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

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

hello quasigeostrophy -- what you wrote is really intriguing to me. I have been noticing (yet again) my defensiveness around labels and how I'm perceived. I don't LIKE stereotypes and implications, and I don't want to do the work involved in getting rid of them (or is it that I don't know how to do it effectively?) (Yes, "conservative" would carry a lot of implications in a wide range of areas -- or at the least bring up a lot of suspicions....) So many simple labels carry such heavy loads of ideas. "Gamer" is a good example. So is "conservative" and so is "Christian". (I read a magazine article yesterday written by a Christian who was weary of the implications and wanted to clarify her views.) For me it is not just resistance to the implications that don't fit--- I also don't like stereotypes and the implications when they do "fit". (Or maybe its that I never see them as fitting completely.) In some kind of hell I would be a gay man who is a hairdresser and has good taste in clothes.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how to get rid of stereotypes and implications. I can do some work on what things imply to me, and examine the validity of contents and assumptions inside my own head, but what then do I do about the perceptions everyone around me will have? Those are tough!

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't think one can get rid of them [Oh, I see how what I wrote above says the opposite. Maybe this will explain what I was thinking about some, and why I appear to be contradicting myself] - but one can address them (sometimes). For example, one could say "I am a conservative in some areas such as x, y, z". (This implies I'm not a conservative in all areas.) One can say "I'm a conservative, and by conservative I mean a, b, and c." One can say "I'm a conservative, which means a, b, and c, to me, and doesn't imply e, f, or g, to me". This can also result in just highlighting potential stereotypes/meanings (which the listener may not have), however, and it can be awkward and bizarre. It's a bit of a problem. This does get a bit complex for everyday conversation. [This doesn't "get rid of" the implications, but does to some degree get rid of the implications in the specific statement I'm making. At least the ones I've stated.] Whether it is effective to do this is open to question. And I could go on about some of other issues/limitations of these various statements.....

these examples (so far) are all examples that deal with statements. Harder (or trickier?) is specifying the meaning of appearances or actions. If people read me as female they will apply all of their female ideas to me (appearance). Likewise all other implications of what I look like (such as age, hair color/style, clothing, etc). (I still kinda identify as a long-haired woman, although I have not had long hair for a while now..... and I wonder how to express whatever-that-means-about-myself in some other way.)

I suppose whatever you know about someone you can generalize from (or infer things from) -- that they fly planes, have lots of puzzles, whatever.

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

This made me think of the scene in Princess Bride where Vizzini tries to figure out where the iocane powder is via (insane) logic based on what he thinks he knows about Dread Pirate Roberts.

Assumptions are dangerous and often wrong, but I think we cant help but make them.