What Happens When Everything Comes Out

We opened one up and everything inside was covered in mold.

I salvaged a few things, but most of it was too far gone to save.

The cabinet itself was huge and couldn’t fit through the door, so my brother and nephew had to break it apart and drag it outside.

And once we cleared a small space and started removing things, loads more stuff was able to get out. (The scheduled bulk pick up really motivated my dad!)

Old slats of wood and cabinet doors, bikes, broken chairs…

Things that had been stuffed into the basement and should have just been thrown out, but were saved for “just in case.”

It was all sitting there at the curb when it hit me…

This is what it would feel like if everything in your house had to be put outside at once.

It’s a lot, and it’s exhausting, not to mention visible.

People walk by. People look. People go through it.

It’s the things you forgot, couldn’t find, told yourself you didn’t have.

And then I thought about this week’s parsha, Tazria–Metzora, which talks about tzaraat, an affliction usually found on the skin but that could also affect your home.

Tzaraat isn’t a random thing. Chazal connect it to lashon hara.

You say something. It feels small, like it didn’t matter. But it doesn’t stay small. It balloons and becomes so much more than it should have been. Not just the effect of what you said, but what it does to you.

When you speak lashon hara, you may believe it has no effect on you. (Forget how it affects the other person for a minute.) But in Biblical times, it showed up. On your skin. Then it spread to your clothing, your belongings, and your home.

Until everything has to come outside, where everyone can see everything. Your private life alarming public.

Forget lashon hara for a second.

Can you imagine bringing everything out onto your front lawn? The amount of work it would be and the space it would fill?

Seriously, I challenge you. Can you even imagine it?

Even if your clutter has nothing to do with lashon hara, it follows the same pattern.

I had to be honest with myself this week, because I thought I had already done a lot in my parents’ house after my mom passed away. And I had. And yet there was still so much I didn’t get to, and spaces I didn’t even know about.

In particular, I have been working hard to clear out the old papers in my dad’s office. Scanning, shredding. It takes time, lots of time. (And I have already filled the recycling bin and about five trash bags full of shredding this week alone.)

We’re working through it together.

If I say, “Dad, there’s a box in the living room, can you look through it?” the answer is usually “not now.” But if I’m sitting there, scanning and shredding alongside him, he is much more likely to sit down and do the work with me.

That’s the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it.

And just like I’m here to help my dad, I am here to help you.

You don’t have to do this alone.

You can deal with your papers now.

Or you can leave them for your kids. Or you can be like my dad and leave them to his kids, but help them through it 🙂

That’s really what it comes down to.

If you’ve been avoiding your paper because it feels like too much, this is exactly why I created the Paper Purge.

Not to teach you. To sit with you while you actually go through it.

Because this doesn’t get done with good intentions. It gets done when you actually sit down and do it.

 April 26, 12 pm Eastern / 7 pm Israel time

You and me, and dozens of people stopping the avoidance and starting the progress.

You show up with your paper.

We go through it together.

That’s it.

You don’t need to take everything out at once. You probably won’t finish. But you will finally start.

You don’t have to do this alone.