Clearing ‘Stuff’ - January

Over time - we fill the available space in our homes with ‘stuff.’ Moving to a new house or apartment is a forcing function to clear out what is not needed. But what happens if you live in the same place for a very long time. Having lived in the same house for almost 20 years, I’ve had the luxury of putting off the task of getting rid of things. There is plenty of room to just let it accumulate.

One of my goals in 2013 is to develop more discipline when it comes to stuff. I am planning to do a monthly post to document my progress on this year long project. It is not quite the forcing function that moving would provide but (hopefully) will be enough of a reminder to keep focused.

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What have I accomplished so far? 

• To start off - I’ve selected an unused corner of the dining room and started a pile to donate or freecycle when I accumulate enough.
• There are some old pictures that were bought to match a particular color scheme that no longer exists. The glass is broken in one. They all go into the pile.
• The pile grew as I put away some Christmas decorations. There are some that are just not worth keeping for next year.
• There are some books I’ve finished reading and won’t reference again. I’m switching more and more to ebooks, but I’ll be drawing down on my pile of physical books over the next year and most will go in the pile after.
• We have an incredible number of address labels from charitable solicitations…and we create relatively little snail mail these days. I reduced the pile rather dramatically into the paper recycle. 

Of course - the really hard things are still to come: boxes of keepsakes mixed with flyers and brochures and wilted flowers. It takes time and thinking to go through them. I am more conscious now that most reminders of travels and events are in digital form.