Dear Thoreau: My Phone Charger Cords Have Taken Over

A tangled drawer of old charger cords, waiting for a long overdue reckoning.

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Problem

My Phone Charger Cords Have Taken Over the Kitchen

Dear Thoreau,

I opened the junk drawer last Sunday and counted 14 charger cords. Fourteen! I own one phone. There is a cord for a flip phone I gave away in 2012, and a tangle I am afraid to touch in case it is holding something up. Every time I try to sort them, I stop at the third cord and make tea instead. My husband says we might need them someday. Someday has had eleven years. How do I get this drawer, and my kitchen, back?

— Tangled in Tulsa

Thoreau Replies

Henry David Thoreau, American essayist and naturalist (1817 to 1862)

Dear Tangled in Tulsa,

Dear Tangled in Tulsa, I once built a house for about the price of a good winter coat, so a drawer holding fourteen cords for one phone makes me feel faint. I will say this kindly: the cords are not the problem. The drawer is only where your problem happens to be sleeping. Let me show you what is really tangled.

Every cord you keep for someday costs you a small payment today. You pay it in space, in attention, and in a flicker of guilt each time the drawer sticks. I saw the same thing in my neighbors, who owned great heaps of furniture and then spent their days tending it. As I wrote in Walden, "Our life is frittered away by detail." A drawer of cords is detail with a plug on it.

So do not sort. Sorting is how you ended up with tea. Instead, keep exactly one cord for each device that is plugged in somewhere in your house right now, and nothing more. Test each cord against a real device, once, and let the rest go. Put the unmatched cords in a bag for electronics recycling. Your husband gets one small box for his someday cords. A box has edges. Someday can live within edges.

This week, set a timer for fifteen minutes and do the drawer standing up, so you cannot wander off. Carry the bag to your car before you can reconsider. Then stand in the clear kitchen and notice how much room there is. I found it was enough for a whole afternoon of thinking. Try it with a drawer.

— Thoreau

In Thoreau's Own Words

“Our life is frittered away by detail.”

— Thoreau, Walden

In the chapter where he explains why he went to live by Walden Pond, Thoreau argues that most people crowd their days with trivial matters and needless possessions. He urges readers to simplify, simplify, so that attention is left for what actually matters. Today the same crowding shows up in junk drawers, inboxes, and apps, so his warning about small things quietly eating a life still lands.

Who Was Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard. He worked as a teacher, surveyor, and pencil maker, and he often helped in his family's pencil business. From 1845 to 1847 he lived in a small cabin he built near Walden Pond, owned by his friend Emerson, and wrote about the experience in Walden, published in 1854. He also wrote the essay later known as Civil Disobedience. He died of tuberculosis at 44. Readers still turn to him for his case for simple living and close attention to nature.

Try This Today

Pick one drawer, shelf, or cupboard in your home today. Set a timer for ten minutes and stay on your feet. Take out everything and put back only what you used in the past year or can name a clear reason to keep. Bag the rest immediately and put the bag by the door. When the timer rings, stop, even if you are not done.

Your Turn

What small thing are you keeping for someday that is quietly costing you space, attention, or peace of mind today?

MINDFULNESS AND PEACE

SIMPLICITY

LETTING GO

Letters are composites written by the Lifted Words editors. Replies are written in the spirit of each thinker; the quote in the blue box is their own.