I wouldn't want it to be astorage unit, although I would
(24:12):
like it to represent my life,but not just to have crap packed
in closets and you can't getthe stuff you know.
So, yeah, you want to havesomething that shows off your
like.
We have the ofrenda in here,the Spanish word for memory,
remembering those who passedaway on that little desk there
(24:35):
in the living room, and that'scool.
It's just headshots of, youknow, granddaddy and dad and
Celeste's grandparents andparents and stuff like that.
But and so it's a token, it's avisual representation, but that
there's no more.
It's a token, it's a visualrepresentation, but there's no
more.
I mean, there's no more.
It does its job, like if youhave a medal, or like when I was
(25:03):
in the Wall Street Journal andI have that framed up on the
wall over here.
That's kind of cool.
Little trophies, littletrophies, yeah.
Along the way.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Significant things that happen, right yeah, you
should keep those things I meantrophies, yeah along the way uh
things significant things thathappen, right, yeah, those you
should keep, those things, Imean, unless you just don't want
them right those are.
Those are things to like hangon to.
They're great conversationpieces.
They're markers of significantevents in your life.
You know you should.
You should probably keep thosethings yeah so, but what?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
at what point is it too much?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
well, it's like, okay , so it's like my, my diploma
from oklahoma state.
I don't have that displayedanyway.
It's in a box and I don't knowthat I'm going to display it
anywhere.
I don't really have an officeanymore you know, I kind of I.
I have this little desk set upin one of these extra bedrooms.
Oh there, it is right there yeahthere, it is right there, but I
don't have mine hanginganywhere, you know.
Not to say that I won't ever,but it's something also I'm not
going to get rid of because Imay want to put it up at some
(25:49):
point, and that's a significantthing.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
It's a very significant moment in your life,
with a lot of time, a lot ofmoney and a lot of a lot of
years, you know, four years orwhatever.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Anyway, yeah, so momentous, yeah, and I just want
to be.
I want to be, I want to be moreintentional, like you know,
going forward or be moreintentional.
I want to get things narroweddown to what I'm into now and
you know I've got a lot of workto do out here at our little
ranch, our property, and so Idon't be spending a lot of time
(26:22):
doing that.
It's kind of like what my jobis now.
But I also enjoy doing somewoodworking, just bumping around
out my shop and doing somewoodworking.
I have some nice woodworkingequipment.
That's really what I want tofocus on and kind of use that
space more for things like that,maintenance of things like my
truck and tractor and justthings I need seasonally here at
(26:46):
our new place.
So I want to get down to thosethings that really matter to me
and if it happens that I'mlooking for something that I got
rid of, I'll have to make adecision on whether or not I
want to buy that again, or is itreally necessary?
If it is, I'll buy it, but Ithink the other thing and I'll
just deal with it.
But to me that's far better todo that, because I'm doing
(27:11):
duplicate buying now anywaybecause I can't find something.
I need it.
I have a framing nailer and Iwas working on a project and I
wound up damaging the framingnailer.
It's a fairly expensive pieceof equipment but I was just
ticked off.
It just made me so angrybecause I was trying to go, I
was trying to get done fast, youknow, and so I just I just went
(27:33):
right down to home depot and Ibought another framing nailer.
I brought it back, got it outof the box, tore it out of the
box, tore the plastic off,hooked it up to my air hose.
You know I'm working on myproject, but but then you know
I'm going I'm thinking laterabout back to that framing
nailer.
I said it was like I shot lessthan 500 nails through that gun.
(27:53):
That's professional gradeequipment and I'm like, well, I
need to fix it.
And so it wasn't a hard fix.
I just had to order a part forit.
There's a housing that I cracked.
I was screwing in a new part onit and I cracked this little
housing that's like half thesize of a deck of cards.
So all I had to do is replaceit.
(28:17):
But I I didn't have time tostop and order something and sit
there like bugs.
Bunny put it in the mail, tap,tap, tap my foot until it opened
the box.
Um, uh, so anyway, I have twolike two new framing nailers
essentially sitting in there,and it's things like that that
happen over and over.
So you know, so I'm going toget rid of that.
But if I ever have to buysomething like that again, then
I'll I'll do it.
But what you know, part of thelesson of it is also is when you
(28:39):
look at the amount of money andthat you spend on buying
duplicate things or things thatyou only use once or that you
use and quickly lost interest in, it's staggering.
So it helps you learn andrecognize the money that you're
spending on things that reallydon't add any meaning to your
(29:01):
life.
It winds up just being stuff orjust kind of like an
ill-advised kind of purchaseIll-advised, and not that it't
necessarily a bad thing, but um,in in and of itself, but the
thing that you're buying wasreally.
There's just another way to getthat thing done, or you didn't
need to do it in the first place, or it was just kind of an
(29:22):
amusement thing.
You take it home and you spin itaround for five minutes and you
set it down, you never pick itup again right, I was totally
picking that up, but there'slots of things like that oh no,
I've done that plenty of timesand then other things they just
kind of like outlive theirusefulness.
I mentioned camping, all thiscamping gear, never going to use
it again.
Was it a waste of time andmoney back in the day?
No, was not a waste of time andmoney.
(29:43):
But that season is over.
It's over and sounds likeyou'll have one hell of a garage
sale yeah, if people areinterested in installation and
camping, that obviously doesn't.
It doesn't fit the kind of thingthat you need to declutter.
It's what you're into and that'sawesome, so you just got to
figure it out what it is for you, you know, and then, uh, just
(30:04):
go through that that process, um, and we're starting to kind of
get on top of you know, at leastour you know the things that we
need to have in our home.
We've starting to kind of geton top of you know, at least our
you know the things that weneed to have in our home.
We've done a lot ofdecluttering and we'll do more
as we go.
I still have a closet, you know, that could outfit Cox's army
in my closet, which which mywinter stuff spills over into
(30:25):
the closet in the extra bedroom,and you know, so I've got I
don't need to buy clothes everyday.
Yeah, crazy, the extra bedroom.
And, uh, you know, so I've got,I don't need to buy clothes
ever again?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
yeah, crazy.
Uh.
What do you think are somecreative alternatives for
storing those memories, for notforgetting?
Or what are some creative waysto do something other than just
storing stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
well, I mean, it's not if it's something you can
take a picture of, like Imentioned, and take a picture of
it you know, I think some, somethings would be great if you
scan them in because, like it'slike all of dad's letters back
from okinawa right if, if I wereto scan all those in, that
would take some time.
If I were to scan all thosethings in, you know, then I
could look at them easily theywon't deteriorate from that
point forward and I could sharethem with you or other people
you know, then I could look atthem easily, they won't
(31:10):
deteriorate from that pointforward and I could share them
with you or other people youknow.
Those kind of things are deeplypersonal.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And it's not something I want to like post on
the Internet or anything, but Ithink reducing it.
I would never want to get ridof the physical.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You know, but I think it would be easier for me to
refer to and do other thingswith if I had it digitized.
I think certain things like Imentioned quilts, family
heirlooms, those kind of thingsso we have like probably six
quilts.
We can't use six quilts thatwere done by family members,
(31:49):
mostly on janet's side, but, butyou know, um our grandmother as
well, um, those are harder youknow, because they're handmade.
They're handmade by your family.
Just you want to, you know, soyou want to, I think.
I think maybe those things ifthere's nobody else in the
family, and this is why I wouldoffer up first.
You know who might want some ofthose things.
(32:09):
So if you you want to quail,let me know.
But you know, if you have someother friends or you know people
close to you that could usethem, then I think that's a good
use of it.
They were made to be used.
They're not made to be museumpieces, they're made to be used
and everything that is used hasa useful life and then it's over
(32:30):
.
So you don't feel like you haveto be the family archivist and
archive and keep everything inmuseum, pristine thing, behind
the glass that people come byand go.
Oh wow, you know the first timethey come by and then and then
it's just in the way after thatright you know it's just taking
up space.
So these things are meant to beused.
So we should use them and avoidthe trap of becoming too like
(32:51):
sentimental to get rid of them.
But you want, you know, and itcomes from a good place you want
to honor the work of somebodywho sat at their little sewing
station and work for I don'tknow how long it takes them.
Well, like that, four weeks,six weeks, something I don't
know.
I know it takes a long time.
It's a very tedious kind ofwork.
You want to honor that, youdon't?
You don't know, I know it takesa long time, it's a very
tedious kind of work.
You want to honor that, youdon't?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
you don't want to um and the thought that went into
it, the love and the exactly.
And they're hoping that it'sgoing to uh help and keep
somebody warm and uh just bethere for them, to comfort them,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So, all good intentions, so all good
intentions, right, and if youuse it, you know you're, if
you're sitting there, uh, inyour easy chair, you know,
watching football or whateveryou like to watch on TV, and
it's cold, you know, you grabGraham, the, um, the quilt that
grandma made, and you put thatquilt on, just kind of like, you
know, getting a hug fromgrandma and she's long gone.
Yeah.
So those, those, those are coolthings, and so I, so I, you
(33:47):
know, I definitely want to hangon to them.
I've got, uh, you know, the,the indian blanket that was
given back to dad.
You know the whole story.
But I want to.
I want, I don't want to justput those in plastic and put
them in the in the thing andjust not use them again.
I want to use them and I haven't, I haven't used, you know that
one, but I want to use it.
You know I want to use it I usemine, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
In the fall and winter, oh yeah, put that baby,
put that Pendleton across thefoot of your bed.
