Just because an item doesn't actively have a purpose in our everyday life
doesn't automatically reclassify it as clutter. I read a number of posts here where people vilify themselves for not being able to part with sundry items that represent periods in their life, which they THINK they need to part with.
YOU DON'T- if you keep it to a manageable level and store or display it neatly, it is not clutter.
I have 2 small cases in point.
First: i have a small corner shelf in my bedroom with some worthless figures on it. A toy replica of the Challenger, a couple of hand wooden handcarved animal statues, a metal bender Robot, a Plastic toy Marvin the Marvin etc.. and every time i look at it, I thought I needed to take it down and get rid of the items..just so i don't have to dust them. But then I think of how much joy I had when i acquired each item, with their inherent worthlessness they would only get donated, and once it's gone, i would look at that corner it will be bland and empty. So, I reclassified that one corner shelf as NOT clutter and now I can look at it without guilt.
Second: I have a large plastic shoe box (which started off as a small cardboard one) on a shelf in my closet where I dump little pieces of my life that I could easily throw away but when I sit and go through the box I always just end up putting it all back in and adding something else. Handwritten journals from my youth, photos of ex boyfriends, name tags from jobs I used to have, small objects that I picked up here and there, my own report cards, my first dogs breeding papers etc.. lots of crap that if i lost in a fire i wouldn't exactly miss but don't really have an excuse to keep. I decided that the shoe box could stay and hence I don't get that 'I need to declutter' urge when i look at it.
I say drop the guilt, if it overwhelms you to get rid of something maybe you shouldn't. find it a home either in the open or stored and let it stay. One day you may not need to own them, but you don't need to rush it.
