You might find it a bit strange, but my favourite gadget isn't my smartphone or even my laptop. It's a vacuum cleaner. Yes, you read that correctly. A vacuum cleaner. Not just one, mind you, but four. One of them is exclusively for my garden. Now, how did that happen?
It all began about a year ago. A friend leaned over during one of our catch-ups and, with a hushed tone you'd reserve for divulging state secrets, suggested the
Titan vacuum cleaner. So, there I was, a grown adult, inexplicably excited about a cleaning appliance. My garage had turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland following some DIY ventures, and my house wasn't doing much better.
Spring arrived, as it does, and I found myself in a garden that was far from ready for its "summer BBQ debut." Sunlight, or the absence of it, had led me to install astroturf in my back garden. "Astroturf is practically maintenance-free," they said. "You could even vacuum it," they joked. But why not? Out came the Titan.
The results were surprisingly cathartic: small dirt particles, feathers, leaves - all vacuumed up. I felt like Archimedes, only my "Eureka!" was about domestic chores.
So, you might say my passion for tidiness has sort of spiralled out of control, infiltrating all aspects of my life. It's not just the garden or the house anymore; it's everything. Documents, clothes, and even the elusive digital space of zeros and ones. I'm drawn to Scandinavian minimalism, the kind where less is, in fact, more.
It's a funny thing. I began to notice a sort of parallel universe of cleanliness. When I'm knee-deep in a stressful project and my mind begins to resemble a labyrinth of chaos, I turn to something oddly therapeutic: tidying. It's not procrastination, I assure you. It's more like a mental palate cleanser. I organise a drawer, or perhaps straighten my desktop, both virtual and physical. Almost miraculously, as the physical clutter disappears, so does the mental fog.
And then, it happens. The once overwhelming project now seems like a series of manageable tasks, each listed in a tidy to-do list. Your action plan doesn't seem so daunting anymore.
Conclusion: The Zen of Tidiness
So there we have it. A journey from vacuum cleaners to mental clarity. It sounds unlikely, but it's true. Tidiness isn't just an aesthetic; it's a mental Swiss Army knife. The act of cleaning doesn't just bring order to our homes; it's a conduit for mental peace and efficiency. So the next time your mind feels like a jigsaw puzzle that's missing a few pieces, try cleaning up. Who knows? You might just vacuum your way to zenlightenment.
Credits:Feng Shui Ideation: Victoria Hutton – The Balancer of Thoughts and WordsMeditative Proofreading: Chat GPT – The Mindful GrammarianZen Tone of Voice: Jon Ronson – The Haiku Master of NarrativeTao Adviser & Brainstormer: Craig Carswell – The Yin to Our Creative Yang