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The Widget Phenomenon
Have you ever kept something in case it comes in useful?
That’s what we call the widget phenomenon. We keep something because we’re sure it’ll come in useful at some point in the future, so we keep it believing that it’ll save us money because we won’t have to go out and buy another one when the 'widget' is needed.
It’s all well intentioned, but is not based on having any idea WHEN we’re likely to use it, if indeed we ever will, but rather because of some belief that it’s saving time, money and effort.
The trouble is that if we do come across a situation where we can use that thing we decided to keep, because we’ve kept so many other things that might come in useful, we can’t easily, quickly or effortlessly find that thing. Often, due to time pressure, we give up looking for it amongst all the widgets we’ve kept and go out and buy another one anyway.
So the well intentioned reason for keeping it becomes invalid.
Keeping things ‘in case they come in useful’ is one of the most common reasons for keeping things, yet one of the most unsound arguments. It’s a justification that we learnt from our parents and grandparents who were brought up in or just after the post-war eara, where rationing was still in place and people had to be creative and inventive with how to turn one thing into another. The TV programme Blue Peter continued this tradition as thousands of children across the UK were asking their mothers to save yoghurt pots, cereal packets and lots more besides, ready for the weekly ‘making something out of nothing’ feature on the programme.
It’s a nice idea to keep things to save time, money and energy at some point in the future, but if we have no idea when that will be and have had that widget for more than a year already without using it, can you really justify keeping it when there may be someone else out there who can, and more importantly WILL use it sooner rather than later?
The choice is simple - you can either keep the 'widget' and have less space, or let go of the widget so that someone else can use it quicker than you. The advantage of letting go of things is that you'll have more space as a result.
So what's your priority? Having things that might come in handy, or having more space?
If your priority is more space but you don't know how to create more space, give us a call on 01295 275030 and we can talk through the options.