I feel so good, yep.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
So take pictures, digitize it, give it to somebody
, give those things to somebodywho can truly use them because
they were intended to be usedand benefit people, and I think
if you're doing that, you're notviolating the spirit in which
it was made.
So I think those are things youcan do and I think with these
kind of things, as with manythings, start small and go
(34:38):
through that hallway closetthat's out of control.
You can't even put a broom inthere anymore because of floor
space so occupied with boxes andstuff.
Start small or the junk drawer.
Start small, start small andjust do it over time.
Now I heard something the otherday that's in the original
thought for sure, but I sawsomething somewhere.
(35:00):
It said if you see somethingthat needs to be done and it's
going to take less than two tothree minutes, then drop what
you're doing and do it Now.
If you have a really junked outplace, you can get stuck doing
that all day long, but I thinkthe….
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Spend a little bit of time doing it every day, you
know just a little bit of time.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
A little bit of time and you know, get into the habit
of decluttering.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
You know one of the creative go ahead kind of doing
what we're doing right now, uh,this podcast is kind of like, uh
, my legacy project and anyfamily member that wanted to
watch this listen to it.
(35:44):
And here's us talking aboutdecluttering and explaining how
hard it is and how to declutterand the challenges that we've
seen in decluttering, um, Ithink would help future
generations uh, past generation,you know people still older
folks are still alive understandwhen they hear this
(36:07):
conversation, you know they'regoing to be totally bought into
it because they face the samething, you know.
And so, uh, it's no secret thatyou know you might be giving
stuff away, selling, selling itor just or throwing it away, but
there's a reason for that andthere's a reason for keeping
some of the things.
But this legacy project, youknow, 10 years from now, hunter
(36:33):
can be listening to this andgoing, oh yeah, man, that must
have really been.
You know I understand what he'stalking about now because I'm
going through the same thing now, you know.
So we're kind of impartingwisdom, we're paying it forward
and this is not cluttering.
You know, this is digital, likeyou were talking about.
So digital has got a lot ofthings to offer when it comes to
(36:55):
decluttering or explainingyourself, helping explain your
thought processes anddecluttering, but getting rid of
stuff is hard, because changeis hard.
When you're changing up anychange, I don't care what it is.
It's tough and that's why a lotof people stay where they are
(37:17):
or don't do what they need to do, because changing things up is
extremely difficult.
Yeah, the simplest things.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, and so you also have to redefine what you see
as success, because you knowwhen you're, when you are, you
know when your children haveleft the home, however old you
are, when you've lived you knowseveral decades of life and you
have home and all that kind ofstuff.
I, I, I would, 95 percent of usum wind up probably with um I
(37:44):
don't know what the percentageis.
A large majority of us, I wouldguess I would wager have a
clutter issue.
And when you look, when youlook at that clutter issue,
especially when you move, it isabsolutely daunting and it's so
big that you don't even knowwhere to start and it's so big
that you don't take it on andall that stuff.
Anybody who's watching this?
(38:05):
If you have a storage unit andyou've got stuff in a storage
unit, it is way easier in mostcases just to continue to pay
the hundreds of dollars you'repaying per month for that
storage unit, rather than tacklethat sucker and get that stuff
out of there, either use it,sell it or give it away.
It's way easier just tocontinue to pay that money.
(38:26):
Then you look back over theyears and you still have all
that crap and you've wastedthousands of dollars on storage
that you didn't need in thefirst place.
And so it's so big that it justturns you away and just I just
can't deal with it.
I just can't deal with it.
But so you, so you can't lookat, you can't look at the total,
you have to look at pieces.
(38:46):
And I, and I think you know,setting a, setting a timer, a
time limit of whatever it is 10minutes, 15 minutes, 30- minutes
, whatever it is for you and yousay, okay, on, on Tuesday and
Thursday I'm going to spend 20minutes and it doesn't matter if
I only accomplish one thing outof that whole thing.
I'm going to eat this elephant,one bite at a time and in time
(39:09):
it'll be gone and I will havedefeated it going at it piece by
piece.
It's just like anything elsesignificant in your life.
When you're looking at earninga degree I want to get my
bachelor's, I want to get mymaster's, I want to get my
doctorate or PhD, I want to goto law school, whatever it is
when you first start thatprogram and you're super focused
on just the outcome of earningthat paper that says I now have
(39:33):
my bachelor's degree.
Of course that's the goal, butit's so far out there that it
doesn't do you much good infocusing on that at any moment
in time.
So you really kind of redefineyour success.
You know, class by class,semester by semester.
That's how you have to redefineit, so that you have those
little intermediate goals whereyou can experience success and
(39:54):
therefore gain confidence.
You know in the process andmake progress toward your
ultimate goal and you'reaccomplishing things the whole
way and that feels really good.
But, if you define success onlyas oh you know, I'm looking at
this, I'm open the door on thestorage.
You know, you raise the doorand you can't even get in.
(40:14):
You can't even step in and Igot to do that.
You just want to go?
Nope, I'm just going to keeppaying the money to store this
stuff that I'll never, ever useagain.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Oh man, there's such an industry out there,
capitalizing, taking advantageof that mindset.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's human nature.
That's what we do and that'swhy we get in trouble.
And now some people are goingto watch this and they're going.
I don't do that I.
That's why we get in trouble.
Now some people are going towatch this and go.
I don't do that.
I don't do that.
Congratulations, you're one ofthe north and that's great,
awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
The other thing is, too, you're going to make a
mistake, and what I mean by thatis oh sure, throw this away.
Or should I not throw it away?
Just go ahead.
It's not going to wear for theluau in two years, okay?
Well, you know, dang, I threwthat one away okay, well
(41:06):
whatever, it's okay.
It's okay to make a mistake.
I don't even call that amistake.
Um, you're gonna think, well, Imight need to use this sometime
.
Um, just go ahead and pull thetrigger, see how easy it really
is.
And if you really needed it,and if you really needed the
tool, maybe just rent it insteadof buying it.
(41:27):
Just rent it for the day,instead of putting out the money
for using it once and thennever again.
And so just go easy on yourself.
That's all I got to say.
Just take it easy, just get ridof it, and you'll find that
it's not as difficult as youthought it was, although it will
be at first.
But the more you do it, justlike anything else, the easier
(41:50):
it will get right just as youjustified, just as you justified
keeping it.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
You'll be getting really good at justifying
getting rid of it right andeverybody's, and we've talked
about several times, severalways you know, right here in
this conversation.
But if we're, if you'reconcerned, probably should be
concerned about how, how thepeople around us are going to be
impacted because we're we'redecluttering things that were
associated with them, you know,whether it's your, your, your
(42:18):
children, your spouse, yourgrandparents, grandparents, your
mother, whatever your father,whatever it is, I I think it's
easy and it kind of frees youand gives you mental space to
take this stuff on by comingclean with them right you know,
and just and uh, coming clean.
Probably a little bit strong,but I would say you're
explaining it, yeah just explainit.
(42:38):
I'm just in a place where Ijust like I'm I'm suffocating
and stuff it's all going to gothrough and purging things and
you know, I, I, but I want to be.
I want to be better at goingforward in my life than the way
I live my life up to this point.
Not that I'm dissatisfied, Ijust want to constantly be
getting better and I want tomove toward the future, and
you're moving towards adifferent future too, and I want
(43:00):
to join you in that.
But all this stuff ispreventing me from really doing
that, and and I, I can't be thearchivist.
So I've got some things youknow that I'm going to be making
some decisions about and let meknow what you want of these
things.
If you have a list of things,and nine times out of 10, the
response is going to be yeah, no, I don't know that stuff.
And I understand, and this iskind of one of those things that
(43:22):
people can watch.
You would ask yourself, youknow, you always ask the
question what would you go backand tell your 18 year old self?
Well, there's somebody who's 18years old or in their 20s right
now, who is probably iswatching this, you know.
And so what I would tell themis you know, just kind of heed
some of this, this advice,because it's super common.
This isn't like because you andI are geniuses or whatever.
This is what everybody goesthrough and you kind of got it
(43:44):
wind up at some point strugglingwith all this universal yeah,
and so I I think just that themessage of decluttering as you
go um and bring your life ofthings in the past and we're
talking about stuff here, butthere's a whole host of things
that holds back in the past.
So let go of those things andand live your best life going
(44:06):
forward.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Be intentional and focus on the things that really
matter for you and your family,who are impacted by all this
stuff, for going forward in thebest way there's, uh, you know,
you and I talked about the movieup and, uh, carl frederickson
who, uh, at the end of thetowards the end, you know, uh,
he loved his wife and she passesaway and he never I'm gonna
(44:29):
give the ending away, but if youhaven't seen up by now that I'm
not gonna worry about it he uhfeels really bad that he, he and
she, never really took avacation and she always wanted
to go to this one place and heand her never got to go to that
one place.
And so now she's gone and hedecides he's going to take him
(44:54):
and the house represents her, sohe's going to take him and her
to that place.
And eventually he does.
He makes it to the place, setsdown, the house sets down you
know it was flying by balloons,fantastical idea there but then
he realizes that life is stillmoving on.
(45:15):
He's still got life to live,he's still got things he needs
to help people do and stuff likethat.
But now he's stuck in this newplace because of all this the
house, the stuff, everything andhe can't move on.
He literally cannot move on.
It's like a boat anchor aroundhis ankle and then, uh, see,
there he is, little carlfrederick up there, some absurd
(45:37):
amount gave that to me I'vewatched I've watched uh up 31
times.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Wow, yeah you know, as you're, as you're talking
about, I'm like I have got to goand watch that movie again I've
watched it the first when itcame out and I haven't really
thought about it or anythingwith it, and I think I was
probably pretty distracted whenI watched it the first time.
