4th or 5th time lucky...

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Started 11 months ago by Leah - Bogue Living
Latest reply from Claycat
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Leah - Bogue Living
Member

I am having another decluttering pass through the house. This time I have decided to let go of some stuff I can probably sell for about $50+, that I was holding on to for sentimental reasons. But the space in my WIR is even more welcome than the money.

I always thought I "should" get rid of them but wasn't quite ready, and now I am working around them for the 4th or 5th time I can see them more as clutter and less as sentimental objects ... if I keep them every year or so I'll be dealing with them, finding room, no matter how well they are stored something useful could be there instead.

Just wanted to share ... not to enable people to keep things that should go. But that if you keep going back you can wear down your resistance to things that ultimately need to go :)

Posted 11 months ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

Leah, I enjoyed your post. I have a bin of sentimental items that I do not want to display because antiques don't look good with my style of furniture. I'm hope I can reach that point that you have reached. Thanks for the inspiration.

Posted 11 months ago #
luxcat
Member

I am still working through this one! I have made some good progress over the years but I still have several boxes of items I know I should give up, just somehow cannot. Mostly soft toys and baby toys from my childhood that are not suitable for donation and that I have a deep feeling for still.

Posted 11 months ago #
Zora
Member

Yes! I've been decluttering for years. I save things because I *might* need them and then, a year later, looking at them again, I realize that I haven't used them at all and that they can go off to the next-door neighbor (who hands them off to one of her many Vietnamese immigrant relatives) or to Goodwill.

I started from a cluttered and dusty condo that gave me asthma. I tried to keep it clean, but couldn't, thanks to my husband at the time, who was a hoarder. Not TV show terrible, but bad enough. I wasn't allowed to purge his stuff, and I gradually got out of the habit of purging mine ruthlessly. When he left me for another woman, I engaged in a first round of cleaning that got rid of an amazing quantity of stuff. That was easy. That was HIS. That was the stuff that he hadn't allowed me to sort but that, in the end, he was unwilling to take with him.

Since then I've been working on MINE. There was more of it than I would have credited in the days when I fumed about his unwillingness to purge or clean.

Posted 11 months ago #
djk
Member

Zora, isn't it so much easier to see "his" than "mine"? I was having a mental twitch this week about DH's pile of papers on the table...and realized when I moved all of my stuff (but hey, it was there for a REASON!) there, uh, wasn't so much of his after all...however you seem to be well on top of your situation!

Posted 11 months ago #
Trish
Member

lol djk! That happens to me almost every day!!!

@Leah: Me too! All of a sudden I'd be looking around and think, "WHY haven't I decluttered that... it isn't as meaningful/wonderful/beautiful/useful as I remember!" It's like having new eyes. Also I think being surrounded by truly useful and meaningful things can't help but make us more selective. :)

Posted 11 months ago #
ninakk
Member

Ugh, that is my case totally, djk. DH has almost no earthly possessions and mine clutter up the space completely :( I have to mentally slap myself when I have a go at him for leaving some things where they don't belong...

Posted 11 months ago #
Claycat
Member

Well, as they say, "better late than never". I'm hoping I get it done before never!

Posted 11 months ago #

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