Keep a Low Maintenance Life

Washing, cleaning, fixing, organizing, repeat. The elements in our life require a certain amount of maintenance. But how much of the maintenance we do is actually required? It seems to me that there are only three reason why we maintain things:

  1. Functionality
  2. Looks
  3. Status quo

Functionality is a perfectly justified reason to maintain all of our elements. Looks are kinda important too. But how much of the maintenance we do is solely for the purpose of keeping functionality? How much for looks even?

Example: Consider self cleaning (showering/bathing). There are very real hygienic reasons to keep clean, like preventing infection. But must we shower every day to fight off infection? Certainly not. There is looks to consider as well though. Smells too. If we do heavy manual labor during the day, then YES it may be absolutely necessary to shower/bathe every day (maybe twice a day). But if we work desk jobs, than the likelihood we will get dirty or perspire enough to even be noticeable is probably slim. Cleaning every day may not be necessary. Not necessary for functional OR cosmetic reasons.

So why do we do it? Status quo. Social convention. It’s what is expected of us. In the end, it is the norm we have become accustomed to.

I don’t think I need to point out that these are illusions. Mental limitations that are in the end, just mental clutter.

How many of us are over maintaining for mere cosmetic reasons, or even worse ….. social convention?

This is true for ALL the elements in our lives we maintain: Our home, our automobiles, our laundry. So many of us are over maintaining the elements in our lives to keep with the status quo, and it is clutter eating up our most valuable resource ……time.

Maintain our elements for functional purposes, and for a modest amount of cosmetic purposes only. Doing this, we will find that we gain back a considerable amount of our time.

Just as a general rule, I say: “It’s not dirty unless it is noticeably (with at least one of your senses) dirty. The fact that it has been a while since you cleaned something doesn’t make it dirty”