Reflections on decluttering
Jul. 31st, 2013 01:12 pmWhen I moved, I packed most of the books I had, and liv helped me unpack them. And we triaged them into "put on shelves", "put upstairs to maybe read again one day" and "give away".
And I always find giving away books quite painful. But I'm happy to report that so far, every time, it's been a great success. All the ones I got rid of, I've never wanted, and all the ones I said "maybe", most I definitely didn't want and the rest I didn't care much about.
Well done past-CartesianDaemon and past-Livredor, thank you!
I think it wasn't so much that I wanted books, although it is that too, but that I just had the inertia of assuming that once I bought a book, it was one of the things I owned, and that would just go on being the case. But when I stopped to ask "will my life benefit from having it", the answer was often "no". In some cases, I was happier for not having it :)
Although now I'm worried I'm moving onto a higher grade of clutter. I pretty much purged my house of junk I didn't want, and it was mostly worthless things that were obviously useless to almost anyone. But now I fear I may begin to accumulate more expensive clutter -- gadgets and ornaments which are worth money, but I'll eventually decide I'm never using. And at that point, it'll be hard to declutter them! But if not, I'll end up when I die with a house full of things no-one really wants.
And I always find giving away books quite painful. But I'm happy to report that so far, every time, it's been a great success. All the ones I got rid of, I've never wanted, and all the ones I said "maybe", most I definitely didn't want and the rest I didn't care much about.
Well done past-CartesianDaemon and past-Livredor, thank you!
I think it wasn't so much that I wanted books, although it is that too, but that I just had the inertia of assuming that once I bought a book, it was one of the things I owned, and that would just go on being the case. But when I stopped to ask "will my life benefit from having it", the answer was often "no". In some cases, I was happier for not having it :)
Although now I'm worried I'm moving onto a higher grade of clutter. I pretty much purged my house of junk I didn't want, and it was mostly worthless things that were obviously useless to almost anyone. But now I fear I may begin to accumulate more expensive clutter -- gadgets and ornaments which are worth money, but I'll eventually decide I'm never using. And at that point, it'll be hard to declutter them! But if not, I'll end up when I die with a house full of things no-one really wants.