Yeah, and I didn't get near asmuch out of it as what you're
saying here.
I've got we, jan and I need togo back and watch that together.
Yeah, everybody go back andwatch that yeah, so anyway, he,
(46:05):
he's successful.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Uh, he's he.
He does just exactly what we'retalking about.
It's painful, it's hard, uh,all these freaking memories, and
he just has to let it go, andin doing so, he goes on to a new
chapter and and more thingsdown the road, you know yeah,
and as I recall that movie, hewas at the start of the movie,
(46:28):
like he's pretty grumpy yeah andnot kind of miserable miserable
.
Yeah, he's just an old grumpyman and he's got his little
routines, you know.
It takes his geritol and sitson the front porch and then goes
to bed, and same thing the nextday anyway, it's a great movie
and, uh, highly recommend those.
If you haven't seen up, watch upand I, so I've watched it 31
(46:52):
times.
I'm going to watch it again fornumber 32 and uh, yeah it's.
It's a really good movie and Iwatched it on purpose 31 times
because I'm trying to get to 50,because I'm just OCD enough
like that, and it's just thatgood a movie and, I'll tell,
(47:17):
such a great job of hidinglittle easter eggs and putting
so much detail that you'll neversee on a first viewing or a
10th viewing.
I don't think it was up untillike the 20th view when I
noticed the blush on the boy'scheeks when he meets the girl,
and this is a little his facekind of blushes when she touches
(47:39):
his hand.
And I never saw that, you know,and it's one day I'm watching
it.
I was like, but anyway, so yeah, it's a, it's a good one it is
a good movie.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
It's very entertaining and there's there's
if you just want to watch it,for the kind of like the
cinematic effect of all thatkind of stuff, it's still a good
movie.
But if, if you want to watch itand it kind of get some meaning
out of it, um, you know, it'sone of those things like they
say you know it's, uh, it's a,it's a kind of movie where, if
you want to, you can just likewade into it to your ankles or
(48:08):
you can get going in over thetop of your head.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
It's that kind of movie.
Yeah, exactly, um, I wanted touh say thanks.
We're coming up on five yearsthis June June 25th I think it
is.
This podcast will be going onfor five years and it's been a
good run and look forward tokeeping it going and it's 250 or
(48:35):
something episodes and allkinds of people on the show and
it's been a tremendous amount offun.
And I want to for the next five,you know, after this next phase
, this next chapter, I want totry to be more engaged with the
fans of the show and I know thatkind of sounds silly fans,
(48:56):
whatever you want to callyourself, those who, who
subscribe.
If you listen regularly, watchon a regular basis, you've
subscribed, or whatever.
We I would like to know who youare and would like to interact
with you say thank you.
And this last week, henry Shin,I think, is that I don't know
(49:18):
he subscribed.
I don't know who Henry Shin is,how do people find you, you
know, but anyway, thank you,henry, for subscribing to our
youtube channel.
Uh, and so, if you're listening, if you're watching, send an
email, send.
Send an email to scott at scotttownsendinfo and just say hey,
(49:39):
like the show, hey, hate theshow, whatever, interact, send
us something and uh, we'll talkback and send you know, say hi,
but it'd be fun to have moreinteraction with the audience.
I don't know if fans is toopretentious to say I don't know.
I think we're just gonna callyou fans.
If you're listening to usregularly, I'm gonna call you a
(50:00):
fan.
So also thanks to mom.
She donated 40 bucks to thepodcast.
We were talking about thepodcast the other day.
She goes here.
I want to donate some money,good old mom.
Thanks mom for the 40 bucks foruh, and so I'm using that 40 to
um pay for the 40 bucks for uh.
And so I'm using that $40 to umpay for the subscription to
(50:23):
buzzsprout which I use topublish this podcast, and uh,
yeah.
So, mom, if you're listening, Iknow you will be eventually.
Thanks for that and uh, put itto good use.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Uh, thank you, Yep, hey, a good use, I think.
Yeah, hey, and speaking of mom,yeah, just um, you know when,
when dad passed away and sherealized she needed to move from
the house that we grew up inand down there, she went through
exactly this whole process yeahand I don't know if you
remember or not, but um, youknow she went through a massive
um effort to declutter and doexactly what we're talking about
(50:57):
, but at the same time, sheexperienced a lot of personal
growth and it was super obviousto me.
You know, during that time shebecame much more social, she
took much more social risk.
She built a social network as a, as a as a kind of recent
widower.
And I think that is a perfectexample of what you know we've
(51:20):
talked about, of you know kindof letting go of those kind of
like past things, decluttering,give your, your, your mind,
additional space to move forward, not having all that stuff
around and feeling like hopelessabout it, and giving you like
new energy and freedom to moveforward and live your best life
going forward.
I think she is a you mentionedthat like yeah, she's a perfect
(51:42):
example of exactly what we'vebeen talking about yeah she went
through a lot very, yeah, wayto go, mom.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Very it was very emotional, it was very hard, um,
but man, she just uh flipped aswitch and just made it happen
and yes, she did crazy that'shard to do and some people can't
, and some people can't do itkudos and they just stay stuck.
I'm visualizing right now andthis is so hilarious to me, I
don't know if you'll find itfunny, but here uh, tarzan, lord
(52:09):
of the jungle, king of thetarzan.
How does he get to the jungle?
He swings from vine to vine, sohe's got this vine.
He reaches out and grabs theother vine and if you don't let
go of this vine, you're juststuck.
You know, until something,until you, you gotta let go, or
you can't move forward, you know, if you let go of this one,
then you go back, and if you letgo of this one, then you can go
forward.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
But if you try to hold on to both, you're just
stuck right, and as you swingforward on the next vine, you're
really not sure which vineyou're going to grab as you
swing forward to the next one.
You kind of got to improvise asyou go.
So that's another good metaphorfor life.
Reminds me of George of theJungle.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
How about bursting the song there for a minute?
Speaker 2 (52:53):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Okay, so I think we've pretty uh knocked that one
in the head, um, anything elseI'm.
This is a huge topic.
There's psychologists out therethat have, uh, have, a whole
profession on just just helpingpeople get through this kind of
stuff.
The change that takes, theeffort that it takes, um,
(53:16):
motivation, inspiration, uh, andit's real.
You know, decluttering isreally hard because of all the
emotions, and we've alreadytalked about that, so I'll just
shut up.
So any last words on the move,any last words on your little
journey.
You're going on here uh, no,not really.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Just another thing I learned from a friend, and he's
elderly, but he just told me youknow those, the things moving
forward in your life, they neverchange.
You know when you're in.
When you're in, uh, you startwherever you want to start.
When you're junior high, youjust want to get to high school.
When you're in high school, youjust want to make the team,
whatever the team is you, andthen you just want to go to
college.
You just you can't wait to getmarried, you can't wait to have
(53:58):
kids, you can't wait to get yourpromotion, you can't wait to do
this again, he said.
He said, you know, as an 80something year old guy, it's
like that process never, everends, never, ever ends.
And so the key to um, to tohappiness and I may, I may have
said this before, I can'tremember, I told you this before
, it may even be on podcasts,but the key to kind of like
having joy in your life and andmaximizing your happiness is to
(54:20):
enjoy the process, even if it'sa difficult process.
Find ways to enjoy the process,and so you're enjoying life as
you go, and it's never somethingthat you never really achieve
because you're always lookingfor the next thing well said,
mic drop, so enjoy your process.
Yep it's not the it's.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
What was that?
What did I tell?
Tell a hundred Nolan.
And they hear this, they'llroll their eyes.
And, matthew, when they werehere, I was, I was always
telling them it's not, it's notthe destination, it's the
journey.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Same.
Thing.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Yeah, all right.
Well, like I said, get in touchwith us.
Um, scott, it's got email.
Tell us what you think, whatyou thought about this episode
and other episodes, or that youjust like the show, or whatever.
Just want to hear from you, andso I'm going to make a more
(55:08):
concerted effort to be moreinteractive with, with uh, those
of you out there.
So we've been townsend.
This is scott townsend.
Thanks for watching, listeningto the scott townsend show.
Have a great day, everything'sgoing to be all right, and we'll
talk to you later.
The Scott Townsend Show is aDietz-O-Man production.
(55:45):
For more episodes, visit theScott Townsend Show YouTube
channel, listen on ApplePodcasts or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
The Scott Townsend Show show.
Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show brought to you by
Pizza man Productions.
All right, so hey, this isScott Townsend, welcome back to
the Scott Townsend Show, and I'mhere again with Ben, again with
Ben, sweet Ben Townsend.
What's going on, sweet Ben?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Moving, moving and unboxing, so you you know.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
First off, just a little bit about us.
No, I don't think anybody knowsthat we're Delaware Indian, Not
that they should, but there's alittle peek behind the curtain,
and so Ben's Delaware name isLittle Bear or Mokta, and mine
is Little Blue Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
And that is.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Owl in that chewy, so there's a little little uh
bonus material for everyone outthere listening, watching what'd
you have for breakfast thismorning?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
uh, I pretty much went with my regular gentacular
routine.
Okay, two eggs head up two eggshead up.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Two eggs head up.
Yeah, so in in the past, uh,yeah, you uh, how's the move
going?
I mean, it looks like you're inyour house now.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, moving boxes, um, it's going well.
It's uh, we we kind of.
We were fortunate to be able tolike move in like the same day
In fact, I was talking to mybuilder and it's kind of a you
know something that people don'tnormally agree to, but before
we closed on the house, I mean,we pretty much already paid for
(01:32):
it, but before we closed on thehouse, I started moving stuff in
.
