Letting Go #1: Possessions
Posted on March 25, 2009
Let go of that which you no longer need. It serves only to clog up your life, your mental space, and your ability to build the life you want for yourself.
Post one of an ongoing series.
Possessions - Not stuff you need, or even stuff that’s active in your life that you want to keep. However, getting things you no longer want or need out of your life allows you more mental space, more freedom (and a much less cluttered home). Personally, I’ve long been a hoarder, and that’s something that I think I finally have under control. For a long time, things have represented success to me, a “he who dies with the most toys wins” type attitude. I’d hold on to things that “might be useful” some day. Before I changed country, I had something like 7 years of old computer components (some of them even worked) stashed away… “just in case”. Old hard drives (most under 1 gig in size), serial and parallel cables (neither of which I’ve used for the last 6 or more years). It was a ridiculous amount of crap. Getting it out of my life was arguably one of the best things I’ve done.
Some things, you just can’t get rid of – even if you don’t need them in your life right now. Getting them out of your house, out of your daily existence (I’ve got a bit of stuff in long term storage) is a good half-measure – it’s literally a case of “out of sight, out of mind”.
The idea of a spring cleaning is a positive one. Once (or more) a year, spend half a day reviewing everything in your life. For every item, ask yourself “Will I need this in the next 6 months?”. You’ll be surprised how often the answer is “No”, and you can move it out of your day to day life, and into storage.
The next step is to actually put these things into storage. Label your boxes, with a list of items and the date you put them away (so you can find things if it does turn out you need them).
Possessions to more than fill up your living space, they fill your mind. They own you as much as you own them.
Personally, I don’t like being owned.
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