Southern Californians love the gadgets. Fast cars, Magnolia on Wilshire, the 405 Freeway at the 10, I-pods, cel phones and their Dysons.
Speaking of your Dyson, how many of us also have an over-abundance of cleaning must-haves-- a shop vac" for the garage, a large household vacuum for floors and upholstery, a Hoover Floor Mate for cleaning wood floors and tile, a central vac system, a rechargeable hand-held quick-picker upper for those small messy spills, a Swiffer and a car vacuum to plug into your dash lighter?
Have you gotten rid of them all when the Dyson premiered on the Red Carpet?
Chances are you haven't gotten rid of none. You're scared you might need them next century.
If all these Southern California vacuum must-haves are not properly installed, always charged, easily accessible, and not used often, you end up with a lot of extra equipment that is only helpful on occasion and contributes to a messy home and car.
So why the heck do we have so many?
In our consumer-crazy, mass consumption society, Angelinos purchase items with good intentions and they don’t get used the majority of the time. According to the Soap and Detergent Assocation, "Getting rid of excess clutter would elimindate 40-percent of housework in the average home."
A good lesson I share with clients is to make sure their purchases handle multiple tasks, and that they have a particular storage place thereby eliminating multiple machines lounging about. Do you really want your Miele lounging about?
If the unit come with mounting hardware for the wall, mount it. If a unit recharges, make sure you place the unit near an outlet. If your personal gadgets are not reachable, and always ready, you won’t use them.
But that doesn’t work on the 405 Freeway.
I'd love to know from readers. How do you handle the clash of the clutter?
