The number of TV shows you can watch about decluttering reassures me that this post will be of interest to someone other than myself!
I’ll be moving house and this has meant having to look into every single nook and cranny of my home. Every single item requires a decision: repair/recycle/discard/keep/sell/pack now/pack later. What had always given me the most trouble until now was “donate”. I was painfully aware that items other than clothing are harder to donate. For example, many organisations wouldn’t accept toys all year round, a bookstore required me to bring in all my boxes myself and cart them up 3 flights of stairs. Since there were 11 boxes I declined.
Websites now exist to sell on clothes but I didn’t wish to spend my valuable time posting out items, particularly when charities can benefit from carefully donated clothes.
Welcome, welcome the local free small ads website! Trivial, niche, burdensome items, large and small, have been disappearing out the door drip, drip, drip. If it’s for free there will, apparently, always be someone out there who is willing to make the trip to my door to pick it up. Are they giving it a new life? Or is it collecting dust in their place now instead of in mine? Why worry! as, at least for a moment, they are happy and I am happy!
It is very liberating that the previously slightly sad and slightly shameful act of clearing out thirty years of stuff has become a source of happiness.
A certain amount of letting go and seriously compassionate self-talk is still needed daily to keep my balance through the process. You always get surprised how things expand as you move them. I have made strict rules for myself:
1. things may only be moved in a DOWNSTAIRS direction (empty attic achievement unlocked)
2. a full donations bag goes in the HALL and is out the door within a DAY (otherwise you forget what’s in it)
3. Don’t think of it as “losing money” when you choose to donate or give away for free rather than sell your old items (you purchased this item once, it’s been useful to you, and now it isn’t anymore)
4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew (you never know when you are going to be emotionally ambushed by a thing and lose time to a good cry)
5. Don’t beat yourself up (thirty years, thirty years worth of stuff! Of course you made some mistakes!)
6. Don’t hesitate to rid yourself of items that are attached to difficult feelings (no matter how “valuable”)
7. If you know you have a large collection of a type of item, first gather them all in one room (allow plenty of time for this bit) only then begin The Deciding on them
This all sounds very wise, doesn’t it! I still have three small, sneaky corners that I have not really examined yet. I no longer think of my delay as some character fault or procrastination. No, I have left those places unexamined until now because I had other priorities. If I have not looked in that cupboard for 5 years then there is absolutely no rush to look in it now.
The sun has come out, the weather warmed right up, the photographer has been and gone. So, feet up for a few days. This is a big project that should not be underestimated and I must look after myself while I’m doing it.
ballsofwool 