This trick avoids being a project at all. Instead, you
just begin a small, relentless ongoing program to throw out ten things from
every room as often as you think of it.
If you’re combing your hair in front of the bathroom
mirror, bring the wastebasket closer, open the medicine chest, and find ten
things to throw out while you keep brushing your hair: your cousin’s shaving
cream, that outdated prescription you wouldn’t dare to touch, those old
vitamins. Then, while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew, open a kitchen
drawer and throw out the broken meat thermometer and the odd butter
knife—and eight more things. Then drink your coffee with a smile on your
face.
I tend to do this trick in spurts. I forget it for a few months, and then
I start up again for a week or so. But that’s not a problem. You won t
forget to use this trick. You’ll remember to come back to it because it’s
very bracing, like a winter breeze in your face. Just remember a few times
each day to throw ten things and after a while your place will start to look
twice its normal size—even light and airy.
