Starting the Great Household Purge

Muda. That's the Japanese word for waste. Over the years, I have compiled a great deal of muda or what I call "stuff" and stored it around my house. It seems there is always a good reason to keep something someone gives me(or I salvage) until five years later when I can't remember the reason. I confess that I am a packrat and all that extra stuff justs adds to my clutter and reduces my available space. It's the America way of endless yard sales and two car garages that are full of junk. However I have decided to go lean and start the great household purge.

After speaking with my friend and minister Steve, I decided to join him as his family starts purging. From both a lean and spiritual perspective, purging the clutter has several positive effects which I will elaborate in the future. Realistically, it will take from 6-9 months to get this done since the muda didn't just get there overnight. However, I have spent about a month starting this process and here's a few benefits I have already experienced:

1) My camping gear is neatly organized in a 5S fashion in the garage. It takes no time(2-4 minutes) to pack things up for a weekend trip versus digging through storage.

2) I sold an old car, a broken down riding lawn mover, and an old refrigerator and collected a cool $1520 from all sales. The car had been sitting unused for two years!

3) The other car(yeah-too many vehicles...guilty as charged) I donated to a couple that the husband is dying of cancer. This is my treasure in heaven investment and I was glad to help them out. It's a great feeling to practice the Acts 2 principle of "sharing everything they had."

More of the great purge as it progresses. Keep on improving and murder the muda!

Dan Lafever
Kaizeneer