As you can tell, I got waylaid from my project of decluttering my life in 35 days. So here I sit, surrounded once again by the growing mounds of paper and other assorted things in my life.
I am happy to report though that even though I haven't been blogging in the past while, I have been making some progress.
One of the things that has come to the forefront during this cleansing adventure is the whole idea of minimizing. I realize that I have been greatly affected by the journey of my parents through the Great Depression. They, as was the case with so many of their generation, became hoarders. “You never know when you might need it.” Perhaps there was the underlying fear that they could lose everything again, as so many had back when they were young.
I definitely inherited their genes, although I must admit, I have been fighting against that tendency for many years now. Moving frequently during the early years of my marriage was a definite learning tool in this area. Do I really need two or three (or ten!) of those? It's amazing what you can get rid of when you know that every little bit of weight costs you more! After we became more settled (and started hoarding) I used to joke that every two years we should pretend that we were moving! Although a joke, there is some wisdom to the idea. It begs the question, “Why do I keep what I keep?”
Maybe more than anything else, looking at our clutter with that question in mind might help us to get to the philosophical place of being able to let go!
So, my friends, grab those boxes that we mentioned early on in this adventure, and minimize, minimize, minimize!
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I hadn't checked your blog for quite a while, Helen, but was reminded of it when we discussed carpooling to Write! Canada :) My mom also grew up in the Depression era, and I well remember that mindset of "you never know when you might need something". As a result, I do have a hard time parting with things. Sometimes I get so fed up that I give things away (and I really don't miss them or regret it, so that's a sign that I've done the right thing). I have a love/hate relationship with garage sales (more hate than love), but last weekend I bowed to pressure from my mom and made $53. Not too bad for four hours' work! Minimize, minimize, minimize indeed!
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Susan. Good for you!
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