Just, you know, the main thingsyou got to, you know, move in,
like your bed and dresser.
Cause our approach was, youknow, know, whenever we can move
into our house, we can't moveeverything in all at once.
So we're going to move in, um,we're going to move our bed in.
(01:53):
Priority items were a bed and adresser, and then our bath, you
bathroom items and a few thingsin the kitchen.
Um, almost like you know, we'rejust going to go stay somewhere
for, uh, a long weekend.
You know, aside from you know,move your bed, but you know had
to have that.
But that was kind of ourapproach because we want to be
in as soon as possible and startenjoying our home space we have
(02:15):
here, because where we wereliving was very small and it
went on for a lot longer than wethought it was going to because
of life circumstances, and sowe were fortunate to be able to
do that, but since then it'sjust been a mad dash.
I have a total of four storageunits, had a total of four
(02:36):
storage units.
The two bigger ones were in atown that's 45 minutes away from
here, so it was lots of backand forth.
I rented a U-Haul trailer, andif you're just going to do it
local, that's really prettyeconomical, because that that
trailer although I would haveliked to had a little bit bigger
trailer still did the job.
Um, and it was 29 bucks a dayfor just a local rental.
(02:58):
You know where you go in andjust rent it in the morning and
drop it back off in the evening29 bucks a day, you know.
I think, it's a great deal, um,so anyway, so I, you know I'd
rent it for several days at atime, you know, as we were going
through this process.
But that's what we've beendoing, and so that's interesting
.
In this process, you know you,you you bring home a big load of
(03:18):
boxes and you move those boxesinto your house along with all
the bugs that have gotten intothose boxes while they've been
in storage for two and a halfyears.
And, um, your new house, yeah,new house.
And then you know you, you'refurious, furiously, trying to
unload those boxes and put themwhere it makes sense.
(03:38):
And you do that and you get toa point where you feel good, you
know about, you know kind ofwhere you are with things.
And then you go after anotherbig trailer load and you get to
a point where you feel goodabout kind of where you are with
things, and then you go afteranother big trailer load and you
dump it back in the house andnow your house is a total wreck
all over again.
So it's been waves of thatactivity and those waves are
finally easing the joys ofmoving, the joys of moving, and
(04:02):
in that whole process I justfeel like we have just too much
stuff, too much stuff and Idon't want all that stuff.
I don't want all that stuff and, and you know, I just I told
janet and I've told severalpeople I just simply have to be
better, you know, going forward,I have to be better at
decluttering as I go so I thinkI mentioned to you on the phone
(04:23):
the other night like if, forexample, if I want to buy a
shirt, I'll buy this shirt, Ibring it in.
I need to be looking through mycloset for the shirt that then
has to go.
There's all kinds of mentalchallenges and people.
Some people will hear that, Ithink, and it will completely
resonate.
Other people would hear it andsay that stuff represents lots
of investment.
(04:43):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Sunk cost, the fallacy of sunk cost.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good way of putting it, but you
wind up with clothes that areout of style.
I tried on a pair of jeans.
I don't even remember where Igot them.
They were Nautica jeans.
I didn't really like them.
I don't know why I ever boughtthem.
Maybe I got them as a gift, Idon't know, I honestly don't
remember.
But I put them on and they fit,perfect, perfect fit.
And I went in there and I saidwhat do you think about these
(05:11):
jeans?
I didn't really like them.
I went yes, what do you thinkabout these jeans?
Jen's like well, you know theyfit, they fit you really nice,
but they're kind of out of style.
And I'm like, yeah, that'sexactly what I think were they
bedazzled?
Speaker 1 (05:24):
uh, the jewel, the jewel they weren't.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But you know, they had kind of like strange
stitching.
It was a dark blue denim and Ikind of like.
I kind of like, uh, you know,kind of a stonewashed kind of
look right versus a dark bluelook not necessarily faded, but
just and not light, but kind oflike that middle ground.
That's where I like them.
She has slightly worn, kind of.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah I like that kind of like that middle ground.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's where I like them.
It has a slightly worn kind oflook.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, I like that kind of faded, worn, stonewashed
look.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, so that's what I like, and these were like dark
Anyway.
So I just took them off, Ifolded them up, I put them in
our box that is to go toGoodwill, and with the next load
of stuff, and I've had loadafter load after load of things
going to Goodwill and also juststraight out to the trash.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So anybody out there listening, we're going to be
giving away these Nautica jeans,and so you know the first
person to respond to this willget a pair of Nautica jeans.
What's the waist?
44 and length is?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, 48, 42.
Of nautica genes.
What's the waist?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
uh, 44, and length is yeah, 48, 42, 48, 32, sorry no,
but uh, yeah, just uh, hey, ben, send me some of your detrius
send me some of your send me,send me a piece of crap, and we
might be able to do that.
We might be able to do that.
We might be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Send me your sartorial cast-offs.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And we might just be able to pull that off.
So yeah, first person tomention that in the YouTube
comments or on the podcastcomments, whatever, let us know
and we'll see what we can do.
We'll see if we can get Ben toshed some of his uh history
there.
So yeah, I mean, I think a lotof people myself included you
(07:12):
hold on to stuff like.
I'm looking at a collection ofstuff right now.
It's a bunch of little starwars spaceships.
They're still in the box and itlooks like there's 33 of them
and I've had them for a longtime and I don't I can't even
see them because they're in thebox.
So I mean this kind of stuff, Idon't know why.
(07:32):
I thought that would beinteresting I mean star wars,
but hang on a second.
I want to get up and be nude.
If anybody's interested in this, uh, star wars collection, make
me a deal.
Yeah, probably just need to getrid of it.
But it's these little.
Yeah, I remember seeing allthose, yeah, yeah, and so each
(07:55):
one, it's, each box is numbered,you know.
But I collect stuff like thishunter does too.
Yeah, and does he?
Yeah, oh, I'll just, I'll justsend him to hunter, okay that's
easy, that was an easy one.
Um, it's okay, hunter, you got,uh, some star wars ships coming
your way, but I've had these fora long time and my point is,
(08:19):
there's a lot of stuff I havethat I've had for a long time
and you keep them for variousreasons.
The hardest ones to get rid ofare your children's crayon
drawings, when they were fourand five, you know, and you
still have them, with goodintention, you know.
But really, really, what areyou going to do with those?
(08:40):
You know, I mean, and then youfeel like such a jerk for, uh,
being callous enough to throwthem away and and move on.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So it's, it's sticky right there so that is the
mental challenge, right?
This, the emotional attachmentyou have to those things they
made when they were inkindergarten or they were in the
church, uh, preschool, and youcome, you, you come out of
church and you have a Polaroidpicture of your child, all the
smartly dressed and hair likefor little boys which we had,
(09:14):
you know, hair, you know, um,very, um, um, cut and combed,
and they're there and they, theylook just adorable, adorable.
And they've got a Polaroidpicture coming out of class put
into a tongue depressor framethat they made and colored on
while they're right there inclass.
(09:35):
You know, and you see thosekinds of things and you know
there's a lot of sentimental, novalue that those things have.
But you collect all thosethings and so there's just lots
of ways of dealing with it.
Maybe we can talk about that ina minute.
But all those things so thoseput together with all their Boy
(09:55):
Scout uniforms, all the otherthings that they collected over
the years, all the things thatyou bought, because the things
you were into at the time whenyour children were small, at one
time I know Matthew was intosoccer, so he probably has lots
of soccer stuff, soccer awards-Rugby.
Rugby, those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Karate.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Sports Karate Yep, mine too.
And then I have all thiscamping gear and I got camping
gear on top of camping gear.
I got fishing gear on top offishing gear.
I got hunting gear on top ofcamping gear.
I got fishing gear on top offishing gear.
I got hunting gear on top ofhunting gear.
Seriously like repeats ofeverything, like you know.
And I'm sitting around lookingand so it causes me, you know,
(10:34):
as I'm looking at it, I realizethese things that I stored in a
box because I had too much of anemotional attachment to let go
of.
The truth is, I never looked inthose boxes.
So what good is it doing?
What I know for sure?
One thing it was doing to me isit was kind of reducing my
mental clarity, you know,because I had all this clutter.
(10:57):
So I just like this, all this,uh, this mental noise, and it
kind of causes stress andanxiety because I'm, when I'm
looking around at my newworkshop, I got racks on
covering two walls.
It's a 30 by 30 workshop.
I got racks covering two wallsand they're full of stuff and I
still have stuff in boxes on thefloor that I still have to go
(11:18):
through and I'm like this has tostop.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I just simply have to be better at this yeah, you
just built a big closet,basically what it sounds like
yeah, and so it's not going tostay that way.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Like I'm, I'm totally , absolutely committed, um, to,
you know, being better at it,going through each box and not
losing steam in that process andgoing through a process of
decluttering and what.
What kind of amounts to toughdecisions.
It feels that way, but on theother side of those tough
decisions, I think is a betteremotional state.
(11:52):
Honestly, that's what it is,because when you have stuff
piled up in everywhere, I feltlike I was just drowning in all
that stuff, just drowning in it,and I couldn't even use it all,
and it takes a lot of effort todeal with it mental more than
physical, for sure yeah, andthen you look at it.
You look at all this stuff, likeall the clothes we, the clothes
(12:13):
that I've given away we'vegiven away, you know, amounts to
thousands of dollars worth ofjust clothes, not to mention all
the other stuff we've thrown.
