I am a pack rat.
That isn't a secret I keep from anyone in real life or on this blog.
I keep stuff.
I keep too much stuff.
I know it. I'm trying to get better about getting rid of stuff, but it's a work in progress. That's why I decided to do the 52 Weeks of Organizing Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie is hosting and you'll also notice some organizing and purging items in my 101 in 1001 list.
I'm getting better at getting rid of stuff. I'm slowly teaching myself not to feel guilty about getting rid of things we never use or don't like. Because we're never going to use them. Really.
This weekend we discovered that we will be getting rid of a bunch of our stuff, whether we like it or not (it's a long, on-going story...everything is fine, nothing bad happened) and you know what, I've discovered I'm actually okay with that.
I did a quick mental survey of our house earlier and the only things I'd be sad to lose, that I felt were irreplaceable are some photos, my Pax Lodge books, and our Christmas decorations, but really, if something happened to our stuff and all I could take away was Alex and J, well, that would be fine too.
Somewhere in the past ten months something inside me has shifted. I'm not attached to stuff anymore. I've figured out that it's just stuff. Sure, I have a lovely blue-glass, mouth-blown vase that I got in Camden market and a handmade pottery water jug we received as a wedding gift and a Swarovski crystal butterfly Alex gave me years ago, but we can replace that stuff if we need to. Maybe not with identical things, but with something.
We've tossed a lot in the last few weeks (it will soon be showing up on the tossed out stuff website) and there is more to come. And I'm good with it.
I've noticed it's extending to other areas of my life too. I was horrible for archiving 90% of what came into my gmail and filing 95% of my work emails I received. I know what I need to keep for future reference and what I don't. Just because I have tons of space doesn't mean I need to keep every single email I get. I can delete the ones that say "thanks" or have the directions to a meeting that happened a month ago.
It's totally liberating. And I love it. I feel lighter. Hopefully there will be a marked improvement in our apartment soon too!
And so far, I haven't regretted a single things I've tossed or deleted. I haven't even missed them!
How many blogs do you have?! I didn't know about the throw out stuff blog lol! I am glad you got rid of that photo drawer set thing... it just didn't seem like you guys.
ReplyDeleteUh, I have four too many blogs. You can't create separate pages with blogger that you can post to and I wanted to keep the p365 and the tossed out stuff pictures off the main page of this one - I thought it would be too many posts some days and too cluttered...and then there's the book blog. That's four. In my brain it's one blog with different sections, but in reality I'm too lazy to go get a proper website...
ReplyDeleteAnd that photo thing - someone actually paid us for it. And when I googled it to see how much I should post it for, I couldn't believe it what it probably cost initially...ridiculous!
I need you to come over and teach me to toss sh!t out. Seriously. I could toss everything in my storage room right now without looking at it and I'd have no idea what I was missing!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you feel liberated and are on a roll. I am getting to that palce!
ReplyDeleteI feel like something has shifted for me in the last 10 months as well. I really like your thought that all the stuff could be replaced, even if it wasn't with identical things!
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