Ok, I have been slowly but surely trying to ‘clean up’ my rat mess of stuff. I collect stuff. Not necessarily stuff I will use or need but just can’t seem to part with it. Sometimes it is because I bought it with money and hate to waste it. Sometimes because I keep thinking I’ll need it one day. Then I read Zen Habits on Wastefulness of Decluttering. It really hit home for me. In fact, here is the part that really got me:

This is such a common question that I thought I’d address it here — if you’re holding onto stuff because you feel it would be a waste of good money if you got rid of it, here is the answer you are looking for:

I hereby release you of your burden.

You are free. You bought these items with hard-earned money, and you don’t want that money to go to waste, so you’ve been holding onto them. It’s a burden that keeps you from freeing yourself of these unneeded possessions — it forces to you keep the space they occupy, to maintain these possessions, to constantly see them every day even if you don’t want them, to walk around them or trip over them or live in a cramped, cluttered space. This is a burden, paying penance for your initial wasted expenditure of cash.

I cannot get my act together in the last year to sell this stuff by ebay or craig’s list… which means I have to bite the bullet and just let go. Harder than I thought it would be. It is my goal for the next 2 weeks. Sigh…

Tags: housework, Mom