Right after I get done talking about how my “thrift” thing sometimes edges into “packrat,” I get a Daily OM entitled Clearing a Space for Change: The Weight of Objects.
In life, we tend to have an easier time acquiring possessions than we do getting rid of them. Just as we harbor emotional baggage that is difficult to let go of, our lives can tend to be filled with material objects that we may feel compelled to hold on to…{major snip}…It’s easy to convince ourselves that unused possessions might come in handy someday or that parting with them will cause you emotional pain. However, when your personal space is filled with objects, there is no room for anything new to enter and stay in your life.
What? Why is everybody staring at me?
OK, OK, it’s true. I hold onto way too much stuff “in case.” And sometimes I even worry that if I get rid of something I haven’t used in a decade, I will immediately need to replace it and that will be a Waste Of Money.
As we were doing all that remodeling and I was forced to do things like move my yarn stash several times, clean out our whole, entire, ALL OF IT closet AND dresser AND armoire, and remove everything from the linen cupboards, I was also forced to realize just how much stuff I owned that I had flat-out forgotten I even had.
Stuff that hadn’t seen the light of day for literally years churned to the surface. Stuff I was holding onto “in case,” stuff (some of it pretty darned ugly) I kept only because it had been a gift and well, it was a gift, you don’t get rid of gifts…
Sifting through all of it was an incredible experience.
Donating and/or Freecycling bag after bag of the stuff was…invigorating.
Once I got over the nausea, anyway.
I have to say, it feels awfully good to be able to actually put things away…as opposed to finding somewhere to cram it until I can figure out where it actually belongs.
Also, this statement from the article is sooooo true: Clearing your personal space can lead to mental clarity and an improved memory.
Ya. Especially when the answer to, “Where have my keys gotten to now?!” isn’t “Have you tried looking under that pile of magazines? Oh. How about that stack of cardboard that needs to go out to the recycling, hint-hint? Oh. Among the jumble of shoes? Oh. How about under all those jackets? You did, huh…wellllllllll, you can try shifting that stack of mail to check under it, but you might want to put on a hardhat, first…”
Recipe Tuesday - Mung Bean Curry
3 weeks ago
5 comments:
Wait, when were you in my house?
How is it that you are describing my sideboard so perfectly?
I think that maybe I need to feel invigorated.
Maybe tomorrow.
it's so true. and throwing things out makes me feel good! only keep what you love.
I have a low tolerance for clutter and disorder, and also a husband and three sons. I clean and organize constantly, and ,with the exception of my stash, I get rid of things as soon as I decide we have no foreseeable use for them. (This sometimes gets me in trouble, since I do have to replace things when I guess wrong.) I still feel overwhelmed by all our stuff. After moving 11 times in 10 years, I've come to dread having "too much stuff" to move on my own. Even though we've been in this house almost 10 years, I still worry about it.
I feel kind of trapped right now because I got rid of a TON of stuff, but am still tripping on piles of things I actually do need. But in a thousand square foot house with only one real closet, there's just no place to put anything. So I think I should get rid of more... but what? So I move each pile from one place to another, thinking that will some how make it fit somewhere. Really, it's time to now go through the things I think I still need. That's the hard part.
My first "Science of Mind" class, this week, one of the assignments at the first week was "clean out a drawer or garage to create space for something new to come in to your life." Of course I haven't done it yet!
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