Chaos in a box.

This you must avoid, when your living space is limited, as in a one-room apartment, houseboat, tent or trailer.

Take a Holiday Rambler camper trailer, for example: It's trim and tight, with no room for luxuries, collectibles or detached furniture.

It has no space for the superfluous, not like a house with an attic, basement, pantry, carport and Action Building.

It's more like living in an Action Building, if the building had tires, a tag and a bumper sticker. ("If this building is in action, cause no distraction.")

When your living space is limited, clutter threatens your sanity.

Dirty dishes cannot pile up. Clothes cannot long be strewn.

The stove must be cleared, the sink emptied, the bed made, the pots and pans stowed in their overhead compartments.

Neglect these chores, and what do you get?

Chaos in a box: You have no place to work, sit, lie, stretch an arm or leg. The confined clutter's like living in a closet.

People peering into your quarters think you're a hoarder and alert a reality TV show.

To fend off insanity, a trailer troll must adhere to a discipline of routine cleaning: dishes washed and put away; clothes folded and put away; trash collected and put away.

Leave trash, scraps and dirty dishes lying around, and mice and ants will come in. Leave the bed unmade and road dust will coat it.

Leave your clothes everywhere and you will bury the flashlight you need to see where the mice and ants are getting in.

Stick to the essentials, and you learn you can get by with so much less.

It makes camper life a model for the mind, a reminder that in your brain, space is limited. Clog it with clutter and there's a hoarder in your head.

You can get by without a TV, if you have to. You can turn off the computer, put it on the shelf and spend more time outside. You think more clearly without filling your brain with ball games and bad news.

You don't need much to escape all that: With adequate storage for the essentials, all the interior living space you really need is functional: a desk, a kitchen, a bed and a toilet. You need a place to work, to eat, to sleep and ….

Well, actually, you can get by without a toilet, if you have to, out in the woods -- just like a TV.

When your space is limited, anything that gets in your way must be removed -- either cleaned and put away, or discarded.

Life is too small to waste on garbage.

Tim Chitwood, tchitwood@ledger-enquirer.com, 706-571-8508.