Declutter Report

[cjsmith]

Puzzles: (Mentioned else-LJ, then brought here.)

On Sunday I went through six boxes of mechanical puzzles -- you know, get the ring off the rope, get the chain untangled from the horseshoes, assemble a cube from these fifteen pieces, that kind of thing. I set aside as many of those puzzles for freecycling as I could manage. I think I kept about half, although they're the larger ones; I'm only down to four boxes. I'll do another pass later.

Labels:

The hard part of letting go wasn't that I loved each individual puzzle. The hard part was that I loved my image of myself as a person who enjoys puzzles and owns many fun puzzles. It was that self-image I was letting go of as I set aside each puzzle. It's hard to let go of a cherished label I have put on myself.

On the other hand, I find it easy to pick up new labels for myself. Because labels can come with a lot of physical baggage, I guess I've got to learn to let go of the ones I no longer need.

What labels are you holding on to? Do you add new ones easily? Do you let go of old ones easily?

If I had been asked a week ago "What would it take for the label lover-of-puzzles-and-owner-of-many-fun-puzzles to no longer fit you?" I would have said "I'd have to not be me any more." Today I say "Heh, all it took was needing some shelf space." I wonder how many more like that I've got. They can be hard to see.

Decluttering in passes:

Often I can get rid of half of a pile, or perhaps a third of a pile, in an hour. Often it would take me all day to get rid of three-quarters of that same pile. So I'll do the half and let it sit for a few weeks.

I am currently due for new passes on jigsaw puzzles, clothing, old techie books, and believe it or not, shoes. (Hey, those can be hard to let go of. It took me fifteen years to find hiking boots that fit. If a miracle occurs, I don't want to spend another fifteen years in bad boots.)

Comments

[lcohen]

i am working on shedding "person who owns more than 2000 books" for reasons that sound similar.....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yeah. I too own... well, a lot of books.

I love books and enjoy reading. My self-label is "smart and educated", which I don't particularly want to let go of -- but maybe I don't need that many books to prove the idea.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

When I stayed with Dan and Jan years ago I looked all over the house to find the collection of books that marked an educated and well-read couple. I never found them. I asked them later, and they said they just go to the library :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The house we stayed in on Vancouver Island was like that too. That was the couple's primary residence, and there was not a single book in it. I was boggled.

The library works well if you want to read the things everyone else wants to read. The library will pick up a few copies of best-sellers; you may have to wait, but they'll have it. If you want to read E.E. "Doc" Smith, though, or Geza Szurovy on aerobatics, you are completely out of luck. I wonder how anyone with eclectic interests deals with that. I suppose they buy books.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Or interlibrary loan. You'd be surprised what public libraries (especially larger ones) have; it's not all out on the shelves, but you can turn up a surprising range of stuff if you know what you're looking for.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Or they go to a better library.

Sunnyvale's library has John Anderson's "Fundamentals of Aerodynamics" textbook. Not much else, though.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Most of the acro books I own aren't even available on Amazon. I'm not at all sure there IS a library "better" enough to have 'em. I suppose that's a bit of an extreme example, though!