We've thrown away stuff or putus into goodwill so it has tags
on it and we don't.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
We don't normally do that, but we were surprised that
you know the few things wefound that still have tags on it
you know, a lot of times whenyou're holding on to clothes
this is me a lot of times I'llhold on to them, thinking I'm
going to wear this at some point.
Uh, and there's a differencebetween seasonal clothes, you
know.
So of course you're going tokeep your long sleeve shirts and
your short sleeve shirts.
But then there's other shirtslike uh, maybe it's a holiday
(12:50):
themed shirt, uh, maybe it's.
I have one shirt that's a red,white and blue shirt I wear
every memorial day and fourth ofjuly, but other than that I
don't wear it and and andthere's.
I think there's a lot of timesI'm thinking you know, I got
this denim vest.
I might go to a country westerndance sometime.
I might need that vest.
(13:11):
I'm not gonna go to a countrywestern thing.
You know, I've had that thingfor so many years.
It just needs to go on, like somany other things.
But I've got an excuse for why.
It's easier just to make anexcuse, roll over and say well,
you know, I might, I might needthis one of these days.
I'm gonna really kick myself ifI don't have it, that's that
(13:31):
day's not coming.
And if it does come, then youjust roll with it and move on,
but you'll survive.
You'll survive.
It's no big deal.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So yeah, and some of those things, and so where
people get hung up is you'reabsolutely right, some of those
things you probably will find anoccasion to use, so that's
going to happen 5% of the time.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So why are you keeping 100% of the junk and 95%
of stuff that you'll never useagain?
So you know.
And then so you get into theseboxes, man, and you know it's
tough, it's really, it's reallykind of hard In some these boxes
, man, and you know it, it's,it's tough, it's really it's
really kind of hard.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So in some cases it is, in some cases it's not right
.
Um you know, it's tough whereit's not hard.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
It's tough where it's not hard, but when when you're
a cancer survivor, like janet isand you open a box, like she
did last night, and had her wigsin there because she had no
hair.
You know, during that time, andthen the, the mannequin that
you set the wigs on to like youdon't like groom a wig on your
hair.
I mean, we don't know anythingabout wigs but she had to learn
(14:31):
her, her, her process, right,but you know, I think also, you
know those kind of things arekind of like a, a reminder of
emotional triggers 100% andtriggers 100.
and the other thing is it kindof like it will trigger thoughts
like, well, do I need to keepthis, do I need to keep this,
this wig and this mannequin?
Because what if the cancercomes back and it triggers
(14:53):
things like that?
And so she burst into tears andthe next thing, you know, you
know I get tears rolling becauseit's so hard they remind you of
all that hard time.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And one thing leads to another and you're going down
this road just because ofsomething that you're looking at
.
You know.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, so it's kind of painful, some of those things
are kind of painful, but justletting go of them and just
living your best life goingforward.
And yeah, there's all kinds ofthings a small airplane that
comes crashing through my livingroom, but I can't, you know, in
the future, but I can't live mylife worried about that or
worried about being in a carcrash, or you know, those things
(15:37):
can happen, you know.
But you can't live your life infear, um, you know.
But when you've been in a carcrash, a bad car crash, and I
haven't, and, um, preferably Iwill never be, but I think.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Those are the things you think about when you get in
a car, you know, because thoseare hard memories to shake for
people.
Thank you for joining me.
Scott Townsend Show.
We'll be back right after this.
Before we continue, the bestway to support the Scott
Townsend Show is by tellingfriends, family members and
becoming a patron at patreoncom.
Forward slash the ScottTownsend Show.
(16:08):
So yeah, we have awesome perkspersonalized videos,
personalized episodes, all kindsof cool stuff at different tier
levels.
Patreon allows us to do theshow full-time, part-time,
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So thank you so much for yoursupport and so there's just
(16:28):
things like that.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
But you can't let those things dominate your life,
and so we're just trying tokind of put those things into
practice, um increase, increaseour mental clarity and have this
kind of like emotional releaseof letting these things go and
having that, that relief, andnot be dominated by all the
stuff that you you can't use,don't want, um, and nobody else
cares about either.
So this is why people don'tlike to move.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
This is why people don't like to move.
Number one it's physicallydaunting.
Number two, it's emotionallywrecking.
You know, when you have to makethis, okay, I have to make this
decision now.
Do I keep this?
You know, it's really easy toput in a box this metaphor
everybody uses.
You know, put in a box and justkind of tuck it away and you
don't deal with it, and sothat's safe and uh, you've
(17:13):
delayed a decision.
But all these decisions startpiling up and then you get into
a position like you are whereyou move and it should be a fun
time, exciting time, and I'msure that it is, but it's also
also tainted with all thesememories that now you have to
deal with that you didn't dealwith back then, or that I didn't
(17:36):
deal with back then, and so wedelay the pain, and so when
you're moving into a new andexciting chapter of your life,
unfortunately for a lot ofpeople out there, it's smeared
with this.
Okay, okay, I really have todeal with what I want to do with
(17:56):
this stuff, you know.
And so it kind of takes away alittle bit of the fun, you know,
because the decision hasn'tbeen made.
No one wants to make thosedecisions.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Well, it prevents you from living your best life,
going forward, because you'reall that stuff, really your
house, you know your garage,wherever you're storing, on your
attic, basement, whatever it isyou know these things are you
basically become a museum youknow, your family's history and
your extended family history.
Right, you know my grandma orwhoever passed away.
(18:27):
Now I have.
You know, all these uh quiltsyou that were handmade and sort
of sit there.
We never use them, but we havethem you know, but, but.
All these things, I think,prevent you from living your
best life, going forward.
I think they reduce your focuson what's bringing your, what's
bringing the most joy to yourlife.
Now you know and where you'retrying to move forward because
(18:48):
it's a constant reminder andyou're too cluttered literally
cluttered from the past to moveforward.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh damn it, we just had another outage.
Call sweet ben mobile, allright.
So hey, we're back and um herevisiting with ben about, uh,
moving and decluttering.
We just had a power outage awhile ago.
So this is the next day.
(19:15):
The next half of this show isthe next day.
I think some squirrels got upinto the transformer in the
backyard and it happened againthe other day.
Two days in a row Squirrelsgetting up in transformer, uh,
blowing the power out in theneighborhood.
So I kind of got that figuredout.
I got my have a heart traps out.
(19:36):
Now I'm trying to trapsquirrels so we can depopulate
the squirrel population heresave our power.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
We had, um, we had some problems with squirrels, um
, when we lived at our otherhouse and, um, it was
interesting because I had somenotes.
The other day I'm trying torecover my notes from stuff I
wanted to say in this podcast,but anyway, I started trapping
squirrels and I trapped them inmy backyard and I drive them off
into the countryside and letthem go.
(20:04):
I stopped, I I thought I hadmaybe a dozen squirrels or
something.
I stopped counting.
After 30.
You have way more squirrelsthan you think you did dang yeah
.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So anyway, that happened, so we're back and
we're uh if you're listening,you probably won't uh notice too
much of a transition here uh,if you're watching different
clothes you're watching, you'llsee different clothes, but
that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
But these things are just like hooks to the past and
memories of the past and stuff.
I think are really good,especially for somebody who's
like you know, I'm moresentimental than I ever thought
I really was.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, I know I am way more sentimental than you'll
ever be.
I cry at the tissue commercials.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
but yeah, but they're hooked, they keep you in the
past and and they and they um,because they prevent you from
moving forward and they'rethey're not like emotional.
I won't say that either.
I'm not gonna say that it's notemotional baggage, because it
is emotional, you know but butit just kind of keeps you
anchored in the past and itprevents you from moving forward
.
And the truth is your kids havemoved on and you know they
(21:16):
probably haven't given it asecond thought.
They don't care, they reallydon't.
And if you think they do, thenoffer it back to them and see if
they want it and they'll say,ah no, I'm good.
Yeah, because they're moving onwith their lives.
And you know our boys andMatthew too.
You know they're married, theyhave their own lives or they're
raising their own kids.
That's their focus.
And if you want to impact theirworld, do something that that
(21:37):
helps them out with that Rightand that makes those experiences
great and rich and all thatkind of stuff moving forward.
And just you know, keep thosethings that are in the past.
Keep that group of things verysmall.
Keep the in the past.
Keep that group of things verysmall.
Keep the things in front of youvery large.
Challenge yourself, liveoutside the box, outside the
rules.
Do something every once in awhile.
(21:58):
It kind of like is a challengeto societal norms.
Do something you know to keepyour life interesting.
Focus on your marriage, yourkids, your work if you're still
working all that kind of stuffand move forward where you want
to go.
You know what.
You're still working all thatkind of stuff, um, and, and move
forward where you want to go.
You know what, what you wantthe next uh, 20 to 30 years,
look like you know.
Do you want to do sometraveling?
Do you want to just stay athome and garden?
(22:19):
Do you want to?
You know, do some volunteerwork, or or do some stuff with
your, with your church or civicorganization, you know, just
kind of building a community.
However you do that, however,however you define what that is
for you.
I think those things areimportant to me anyway, and
different people have differentthings.
But if, but, if you have a 30by 30 shop and you you have to
(22:44):
slide sideways between all thejunk.
Now, I have a tractor in theretoo.
It takes up a lot of space, butI still I I'm telling you, I've
got, I'm going to get rid of,I'll say, at least 40 of the
stuff that's in my garage.
I'm going to do that, whether Igive it away or have a garage
sale or whatever I do, I'm it'sgoing, it's happening, I'm
(23:06):
committed to it and I'mcommitted also to being better
at it as I go forward.
