Decluttering - #3

Format: As-long-as-it-takes exercise

Goal: Get rid of stuff. Toss stuff I don’t love.

Goal met? For now.

Terms you should know:

Come on, it’s throwing stuff away. Elementary, my dear Watson.

So here’s what happened:

I recently moved back to school. It was the perfect time to throw junk away, so I did. Sort of.

The first day, I got nothing done. Fail. Day two, though, was infinitely better. I got a lot done, including getting rid of a garbage bag full of clothes. This is a big deal—I have a hard time getting rid of clothes. I don’t necessarily love everything I own, but I like it or it’s something I wear all the time.

The goal at this point became to get rid of a garbage bag per day of stuff I didn’t want, but that fell by the wayside as I realized I had about three days to go through everything I own. At that point, the day one/day two stuff fell by the wayside, as did regular showers, healthy meals and conversation with the world outside.

I have a lot of stuff.

In the end, I threw away three garbage bags full to bursting with paper, decrepit shoes and miscellaneous broken things and four bags of thrift store stuff. A fair bit of the Goodwill stuff, I’m happy to say, was in reasonable condition but just didn’t give off a vibe I liked. I also gave a bunch of cute stuff to my sister (she’s much better at cute than I am) and returned a lot of random things that had ended up in my storage boxes to their rightful owners.

Having said that, I still have a lot of stuff.

The thing is, though, I like having a lot of stuff. When I go globetrotting in a few years I won’t mind leaving it all behind and travelling with a single backpack, but as long as I’m here I want to be surrounded by things I enjoy. I tend toward mid-extremes in all areas of life, and if I’m not a minimalist traveler I’d rather have too many clothes.

Getting rid of stuff I don’t actually like, though, feels fantastic. Keeping stuff I love feels fantastic. Keeping stuff I’m lukewarm on feels utilitarian and, well, lukewarm, but I always regret it when I throw out the lukewarm stuff just because most of it is so practical. (Insight: I don’t love utilitarian things, but I have a lot of them because they feel expendable. I don’t like having things I love around too much because I’m always worried they’re going to get broken or lost. I think this is a scarcity mindset, but it’s also really, really practical when you’re hopping back and forth from chaotic home to generally clueless apartments. Creepy insight: I feel this way about people, too. Ick.)

Try this:

1. Make decluttering a mentality, not a job. Once “pack light” becomes a part of you, it’s a lot easier to toss stuff. Keeping it a part of you, however, appears to be more than a weeklong process.

2. Play the consequences game. What will happen if you got rid of ______? Think about it. Imagine the consequences. Most of the time “Nothing whatsoever” is the answer. Other times it’s “I’ll have an excuse to go get one I actually like!” and occasionally it’s “I’ll really miss it and wish I had it back.” Forecasting your feelings about getting rid of an item can both encourage you to toss stuff and to avoid getting rid of things you’ll regret later.

3. Realize that it’s just stuff. You can get it again. Everything in life is transient, and if you create a vacuum things will flow into it. (I’d actually like to try tossing everything but journals and heirlooms sometime and see what happens. The only problem with this is that society expects you to wear clothes and cooking things without pans is difficult…)

Next challenge: Talking to Strangers

Image by Pink Sherbet Photography.