# Chapter 226

Einstein said to find simplicity out of clutter, but he had never observed my life. I seem to have clutter, create clutter, find clutter, and generate clutter everywhere I live and go. My desk surface is a famous subject in our house and everybody wants to clean it - but they have learned that this is completely forbidden! My office is a visual wreck, and my wife always wants to take it all to the garbage! My room always has a pile of clothes on the floor or chair and my poor wife has to live with me! Clutter is everywhere near me! Clutter is not just a result of messiness, it is more often in my life a result of time differences.

This stack of papers is critical, but not until later in the month. That stack of papers is critical next quarter, that stack right now - and /viola/ we have three new stacks of paper on the newly cleaned desk. The clothes piled at my bedside are a result of time differences. I wash socks and underwear after a single day, but shirts can usually go 4-6 days depending on the temps, and jeans can go months between washings - and so the pile never goes away.

I am not opposed to finding simplicity but after 59 years I don’t know if there are any ways to simplify time differences.