When you wake up in the morning, is your first impulse (after peeing) to strip naked and step on the bathroom scale, dreading its daily verdict? Unless you are on a juice fast or have been prepping for a colonoscopy, the numbers are rarely encouraging. Sadly, scales do not supply alternate facts. They provide the soul-destroying empirical evidence confirming that there are grave consequences to be had from eating too much Red Velvet cake.    Perhaps weighing yourself first thing is not the most positive way to begin your day.  Millions share your preoccupation.

We downsize and clear homes for a living, so we can safely say, apart from plumbers, we spend more time in bathrooms than most of the general population.  Almost every home has a bathroom scale. If the scale is in decent working condition it is on the floor. But like other categories of CRUD we domestic archeologists uncover, there is a tendency to retain non-working weighing devices.  Unused, broken and neglected scales tend to wind up concealed in vanity cabinets, the upper regions of linen closets or in overlooked corners of the cellar.  In other words, people shove them into anywhere there is room.

Body weight notwithstanding, we get the impression that today’s individuals are weighing and measuring just about everything. Just think of how many measuring tools you employ in your kitchen: measuring spoons, measuring cups (both liquid and dry, glass and plastic), food scales, wind-up timers and spaghetti portion measurers. Toolboxes abound with measuring tapes as do sewing rooms. Rulers reside within the home in multiple locations, from those that fit in a pencil case all the way up to the mighty yardstick. Everyone has at least one thermometer to take her body temperature and as well as an outdoor model mounted outside to let her know whether it is worth going out in the elements. You may own scales specifically for weighing your luggage before you get to the airport to ensure your suitcases make it on the plane minus an extra charge. Got a car? Guess you have a gauge to test tire pressure. In summary, there is a good deal that can possibly go.

CRUD Challenge

Thanks to fitness tracking technology we now have within reach, the ability to compute the number of steps we take within a day, calories burned, stairs climbed, heart rates and get directions, from a single device worn on the wrist. Why not add functionality that could monitor your clutter quotient? We wish we could equip our clients with Clutter-o-Matics.  Ideally, their sensors would detect when storage is becoming unmanageable, items are duplicated, when drawers and cabinets exceed their capacity, and when there is no place to sit. A deluxe version would come with special features that alert you whenever donation or recycling trucks are in your area. These models would be armed with special GPS designed  for garage sale avoidance. We can always dream.

Allow us to make a prediction here. Measure for measure, once you have culled through this diverse category, your storage vacancy rate will improve. In the meantime a bit of elbow grease should be applied  to expunging duplicates that essentially calculate the same thing. Don’t be too overzealous. Leave the working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in place. One more thought. If you are serious about losing weight, close the laptop, get up from the couch and start  finding and boxing up the excess weighing and measuring tools  for donation or recycling. Use your fitness tracker to monitor how many calories you burn from this activity.