Right, because, because it'sit's preventing me from going
forward, right.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
How is it preventing you from going forward?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Well, number one, I simply don't have the space to
really to put other things, andthen when I, when I try to, you
know, just keep stacking moreand more stuff in there, um, I
wind up with a very clutteredspace, you know, and therefore,
kind of it amounts to me, itmakes me feel, as I look at it
and try and start to deal withit, it makes me feel anxious, a
(23:38):
little bit anxious, and I losekind of like my mental clarity
because I got to deal with that,and dealing with that and the
enormity of the mountain I gotto climb to get back on top of
this situation is preventing mewhat I want to be doing right
now.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
If you think about it , it's really crazy.
You know, you just got throughbuilding a brand new let's call
it a $200,000 storage unit.
Yeah, Is it a house or is it astorage unit?
Is it a home or is it?
Yeah, is it a storage unit?
And I don't think we don't wantit to be.
I wouldn't want it to be astorage unit, although I would
(24:12):
like it to represent my life,but not just to have crap packed
in closets and you can't getthe stuff you know.
So, yeah, you want to havesomething that shows off your
like.
We have the ofrenda in here,the Spanish word for memory,
remembering those who passedaway on that little desk there
(24:35):
in the living room, and that'scool.
It's just headshots of, youknow, granddaddy and dad and
Celeste's grandparents andparents and stuff like that.
But and so it's a token, it's avisual representation, but that
there's no more.
It's a token, it's a visualrepresentation, but there's no
more.
I mean, there's no more.
It does its job, like if youhave a medal, or like when I was
(25:03):
in the Wall Street Journal andI have that framed up on the
wall over here.
That's kind of cool.
Little trophies, littletrophies, yeah.
Along the way.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Significant things that happen, right yeah, you
should keep those things I meantrophies, yeah along the way uh
things significant things thathappen, right, yeah, those you
should keep, those things, Imean, unless you just don't want
them right those are.
Those are things to like hangon to.
They're great conversationpieces.
They're markers of significantevents in your life.
You know you should.
You should probably keep thosethings yeah so, but what?
Speaker 1 (25:25):
at what point is it too much?
Speaker 2 (25:27):
well, it's like, okay , so it's like my, my diploma
from oklahoma state.
I don't have that displayedanyway.
It's in a box and I don't knowthat I'm going to display it
anywhere.
I don't really have an officeanymore you know, I kind of I.
I have this little desk set upin one of these extra bedrooms.
Oh there, it is right there yeahthere, it is right there, but I
don't have mine hanginganywhere, you know.
Not to say that I won't ever,but it's something also I'm not
going to get rid of because Imay want to put it up at some
(25:49):
point, and that's a significantthing.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
It's a very significant moment in your life,
with a lot of time, a lot ofmoney and a lot of a lot of
years, you know, four years orwhatever.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Anyway, yeah, so momentous, yeah, and I just want
to be.
I want to be, I want to be moreintentional, like you know,
going forward or be moreintentional.
I want to get things narroweddown to what I'm into now and
you know I've got a lot of workto do out here at our little
ranch, our property, and so Idon't be spending a lot of time
(26:22):
doing that.
It's kind of like what my jobis now.
But I also enjoy doing somewoodworking, just bumping around
out my shop and doing somewoodworking.
I have some nice woodworkingequipment.
That's really what I want tofocus on and kind of use that
space more for things like that,maintenance of things like my
truck and tractor and justthings I need seasonally here at
(26:46):
our new place.
So I want to get down to thosethings that really matter to me
and if it happens that I'mlooking for something that I got
rid of, I'll have to make adecision on whether or not I
want to buy that again, or is itreally necessary?
If it is, I'll buy it, but Ithink the other thing and I'll
just deal with it.
But to me that's far better todo that, because I'm doing
(27:11):
duplicate buying now anywaybecause I can't find something.
I need it.
I have a framing nailer and Iwas working on a project and I
wound up damaging the framingnailer.
It's a fairly expensive pieceof equipment but I was just
ticked off.
It just made me so angrybecause I was trying to go, I
was trying to get done fast, youknow, and so I just I just went
(27:33):
right down to home depot and Ibought another framing nailer.
I brought it back, got it outof the box, tore it out of the
box, tore the plastic off,hooked it up to my air hose.
You know I'm working on myproject, but but then you know
I'm going I'm thinking laterabout back to that framing
nailer.
I said it was like I shot lessthan 500 nails through that gun.
(27:53):
That's professional gradeequipment and I'm like, well, I
need to fix it.
And so it wasn't a hard fix.
I just had to order a part forit.
There's a housing that I cracked.
I was screwing in a new part onit and I cracked this little
housing that's like half thesize of a deck of cards.
So all I had to do is replaceit.
(28:17):
But I I didn't have time tostop and order something and sit
there like bugs.
Bunny put it in the mail, tap,tap, tap my foot until it opened
the box.
Um, uh, so anyway, I have twolike two new framing nailers
essentially sitting in there,and it's things like that that
happen over and over.
So you know, so I'm going toget rid of that.
But if I ever have to buysomething like that again, then
I'll I'll do it.
But what you know, part of thelesson of it is also is when you
(28:39):
look at the amount of money andthat you spend on buying
duplicate things or things thatyou only use once or that you
use and quickly lost interest in, it's staggering.
So it helps you learn andrecognize the money that you're
spending on things that reallydon't add any meaning to your
(29:01):
life.
It winds up just being stuff orjust kind of like an
ill-advised kind of purchaseIll-advised, and not that it't
necessarily a bad thing, but um,in in and of itself, but the
thing that you're buying wasreally.
There's just another way to getthat thing done, or you didn't
need to do it in the first place, or it was just kind of an
(29:22):
amusement thing.
You take it home and you spin itaround for five minutes and you
set it down, you never pick itup again right, I was totally
picking that up, but there'slots of things like that oh no,
I've done that plenty of timesand then other things they just
kind of like outlive theirusefulness.
I mentioned camping, all thiscamping gear, never going to use
it again.
Was it a waste of time andmoney back in the day?
No, was not a waste of time andmoney.
(29:43):
But that season is over.
It's over and sounds likeyou'll have one hell of a garage
sale yeah, if people areinterested in installation and
camping, that obviously doesn't.
It doesn't fit the kind of thingthat you need to declutter.
It's what you're into and that'sawesome, so you just got to
figure it out what it is for you, you know, and then, uh, just
(30:04):
go through that that process, um, and we're starting to kind of
get on top of you know, at leastour you know the things that we
need to have in our home.
We've starting to kind of geton top of you know, at least our
you know the things that weneed to have in our home.
We've done a lot ofdecluttering and we'll do more
as we go.
I still have a closet, you know, that could outfit Cox's army
in my closet, which which mywinter stuff spills over into
(30:25):
the closet in the extra bedroom,and you know, so I've got I
don't need to buy clothes everyday.
Yeah, crazy, the extra bedroom.
And, uh, you know, so I've got,I don't need to buy clothes
ever again?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
yeah, crazy.
Uh.
What do you think are somecreative alternatives for
storing those memories, for notforgetting?
Or what are some creative waysto do something other than just
storing stuff?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
well, I mean, it's not if it's something you can
take a picture of, like Imentioned, and take a picture of
it you know, I think some, somethings would be great if you
scan them in because, like it'slike all of dad's letters back
from okinawa right if, if I wereto scan all those in, that
would take some time.
If I were to scan all thosethings in, you know, then I
could look at them easily theywon't deteriorate from that
point forward and I could sharethem with you or other people
you know, then I could look atthem easily, they won't
(31:10):
deteriorate from that pointforward and I could share them
with you or other people youknow.
Those kind of things are deeplypersonal.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
And it's not something I want to like post on
the Internet or anything, but Ithink reducing it.
I would never want to get ridof the physical.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
All right.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
You know, but I think it would be easier for me to
refer to and do other thingswith if I had it digitized.
I think certain things like Imentioned quilts, family
heirlooms, those kind of thingsso we have like probably six
quilts.
We can't use six quilts thatwere done by family members,
(31:49):
mostly on janet's side, but, butyou know, um our grandmother as
well, um, those are harder youknow, because they're handmade.
They're handmade by your family.
Just you want to, you know, soyou want to, I think.
I think maybe those things ifthere's nobody else in the
family, and this is why I wouldoffer up first.
You know who might want some ofthose things.
(32:09):
So if you you want to quail,let me know.
But you know, if you have someother friends or you know people
close to you that could usethem, then I think that's a good
use of it.
They were made to be used.
They're not made to be museumpieces, they're made to be used
and everything that is used hasa useful life and then it's over
(32:30):
.
So you don't feel like you haveto be the family archivist and
archive and keep everything inmuseum, pristine thing, behind
the glass that people come byand go.
Oh wow, you know the first timethey come by and then and then
it's just in the way after thatright you know it's just taking
up space.
So these things are meant to beused.
So we should use them and avoidthe trap of becoming too like
(32:51):
sentimental to get rid of them.
But you want, you know, and itcomes from a good place you want
to honor the work of somebodywho sat at their little sewing
station and work for I don'tknow how long it takes them.
Well, like that, four weeks,six weeks, something I don't
know.
I know it takes a long time.
It's a very tedious kind ofwork.
You want to honor that, youdon't?
You don't know, I know it takesa long time, it's a very
tedious kind of work.
You want to honor that, youdon't?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
you don't want to um and the thought that went into
it, the love and the exactly.
