Clean As You Go

Slogans move design principles forward. Doug Sutton, owner of San Juan Mountain Nursery in Durango, Colorado regularly reminded me, Clean as you go. As often as not, I'd look behind me and see mud or dirt ground into the sidewalk I had been using all day. Life is messy. I cannot always clean as I go. However, as with many good ideas, I find myself applying this useful principle in all areas of my life, not only planning and designing sustainable landscape.

Packing boxes, preparing to move into a different place, the clean as you go principle is to time management. Rather than dropping pieces of tape, cardboard and the like on this hardwood floor they go into a discard pile or the waste/recycle bin avoiding a future time-consuming chore of scraping tape and picking-up later. By investing wisely in time as we go, time accumulates in a virtual account immediately available when it is time to relax.

Clean as you go also reminds us to apologize when wrong.

To err is human, to forgive divine

Alexander Pope

We all make mistakes, especially interacting with the natural world. Traveling around Asia can reveal how Westerners overvalue and defend our small self. There have been innumerable times when I refused to admit fault nor failure. Rather, I ran and hid or fought back with the vigor of a crusader - knowing I had made a mistake. And wanting secretly to correct, set things right. In such events I would only apologize if caught. Now I find abundant freedom in regularly cleaning up relationships, personal and business, with honest and prompt communication. 

A stitch in time saves nine. If I am running late on an appointment I always feel embarrassed calling on the road, letting them know an estimated time of arrival, eta. However, I know I appreciate being allowed the dignity of such a call so I can decide what to do with the additional time before the meeting. It takes courage to admit fault, to apologize, to set things right and clean as you go.