Bea V. Larsen . . . .Commentaries

Bea V. Larsen is a Senior Mediator at the Center for Resolution of Disputes in
Cincinnati, Ohio 
Bea V. Larsen

For a number of years Bea V. Larsen, senior mediator at the Center for Resolution of Disputes in Cincinnati, Ohio [www.cfrdmediation.com], presented weekly commentaries on WVXU radio, both on her professional work as a mediator and on more personal or general experiences. These broadcasts reached thousands of listeners in a number of midwestern states and elicited many comments. This new series of online commentaries will continue that tradition, now broadcast to the world via the internet. Comments, which can be posted directly to this blog, are warmly encouraged. More personal background information can be read in the "Introductions" category below.
 

A Present

Print the article

This entry was posted on 12/23/2006 5:18 PM and is filed under Generally Speaking.

    Here is my holiday gift to my readers, inspired by many friends who say they are planning to spend time between now and the New Year uncluttering their lives, reclaiming the peace of organized surroundings.

    My gift? A proven plan, undertaken some years ago by my husband and myself, in a home we'd lived in for over forty years.

    I had read an article profiling a young author of high acclaim. The interviewer commented on how orderly her home was, even though she had two young children. The author drew from her shelf a book titled "It's Here Somewhere", by Alice Fulton and Pauline Hatch. I got the book from the library.

    The promise of the cover blurb: This practical handbook shows you how to deal once and for all with chronic clutter. Are you tied of those organizational binges where you shuffle stuff from one room to another and just end up with a neater mess?  Then let this book show you the secrets of putting your home in order and keeping it that way.

    Here, in a nutshell, is the plan.

    Assemble four large containers and label each clearly. Designate the first "keepers", for those mementos that have special meaning, but no use, like your children's old report cards. The second box label "give away". The third "garbage" and the fourth, "to be filed", for insurance policies, or the warranty for the coffee maker.

    Do one room at a time. Enter with boxes, and move clockwise from the doorway. Pick up the first item you find and do not move on until you make the decision whether to return it to its original spot, or into which box it goes, asking yourself the following questions:

        Do I like it?
        Do I use it?
        Do I need it?
        Do I have room for it?

    Len and I started in his study. After several hours on our clockwise journey, we reached high noon, planning to get to three o'clock the next day. I think we believed that once we were done, we'd actually be able to see the future more clearly.

    Did we keep going throughout the entire house. Well, no. But, upon completion of the study, we were positively euphoric, and deserving of all manner of additional pleasures. Perhaps some of you will be more dedicated to the goal and persevere, others may trip over the labeled boxes for months to come.

    And some will likely relax and revel in the chaos, holding (clinging?)to the premise that disorder is the sign of a creative mind.

   

 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this entry
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
    Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

    • 12/24/2006 10:10 AM regine wrote:
      great idea . complicates the issue a little and allows for varieties of approach.
      Reply to this
    • 12/24/2006 10:17 AM bill and joan treudt wrote:
      Dear Bea . . . Please come stay with us
      for a few days. We'll put you in complete charge. As a bonus, you may
      take home with you anything you might
      find useful. Much love. B&J
      Reply to this
      1. 12/24/2006 1:55 PM Bea Larsen wrote:
        Ah ha! I am on to your tricks!

        You know, I had a dear friend who went through the arduous task of simplifying life when moving from a large home to an apartment. And even after this significant effort she found after the move that they were still too encumbered with possessions. Her solution: on a chest just inside the door to their new apartment home she placed an ever changing number of items with which she could readily part. As friends arrived with house warming gifts for their new digs, her stringently enforced rule was that no one could bring anything in without taking something out. My rule, I accept no gifts that are not consumable, photographs the only exception.

        Well, dear ones, if every you are traveling north, I do hope you will visit.  But, bring only yourselves!


        Reply to this
    • 1/1/2007 2:22 PM Ellen Wathen wrote:
      Bea,
      Thank you for this wonderful New Year's gift to us all! I have been doing a little organizing myself this holiday and going through the piles of stuff that build up during the regular work and school days. I find all your categories very good, but may I add one more? "Recycle" is another good category to keep in mind because so many papers, magazines, cardboard, folders, wrapping paper, bottles, etc. can be recycled and then not add to the landfill problem.
      Thank you again for all your excellent essays. I always enjoy them and they make me think.
      Happy New Year! Ellen
      Reply to this
      1. 1/1/2007 8:21 PM Bea Larsen wrote:
        Ellen: Your point is very well taken. I was disappointed to learn  upon moving downtown that none of the residence buildings (that I am aware of) provide a means of recycling, unlike my earlier experience both in Clifton and at the Edgecliff, although there I always harbored some doubt about where the newspapers and glass actually ended up. A fifth box is definitely needed. Thanks for contributing this thought.

        Reply to this
    Leave a comment

    Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

     Name

     Email (will not be published)

     Website

    Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.



      
    Copyright . http://BEALARSEN.COM. All rights reserved.