And they're hoping that it'sgoing to uh help and keep
somebody warm and uh just bethere for them, to comfort them,
you know.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So, all good intentions, so all good
intentions, right, and if youuse it, you know you're, if
you're sitting there, uh, inyour easy chair, you know,
watching football or whateveryou like to watch on TV, and
it's cold, you know, you grabGraham, the, um, the quilt that
grandma made, and you put thatquilt on, just kind of like, you
know, getting a hug fromgrandma and she's long gone.
Yeah.
So those, those, those are coolthings, and so I, so I, you
(33:47):
know, I definitely want to hangon to them.
I've got, uh, you know, the,the indian blanket that was
given back to dad.
You know the whole story.
But I want to.
I want, I don't want to justput those in plastic and put
them in the in the thing andjust not use them again.
I want to use them and I haven't, I haven't used, you know that
one, but I want to use it.
You know I want to use it I usemine, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
In the fall and winter, oh yeah, put that baby,
put that Pendleton across thefoot of your bed.
I feel so good, yep.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
So take pictures, digitize it, give it to somebody
, give those things to somebodywho can truly use them because
they were intended to be usedand benefit people, and I think
if you're doing that, you're notviolating the spirit in which
it was made.
So I think those are things youcan do and I think with these
kind of things, as with manythings, start small and go
(34:38):
through that hallway closetthat's out of control.
You can't even put a broom inthere anymore because of floor
space so occupied with boxes andstuff.
Start small or the junk drawer.
Start small, start small andjust do it over time.
Now I heard something the otherday that's in the original
thought for sure, but I sawsomething somewhere.
(35:00):
It said if you see somethingthat needs to be done and it's
going to take less than two tothree minutes, then drop what
you're doing and do it Now.
If you have a really junked outplace, you can get stuck doing
that all day long, but I thinkthe….
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Spend a little bit of time doing it every day, you
know just a little bit of time.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
A little bit of time and you know, get into the habit
of decluttering.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
You know one of the creative go ahead kind of doing
what we're doing right now, uh,this podcast is kind of like, uh
, my legacy project and anyfamily member that wanted to
watch this listen to it.
(35:44):
And here's us talking aboutdecluttering and explaining how
hard it is and how to declutterand the challenges that we've
seen in decluttering, um, Ithink would help future
generations uh, past generation,you know people still older
folks are still alive understandwhen they hear this
(36:07):
conversation, you know they'regoing to be totally bought into
it because they face the samething, you know.
And so, uh, it's no secret thatyou know you might be giving
stuff away, selling, selling itor just or throwing it away, but
there's a reason for that andthere's a reason for keeping
some of the things.
But this legacy project, youknow, 10 years from now, hunter
(36:33):
can be listening to this andgoing, oh yeah, man, that must
have really been.
You know I understand what he'stalking about now because I'm
going through the same thing now, you know.
So we're kind of impartingwisdom, we're paying it forward
and this is not cluttering.
You know, this is digital, likeyou were talking about.
So digital has got a lot ofthings to offer when it comes to
(36:55):
decluttering or explainingyourself, helping explain your
thought processes anddecluttering, but getting rid of
stuff is hard, because changeis hard.
When you're changing up anychange, I don't care what it is.
It's tough and that's why a lotof people stay where they are
(37:17):
or don't do what they need to do, because changing things up is
extremely difficult.
Yeah, the simplest things.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Yeah, and so you also have to redefine what you see
as success, because you knowwhen you're, when you are, you
know when your children haveleft the home, however old you
are, when you've lived you knowseveral decades of life and you
have home and all that kind ofstuff.
I, I, I would, 95 percent of usum wind up probably with um I
(37:44):
don't know what the percentageis.
A large majority of us, I wouldguess I would wager have a
clutter issue.
And when you look, when youlook at that clutter issue,
especially when you move, it isabsolutely daunting and it's so
big that you don't even knowwhere to start and it's so big
that you don't take it on andall that stuff.
Anybody who's watching this?
(38:05):
If you have a storage unit andyou've got stuff in a storage
unit, it is way easier in mostcases just to continue to pay
the hundreds of dollars you'repaying per month for that
storage unit, rather than tacklethat sucker and get that stuff
out of there, either use it,sell it or give it away.
It's way easier just tocontinue to pay that money.
(38:26):
Then you look back over theyears and you still have all
that crap and you've wastedthousands of dollars on storage
that you didn't need in thefirst place.
And so it's so big that it justturns you away and just I just
can't deal with it.
I just can't deal with it.
But so you, so you can't lookat, you can't look at the total,
you have to look at pieces.
(38:46):
And I, and I think you know,setting a, setting a timer, a
time limit of whatever it is 10minutes, 15 minutes, 30- minutes
, whatever it is for you and yousay, okay, on, on Tuesday and
Thursday I'm going to spend 20minutes and it doesn't matter if
I only accomplish one thing outof that whole thing.
I'm going to eat this elephant,one bite at a time and in time
(39:09):
it'll be gone and I will havedefeated it going at it piece by
piece.
It's just like anything elsesignificant in your life.
When you're looking at earninga degree I want to get my
bachelor's, I want to get mymaster's, I want to get my
doctorate or PhD, I want to goto law school, whatever it is
when you first start thatprogram and you're super focused
on just the outcome of earningthat paper that says I now have
(39:33):
my bachelor's degree.
Of course that's the goal, butit's so far out there that it
doesn't do you much good infocusing on that at any moment
in time.
So you really kind of redefineyour success.
You know, class by class,semester by semester.
That's how you have to redefineit, so that you have those
little intermediate goals whereyou can experience success and
(39:54):
therefore gain confidence.
You know in the process andmake progress toward your
ultimate goal and you'reaccomplishing things the whole
way and that feels really good.
But, if you define success onlyas oh you know, I'm looking at
this, I'm open the door on thestorage.
You know, you raise the doorand you can't even get in.
(40:14):
You can't even step in and Igot to do that.
You just want to go?
Nope, I'm just going to keeppaying the money to store this
stuff that I'll never, ever useagain.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Oh man, there's such an industry out there,
capitalizing, taking advantageof that mindset.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
That's human nature.
That's what we do and that'swhy we get in trouble.
And now some people are goingto watch this and they're going.
I don't do that I.
That's why we get in trouble.
Now some people are going towatch this and go.
I don't do that.
I don't do that.
Congratulations, you're one ofthe north and that's great,
awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
The other thing is, too, you're going to make a
mistake, and what I mean by thatis oh sure, throw this away.
Or should I not throw it away?
Just go ahead.
It's not going to wear for theluau in two years, okay?
Well, you know, dang, I threwthat one away okay, well
(41:06):
whatever, it's okay.
It's okay to make a mistake.
I don't even call that amistake.
Um, you're gonna think, well, Imight need to use this sometime
.
Um, just go ahead and pull thetrigger, see how easy it really
is.
And if you really needed it,and if you really needed the
tool, maybe just rent it insteadof buying it.
(41:27):
Just rent it for the day,instead of putting out the money
for using it once and thennever again.
And so just go easy on yourself.
That's all I got to say.
Just take it easy, just get ridof it, and you'll find that
it's not as difficult as youthought it was, although it will
be at first.
But the more you do it, justlike anything else, the easier
(41:50):
it will get right just as youjustified, just as you justified
keeping it.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
You'll be getting really good at justifying
getting rid of it right andeverybody's, and we've talked
about several times, severalways you know, right here in
this conversation.
But if we're, if you'reconcerned, probably should be
concerned about how, how thepeople around us are going to be
impacted because we're we'redecluttering things that were
associated with them, you know,whether it's your, your, your
(42:18):
children, your spouse, yourgrandparents, grandparents, your
mother, whatever your father,whatever it is, I I think it's
easy and it kind of frees youand gives you mental space to
take this stuff on by comingclean with them right you know,
and just and uh, coming clean.
Probably a little bit strong,but I would say you're
explaining it, yeah just explainit.
(42:38):
I'm just in a place where Ijust like I'm I'm suffocating
and stuff it's all going to gothrough and purging things and
you know, I, I, but I want to be.
I want to be better at goingforward in my life than the way
I live my life up to this point.
Not that I'm dissatisfied, Ijust want to constantly be
getting better and I want tomove toward the future, and
you're moving towards adifferent future too, and I want
(43:00):
to join you in that.
But all this stuff ispreventing me from really doing
that, and and I, I can't be thearchivist.
So I've got some things youknow that I'm going to be making
some decisions about and let meknow what you want of these
things.
If you have a list of things,and nine times out of 10, the
response is going to be yeah, no, I don't know that stuff.
And I understand, and this iskind of one of those things that
(43:22):
people can watch.
You would ask yourself, youknow, you always ask the
question what would you go backand tell your 18 year old self?
Well, there's somebody who's 18years old or in their 20s right
now, who is probably iswatching this, you know.
And so what I would tell themis you know, just kind of heed
some of this, this advice,because it's super common.
This isn't like because you andI are geniuses or whatever.
This is what everybody goesthrough and you kind of got it
(43:44):
wind up at some point strugglingwith all this universal yeah,
and so I I think just that themessage of decluttering as you
go um and bring your life ofthings in the past and we're
talking about stuff here, butthere's a whole host of things
that holds back in the past.
So let go of those things andand live your best life going
(44:06):
forward.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
Be intentional and focus on the things that really
matter for you and your family,who are impacted by all this
stuff, for going forward in thebest way there's, uh, you know,
you and I talked about the movieup and, uh, carl frederickson
who, uh, at the end of thetowards the end, you know, uh,
he loved his wife and she passesaway and he never I'm gonna
(44:29):
give the ending away, but if youhaven't seen up by now that I'm
not gonna worry about it he uhfeels really bad that he, he and
she, never really took avacation and she always wanted
to go to this one place and heand her never got to go to that
one place.
