Unloading

[cjsmith]

A friend of mine is making wonderful progress on clearing STUFF out of her house. She mentioned how good it feels.

I remember how good it felt to me. I used to be able to get rid of crap, and I always felt better afterwards. It was a weight off my shoulders, a load off my mind, an uplifting of my soul. It was wonderful. I remember.

So why can't I get rid of STUFF any more? I go from one shelf or drawer to the next, and then in mild annoyance I try again in another room, but I'm not truly willing to part with anything I see.

I bet a lot of this has to do with having no paycheck for the last fifteen months. Every object in the house could conceivably - chant it with me now - "come in handy some day". If I can't deceive myself with that tired old line, the object still could be of value to SOMEone, and so it's awfully hard to throw it away. But selling it is a hassle, often more hassle than it's worth. Even finding someone who wants a thing for free is often a hassle. So I don't do anything... and I'm surrounded by STUFF.

Comments

[wordripples.livejournal.com]

Good luck! During my last purge, I started saying, "Does this thing represent the person I want to be?" If not, out it went. It was especially helpful with clothes I'd almost never worn or that reminded me of good times I'd had in them.

I turn 40 in June, so I'm trying to focus on starting life from this point and going forward, rather than hanging on to what I've lost to the past.

Once I took pictures of "reminder items" so I could keep the photos for reminders and toss the things--much less space!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Does this thing represent the person I want to be?

What a cool question! I may try that. It worked well for you?

Once I took pictures of "reminder items" so I could keep the photos for reminders and toss the things--much less space!

I've never quite done that, but I've been in shops where I've really wanted to buy an object and settled for asking permission to take a photo of it instead. I have photos of some really cool things. Maybe I wouldn't like the things half so well if I owned them.

[wordripples.livejournal.com]

Yes, that question really has worked well. It applies well to buying things too--reserving money for the best things and not settling for things that would reinforce the low self-image.

One caveat. I have this thing with clothes that has to do with being 12 years old and it being not o.k. to be me. So when I applied the question to my clothes, almost nothing stayed and I had to go out and get new stuff. But that was o.k. ;-)