There has long been a debate over who was the smartest U.S. president. While he was president, Donald Trump repeatedly told reporters that he is a “genius”. However, I think America’s smartest president was James Garfield, but read my story below and judge for yourself.
James Garfield grew up in extreme poverty. He was mocked by other children for the tattered clothing he had to wear. Nevertheless, Garfield was recognized as a genius at an early age. At the age of 3, he was attending school and reading adult books. He paid his way through college working as a janitor at Williams College and graduated summa cum laude. He then began teaching at Hiram College. At the age of 26, he became president of the college. (Imagine – a 26-year-old college president.) Garfield could speak 9 languages. When the Civil War began, Garfield joined the Union army. At the age of 30 and after a series of victories, Garfield was promoted to the rank of general. He became nationally famous after his army permanently drove Confederate forces out of eastern Tennessee, even though Garfield had no artillery and only half as many men as the Confederates. Garfield won every battle he fought.
James Garfield might have been a great president, but unfortunately, he was shot and killed just a few months into his presidency. Garfield was in a train station in Washington, D.C. chatting with Robert Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, when a lunatic walked up behind Garfield and shot him in the back. Strangely, a lot of people died that way – shortly after meeting Robert Lincoln – but that’s a story for another day.
HOW TO GET RID OF CLUTTER AND HELP OTHERS TO GET RID OF THEIR CLUTTER.
There are a lot of books on the market about decluttering, but the advice in most of them seems like nonsense to me. The most popular of these books are the ones written by Marie Kondo. Her big idea is that you should only keep things that make you happy or that “spark joy” as she puts it. She says: “If it does (spark joy), keep it. If not, dispose of it.” That may sound like a profound idea, but it’s irrational to get rid of things that you need, whether they ‘spark joy’ or not. I have a spare tire in the trunk of my car. So do you. But why? Nobody keeps a spare tire because it ‘sparks joy’. You keep a spare tire because you may need it.
Cluttering vs. Hoarding. These words don’t mean the same thing. Here is how I define the difference. Cluttering is a large accumulation of possessions in someone’s home. Hoarding is when that accumulation gets to the point that rooms or parts of a house can’t be accessed or used for their intended purpose. Like most landlords, I’ve had to deal with hoarding in my business. I once had a tenant who rented a 2-bedroom cottage from me. He had so much stuff in his bedrooms that he had to sleep in the living room because he couldn’t get into either bedroom. None of his stuff had any apparent use or market value. I had another memorable tenant in that same cottage several years later who also slept in the living room because both of her bedrooms were full of pianos. It was impossible to get into either room. She used to check newspapers and Craigslist looking for free pianos. You might be surprised how many free pianos you’ll find on Craigslist. When I checked this morning, there were over 50 free pianos listed on Craigslist in the San Francisco bay area, including a couple of grand pianos. Whenever I see a piano store, I wonder how they stay in business. There are always a lot of free pianos available, but I digress. Below are some of my ideas on how to reduce clutter.
Remember that most people overvalue the things they own. This is the #1 reason why people can’t get rid of stuff. How can you convince someone to give away a cookie jar that is worth $5 if the owner believes that it is worth $500? Wild overvaluations like this are very common.
Why do people overvalue their stuff? People often think about what they paid for an item, which may have no relationship to what it is worth now. Things that were expensive when you bought them may now be worthless. That can be hard for people to accept. Things like clothing, furniture, and electronic products lose most of their value as soon as they leave the store. A desktop computer that you paid $2,000 for 10 years ago is probably worth nothing now.
People think about what things used to sell for. There are a lot of things that used to be expensive but that aren’t anymore. Silverware is a good example. I can remember when every department store had a silverware department. Silverware was the most common item at bridal registries. In many homes, the silverware was the most valuable thing in the house. Today, very few people want silverware. Manufacturers figured out ways of making stainless steel that looks just like silverware but that never needs polishing. Also, big formal dinners are now a rarity. Most silverware that is purchased by pawnbrokers or at auctions these days is bought for its scrap value and melted down.
Tastes and attitudes change. My stepmother collected carved ivory figurines. She spent tens of thousands of dollars on her huge collection. When she died, her ivory sold for a fraction of what she paid for it. As elephants began disappearing in Africa and Asia, attitudes about ivory changed. There are now international treaties restricting the sale of ivory. A lot of antique dealers won’t buy the stuff anymore regardless of the price. There are lots of things that used to be highly collectible and expensive but that are now nearly worthless; things like tobacco jars, Hummel figurines, Thomas Kinkade prints, British royal family commemorative porcelain, and most signed sports memorabilia. The FBI estimates that between 70% and 90% of all signed sports memorabilia is fake.
How to find out what your stuff is really worth. This has become a lot easier than it used to be. That’s because we have eBay. Ebay provides us with a simple way of finding out what our things are actually worth. If you know someone who has a wildly inflated idea of what something he owns is worth, suggest that he go to eBay and see what other people are selling that thing for. That may pop your friend’s bubble, but you’d be doing him a favor. I know that checking prices on eBay has made it a lot easier for me to get rid of things.
How to get started. Look around your house. Think about an item that you never use, preferably something that takes up a lot of space or that is in the way. Then ask yourself why you keep it. Then go to eBay and try to find that item or something just like it and see what it is selling for. You may be surprised. It may be worth more than you think, but usually it will be less. Remember that some people list stuff on eBay at unrealistically high prices, so look for average listing prices of items like yours. Also, if you decide to sell an item on eBay, think about how much time you will have to spend listing and selling it, packaging it up and shipping it. Plus, eBay and PayPal will each get a percent of your sale. Most of the time, you are better off giving away an item to a charity thrift shop.
TATTOOS AND SPELL CHECKERS.
I’ve been teaching history at junior high schools for a long time. One of things that has largely disappeared over the years is spelling errors in student essays. They used to be very common but not anymore. Students now write their essays on computers with spell checkers and auto-suggestion. If you’re not familiar with it, a computer’s auto-suggestion feature analyses a sentence and suggests an alternative word or phrase. For example, a student of mine once wrote: “My family took a tour of Notre Dame cathedral last summer. The tour was given by a French priest. He spoke very good English, but we couldn’t understand a lot of what he said because the agnostics in the church were terrible.” Well, the agnostics in the church may have been terrible, but a computer these days would probably have suggested that he substitute ‘acoustics’ for ‘agnostics.’ One place where I still see a lot of spelling errors is in tattoos. I think that’s because tattoo pens don’t have spell checkers in them. Take a look at the tattoos below.