And so now she's gone and hedecides he's going to take him
(44:54):
and the house represents her, sohe's going to take him and her
to that place.
And eventually he does.
He makes it to the place, setsdown, the house sets down you
know it was flying by balloons,fantastical idea there but then
he realizes that life is stillmoving on.
(45:15):
He's still got life to live,he's still got things he needs
to help people do and stuff likethat.
But now he's stuck in this newplace because of all this the
house, the stuff, everything andhe can't move on.
He literally cannot move on.
It's like a boat anchor aroundhis ankle and then, uh, see,
there he is, little carlfrederick up there, some absurd
(45:37):
amount gave that to me I'vewatched I've watched uh up 31
times.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
Wow, yeah you know, as you're, as you're talking
about, I'm like I have got to goand watch that movie again I've
watched it the first when itcame out and I haven't really
thought about it or anythingwith it, and I think I was
probably pretty distracted whenI watched it the first time.
Yeah, and I didn't get near asmuch out of it as what you're
saying here.
I've got we, jan and I need togo back and watch that together.
Yeah, everybody go back andwatch that yeah, so anyway, he,
(46:05):
he's successful.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Uh, he's he.
He does just exactly what we'retalking about.
It's painful, it's hard, uh,all these freaking memories, and
he just has to let it go, andin doing so, he goes on to a new
chapter and and more thingsdown the road, you know yeah,
and as I recall that movie, hewas at the start of the movie,
(46:28):
like he's pretty grumpy yeah andnot kind of miserable miserable
.
Yeah, he's just an old grumpyman and he's got his little
routines, you know.
It takes his geritol and sitson the front porch and then goes
to bed, and same thing the nextday anyway, it's a great movie
and, uh, highly recommend those.
If you haven't seen up, watch upand I, so I've watched it 31
(46:52):
times.
I'm going to watch it again fornumber 32 and uh, yeah it's.
It's a really good movie and Iwatched it on purpose 31 times
because I'm trying to get to 50,because I'm just OCD enough
like that, and it's just thatgood a movie and, I'll tell,
(47:17):
such a great job of hidinglittle easter eggs and putting
so much detail that you'll neversee on a first viewing or a
10th viewing.
I don't think it was up untillike the 20th view when I
noticed the blush on the boy'scheeks when he meets the girl,
and this is a little his facekind of blushes when she touches
(47:39):
his hand.
And I never saw that, you know,and it's one day I'm watching
it.
I was like, but anyway, so yeah, it's a, it's a good one it is
a good movie.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
It's very entertaining and there's there's
if you just want to watch it,for the kind of like the
cinematic effect of all thatkind of stuff, it's still a good
movie.
But if, if you want to watch itand it kind of get some meaning
out of it, um, you know, it'sone of those things like they
say you know it's, uh, it's a,it's a kind of movie where, if
you want to, you can just likewade into it to your ankles or
(48:08):
you can get going in over thetop of your head.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
It's that kind of movie.
Yeah, exactly, um, I wanted touh say thanks.
We're coming up on five yearsthis June June 25th I think it
is.
This podcast will be going onfor five years and it's been a
good run and look forward tokeeping it going and it's 250 or
(48:35):
something episodes and allkinds of people on the show and
it's been a tremendous amount offun.
And I want to for the next five,you know, after this next phase
, this next chapter, I want totry to be more engaged with the
fans of the show and I know thatkind of sounds silly fans,
(48:56):
whatever you want to callyourself, those who, who
subscribe.
If you listen regularly, watchon a regular basis, you've
subscribed, or whatever.
We I would like to know who youare and would like to interact
with you say thank you.
And this last week, henry Shin,I think, is that I don't know
(49:18):
he subscribed.
I don't know who Henry Shin is,how do people find you, you
know, but anyway, thank you,henry, for subscribing to our
youtube channel.
Uh, and so, if you're listening, if you're watching, send an
email, send.
Send an email to scott at scotttownsendinfo and just say hey,
(49:39):
like the show, hey, hate theshow, whatever, interact, send
us something and uh, we'll talkback and send you know, say hi,
but it'd be fun to have moreinteraction with the audience.
I don't know if fans is toopretentious to say I don't know.
I think we're just gonna callyou fans.
If you're listening to usregularly, I'm gonna call you a
(50:00):
fan.
So also thanks to mom.
She donated 40 bucks to thepodcast.
We were talking about thepodcast the other day.
She goes here.
I want to donate some money,good old mom.
Thanks mom for the 40 bucks foruh, and so I'm using that 40 to
um pay for the 40 bucks for uh.
And so I'm using that $40 to umpay for the subscription to
(50:23):
buzzsprout which I use topublish this podcast, and uh,
yeah.
So, mom, if you're listening, Iknow you will be eventually.
Thanks for that and uh, put itto good use.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Uh, thank you, Yep, hey, a good use, I think.
Yeah, hey, and speaking of mom,yeah, just um, you know when,
when dad passed away and sherealized she needed to move from
the house that we grew up inand down there, she went through
exactly this whole process yeahand I don't know if you
remember or not, but um, youknow she went through a massive
um effort to declutter and doexactly what we're talking about
(50:57):
, but at the same time, sheexperienced a lot of personal
growth and it was super obviousto me.
You know, during that time shebecame much more social, she
took much more social risk.
She built a social network as a, as a as a kind of recent
widower.
And I think that is a perfectexample of what you know we've
(51:20):
talked about, of you know kindof letting go of those kind of
like past things, decluttering,give your, your, your mind,
additional space to move forward, not having all that stuff
around and feeling like hopelessabout it, and giving you like
new energy and freedom to moveforward and live your best life
going forward.
I think she is a you mentionedthat like yeah, she's a perfect
(51:42):
example of exactly what we'vebeen talking about yeah she went
through a lot very, yeah, wayto go, mom.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Very it was very emotional, it was very hard, um,
but man, she just uh flipped aswitch and just made it happen
and yes, she did crazy that'shard to do and some people can't
, and some people can't do itkudos and they just stay stuck.
I'm visualizing right now andthis is so hilarious to me, I
don't know if you'll find itfunny, but here uh, tarzan, lord
(52:09):
of the jungle, king of thetarzan.
How does he get to the jungle?
He swings from vine to vine, sohe's got this vine.
He reaches out and grabs theother vine and if you don't let
go of this vine, you're juststuck.
You know, until something,until you, you gotta let go, or
you can't move forward, you know, if you let go of this one,
then you go back, and if you letgo of this one, then you can go
forward.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
But if you try to hold on to both, you're just
stuck right, and as you swingforward on the next vine, you're
really not sure which vineyou're going to grab as you
swing forward to the next one.
You kind of got to improvise asyou go.
So that's another good metaphorfor life.
Reminds me of George of theJungle.
Speaker 1 (52:47):
How about bursting the song there for a minute?
Speaker 2 (52:53):
I forgot about that.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Okay, so I think we've pretty uh knocked that one
in the head, um, anything elseI'm.
This is a huge topic.
There's psychologists out therethat have, uh, have, a whole
profession on just just helpingpeople get through this kind of
stuff.
The change that takes, theeffort that it takes, um,
(53:16):
motivation, inspiration, uh, andit's real.
You know, decluttering isreally hard because of all the
emotions, and we've alreadytalked about that, so I'll just
shut up.
So any last words on the move,any last words on your little
journey.
You're going on here uh, no,not really.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Just another thing I learned from a friend, and he's
elderly, but he just told me youknow those, the things moving
forward in your life, they neverchange.
You know when you're in.
When you're in, uh, you startwherever you want to start.
When you're junior high, youjust want to get to high school.
When you're in high school, youjust want to make the team,
whatever the team is you, andthen you just want to go to
college.
You just you can't wait to getmarried, you can't wait to have
(53:58):
kids, you can't wait to get yourpromotion, you can't wait to do
this again, he said.
He said, you know, as an 80something year old guy, it's
like that process never, everends, never, ever ends.
And so the key to um, to tohappiness and I may, I may have
said this before, I can'tremember, I told you this before
, it may even be on podcasts,but the key to kind of like
having joy in your life and andmaximizing your happiness is to
(54:20):
enjoy the process, even if it'sa difficult process.
Find ways to enjoy the process,and so you're enjoying life as
you go, and it's never somethingthat you never really achieve
because you're always lookingfor the next thing well said,
mic drop, so enjoy your process.
Yep it's not the it's.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
What was that?
What did I tell?
Tell a hundred Nolan.
And they hear this, they'llroll their eyes.
And, matthew, when they werehere, I was, I was always
telling them it's not, it's notthe destination, it's the
journey.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
Same.
Thing.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Yeah, all right.
Well, like I said, get in touchwith us.
Um, scott, it's got email.
Tell us what you think, whatyou thought about this episode
and other episodes, or that youjust like the show, or whatever.
Just want to hear from you, andso I'm going to make a more
(55:08):
concerted effort to be moreinteractive with, with uh, those
of you out there.
So we've been townsend.
This is scott townsend.
Thanks for watching, listeningto the scott townsend show.
Have a great day, everything'sgoing to be all right, and we'll
talk to you later.
The Scott Townsend Show is aDietz-O-Man production.
(55:45):
For more episodes, visit theScott Townsend Show YouTube
channel, listen on ApplePodcasts or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
The Scott Townsend Show show.
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