This week at LifeHack I wrote about the art of choosing a private high school. Why go private when so many public schools are of such high quality? To me it's about the values that are most important in life and finding a school that fits within that frame of reference.

I then came across another LH article called How to Purge Your Closet which struck a chord because Cary and I have been cleaning closets this week in an effort to finally get the house "clutter free" before school begins in a few weeks. It seems that there is a direct link between the lifestyle we seek to create and the amount of junk we allow ourselves to have.

This may also be why Leo from Zen Habits article about minimalist decorating is so difficult for so many of us- we have too much stuff. I know that I do. Susan K. Rowland talks at length about this in her book Make Room for God: Clearing Out the Clutter (review here)-

"Clutter steals away our time and saps our energy. It takes time and energy to keep it, to take care of it, to find things we need buried under it. Clutter makes it hard to relax. Perhaps the real reason we 'move up' is because clutter makes our houses smaller."

What can you do about clutter this weekend? Rowland envisions a home that captures at least a few of the following concepts:

The ability to open any closet and find what you're looking for, quickly

To have only the things we need, love and care for

To be free of clutter and enjoy the freedom that accompanies simplicity

To free up time to do things instead of taking time to move things

To be at peace, knowing that you own your stuff and not the other way around