給生活來一次大掃除

你的衣櫥里是否掛滿了自買回后就沒再穿過的衣服？你的書柜里是不是擺滿了連碰都沒碰過的書籍？你的生活中是不是充斥著無數毫無意義的雜事兒？我們想擁有的太多，結果生命中堆滿了不重要卻占據了我們大部分時間、空間和精力的東西。是時候來一次大掃除了，扔掉生命中那些沒用的東西，讓生活保持清爽。

I have been spring cleaning. Yes， I know it’s still winter but considering the state of my house I’ll be lucky to get it all done before spring.

I recently read that 20 percent of the things you own hold 80 percent of the total value of those things. I had a look at the things surrounding me and realized there was a lot of truth in what I read. I decided， then and there2)， I only wanted to be surrounded by valuable things. I also decided the way to achieve this was to throw 80 percent of my house away.

Rationality and considered behavior are clearly my strong points.

I started in the bathroom cupboard.

It’s amazing how much stuff you can actually fit in there. I didn’t want to just randomly throw things away though—I wanted to be accurate. So I counted everything， multiplied it by 0.8 and discovered I needed to get rid of 57 items.

Living alone for too long can make you do these sorts of things.

I began with what I thought I could do without. That dried up blue nail polish3)? Gone. That foul4) smelling moisturizer5)? Gone. That anti-frizz serum6) that turned out to be quite pro-frizz? Gone.

But by the time I got to 20， it was a real stretch: I might use this one day. I like the smell of this. This one has cute packaging. I still had 37 things to go but I couldn’t bear to throw any more away.

So I changed my approach. Instead of trying to work out what I didn’t want， I began to think about what I did want. What was important? What was useful? The result surprised me. I put eight things back in the cupboard before I began having difficulty deciding whether or not a product was valuable enough to keep.

Once I had all the important things on the shelf， deciding what to do with the 29 things on the floor was easy. 20 went straight into the bin without any sense of loss. The other things， while not as important， still had enough value to hang on to7). So I ended up only throwing 40 things away. But on the other hand—I ended up throwing 40 things away!

As I knelt on my bathroom floor， looking at my freshly uncluttered cupboard， I started to get excited. Imagine if I did this to every cupboard! No! To every room! No—to my whole life! Instead of focusing on the things I don’t want， what if I focused on the things I do want? And instead of cluttering up my life with unnecessary junk， why don’t I treasure the things that are important and discard the rest?

Throwing things away is a good feeling. It creates a sense of lightness and leaves you with less ways to mess up your house.

But we do so many unnecessary things in life， too， that only leave us tired， poor and unhappy. Because of my spring cleaning-induced epiphany8)， I am now making a conscious effort to throw these things away， too.

Watching TV when there’s nothing on? Gone. Late fines for not returning DVDs on time? Gone. Pressing the snooze button9) too often， creating a stress-fueled dash to get to work on time? Gone. And all without any sense of loss.

That’s the thing about unnecessary stuff—you never miss it.

So much is lost by holding on to what we don’t need， and there is so much to gain by letting it go.

1.spring clean：(尤指在春季的)大掃除

2.then and there：當場；立即

3.nail polish：指甲油；趾甲油

4.foul [fa#650;l] adj. 難聞的

5.moisturizer [#712;m#596;#618;st#643;#601;#716;ra#618;z#601;(r)] n. 潤膚膏

6.anti-frizz serum：撫平毛躁精華

7.hang on to：保留，保有

8.epiphany [#618;#712;p#618;f#601;ni] n. 對事物真諦的頓悟或洞察

9.snooze button：催醒鬧鐘的按鈕(指鬧鐘上的一個按鈕，按下此按鈕鬧鈴聲停止，但短時間內會再次響起，用于反復提醒定鬧鈴人起床)

我已開始著手春季大掃除了。是的，我知道現在還是冬天，不過看看我屋子里亂七八糟的樣子，如果能在春天前把一切都收拾妥當，那就算幸運的了。

我最近讀到一句話：你所擁有的東西中，20%的物品占據著所有物品80%的價值。我看了一眼周圍的東西，突然意識到這句話的確很有道理。我當即決定只把有價值的東西留在身邊。我還決定，要實現我的“宏圖大計”，我必須將屋子里那80%沒用的東西全部清理出去。

理性思考和審慎行動顯然是我的強項。

我的清理行動就從浴室的櫥柜開始。

櫥柜里竟然能塞進那么多東西，這太令人驚訝了。但我不想就這么把東西隨意地扔掉——我希望做到準確無誤。于是，我清點了櫥柜里所有的東西，然后將總數乘以0.8，最后發現，我需要扔掉57件東西。

一個人獨自生活得太久，就容易干這樣的傻事。

我從那些自己覺得用不著的東西開始下手。那瓶已經干了的藍色指甲油？扔掉。那瓶味道難聞的保濕霜？扔掉。那瓶越抹頭發越毛躁的抗毛躁護發精華液？扔掉。

不過，當我扔到第20件的時候，我發現真是選不出來了：這個我可能哪天要用；那個的味道我很喜歡；這個的包裝很可愛。我還得扔掉37樣東西呢，但現在卻一樣也舍不得再扔了。

于是，我改變了戰術。我不再絞盡腦汁去想哪些東西是我不需要的，而是開始考慮哪些是我確實需要的。哪個重要？哪個有用？結果令我大吃一驚。我挑出了八樣東西放回櫥柜，但緊接著在第九件上又犯難了：這個有用嗎？還要留著嗎？

等我把所有重要的東西都放到了架子上，再決定如何處理地上那29件東西就簡單多了。其中20件直接扔進垃圾桶，一點兒也不覺得惋惜。剩下那幾件，盡管沒那么重要，不過還有些價值，留一留也無妨。因此，我最終只扔掉了40件東西。不過換個角度想——我最終居然扔掉了40件東西！

我跪在浴室的地板上，看著眼前剛整理出來的井然有序的櫥柜，開始有些激動起來。試想一下，如果我給每個櫥柜都來一次這樣的大掃除！不！每個房間！不——我的整個生活！如果我不去關注那些不需要的東西，而是多想一想自己真正需要什么，結果會是怎樣？為什么我不能好好珍惜那些生命中最重要的東西，把其他的一切全部拋開，不再讓無用的廢物填滿我的生活呢？

把沒用的東西扔掉，這感覺真好。你會感到如釋重負，也不會動不動就把房子搞得亂七八糟了。

但是，在生活中，我們也會做許多毫無必要的事情，這些事令我們筋疲力盡、捉襟見肘、郁郁寡歡。這次大掃除讓我頓悟了生活的真諦，我現在也開始有意識地在生活中拋棄那些毫無必要的事情。

沒什么好節目了還盯著電視看？不這么干了。因為不及時歸還租借的DVD碟片被罰款？不這么干了。不斷按下鬧鐘上的“重響”功能鍵，結果為了趕上按時上班而緊張地一路狂奔？不這么干了。這一切都可以統統放棄而絲毫不會覺得有任何損失。

不必要的東西就是這樣——你永遠不會懷念它。

執著于我們不需要的東西令我們失去了太多，而放手之后我們卻會有豐碩的收獲。