I’m a person who has a lot of ideas for projects. Something I see at a thrift store will inspire an idea for a project involving that thing- Sometimes it’s a tool I think I need, and all it needs is that one thing, and some of my time.
I’m also a person who already has a lot of projects. When a new one comes along, I have to shove it in among a dusty pile of projects to-do. If it’s really interesting, I start working on it, shoving whatever I was working on into the pile instead. I’m rarely ever not working on some project of sorts. I don’t stop having ideas for cool projects. Pretty soon, I’ve got a pile of projects in the attic of my brain, some of which are overflowing into the livingspace. It starts to get a little hard to focus on one thing. I’ve got no time to do any of them, because I’m too busy trying to get them all done at once.
Project cutter is mentally - And physically. I’ve got stuff saved because I have a project in mind for later, and stuff that I don’t have a project for- But could be useful, someday. Circuit boards, in case I ever need that one resistor. A tool I could use, it just needs that one thing...
There are an infinite number of cool things I could do with my time, money and effort, even just with projects. But I don’t have that much.
I’ve adopted a different mindset for projects, and their associated clutter. If it’s just a “could use in something later” then it goes. That ‘one resistor’ will cost 99 cents for 100 on eBay. It’s not worth my 10 minutes to salvage it. A nice metal rod, a copper tube? I don’t need it. If I ever do, I can find it at the hardware store. Throw it out. Get rid of it. If it’s worth enough to be more than worth my time to sell, sell it. Sell it now. Get a little money, so I can buy what I actually need for the coolest projects. Declutter my workspace, my brainspace, my dayspace, so I can move freely and get stuff done. Get rid of the broken tools, or fix them. Don’t let them just sit, they do nothing like that.
I used to be the sort of person who saw all the potential in those things. I still do. But now I see the much bigger potential of freedom without clutter.
As a sidenote- I'm still working on this. I still have that metal bar, and the circuit boards, out in my stuff pile in the barn. But I know what their future is.
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