It is de-cluttering week at my house. During the spring and winter of every year I clear out each room of our house and decide what needs to be thrown, donated, and kept. I’ve always called myself minimalist, not needing stuff to make me happy, but after this week’s de-cluttering, I think it is necessary for me to question if I truly am what I say I am.
After clearing out my closet and my daughter’s closet, I filled eight garbage bags worth of clothes, toys, and other miscellaneous items. As I cleared out my daughter’s room, I wondered how a four year old could accumulate so much stuff. Of course, I realized that she had no control over what she acquired and it really was me that I needed to blame. I stopped and looked at what I had collected in the white garbage bags. When did I buy all of this stuff? Why did I buy it? I don’t know.
I question how much of it I really needed. Judging from what was in the piles, I probably didn’t really need over ninety percent of the stuff. But I bought those things. I also purchased some of the things for my daughter, only to be giving it away. I can blame commercials, our consumeristic society, or my dying “need” to have a particular something for my propensity to buy, but those reasons are all excuses. I bought all this stuff because I didn’t question why I needed it.
Amid all the chaos and confusion of stuff, I discovered important things – My old trophies from high school, the scrapbook that chronicled the first year of my daughter’s life, and old vintage pictures of my husband and me. I sat back and reminisced as I looked at these past moments. Of course these items stayed in the kept pile. The kept pile and the the donate pile were staring each other in the face and I realized that the things I treasured weren’t purchased, but were connected to some event, emotion, moment, or memory. The sharp contrast of what mattered and what was stuff took on a greater gravity when I placed it in the same room.
I like what de-cluttering brings into my life. In an odd way, it brings me peace, knowing the stuff in my home are things that are things that matter. The physical exercise of discarding things, I hope, will mentally prepare me for the next time temptation may convince me to buy something.
I don’t think I fit the definition of minimalist yet, but I am working on it.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
I certainly agree that decluttering brings with it some sort of high, and calm, all at once. I admire what you got done this weekend, as I just stepped out of my bedroom because I couldn’t stand to have staring contests with the piles of clothes anymore. Soon. I’ll do it soon. For sure.
Good luck! Hope you stop staring soon. I find that once I got started I got more motivated to clear everything out.
I clean out my closet twice a year, when I change from warm weather clothing to HOT weather clothing. I’m always surprised by the amount of stuff that I’m willing to part with. I seem to end up wearing my favorite things over and over. Those “maybe I’ll wear it someday so I should buy it at this amazing sale price” items never find their day. Time to rethink those sale items I think! Thanks for making me ponder 🙂
It is amazing after I declutter, I look at purchasing new items differently. I often ask “Am I going to get rid of this later?” That usually does the trick – I end up walking away. This makes the hubby happy too!
There must be something in the air, this is the fourth post I’ve read in the last couple of days about this very issue. I am a purge Queen, like you, I find it oddly cathartic, and at the same time I confess I am very “materialistic”. I like, for example, to buy things for my home that make it feel attractive and comfortable. But really who needs this stuff? I really like what you were able to find in doing this exercise this spring – by separating the two piles. I think I might do something similar when I tackle my own spring cleaning and see what I come up.
Looking at the two separate piles was definitely humbling. I also had my four year old daughter participate and she decided which toys to donate and which to keep. As she put things in the donate pile, she said “I am giving my toys to the children.” Hope it is a lesson she remembers. Good luck on your own un-cluttering.
Hi Rudri, I enjoyed reading about the contrast between what you keep and what you give away (keepers and goners). I often get into de-cluttering mode myself and it’s interesting how both emotionally and mentally, we have things we should keep and things to let fall away.