In the midle of the weekend cleaning I just realized I have too much... too much of clothes, papers, furniture, dvds, small things that bring me memories and... stuff, just stuff that I have to clean, to repair or move from my way almost all the time. And the main realization was than the less I have the less I need.
People I loved, places I visited, moments I treasure are all in my mind, they will always be a part of me, I will inherit what I can to my kids making them part of their memories too. I don't really need the theater ticket to remember that wonderful night or that candie's box to remember my first boyfriend. It's all with me.. forever.
I realized (another epiphany!) that I am not letting things go, I am not flowing through life like a river (like I should), I am stucked by the things that help me remember, when I don't need that help.
So cleaning "outside" is helping me cleaning my mind, and like in a perfect circle, when I clean inside is easier to clean outside. I guess life is that way, isn't it?
Comments
(7) Post a commentsophisticutt
I'll have all of that to come, whenever I end up moving house.... but even though the cleaning process has made you think, I reckon you can still keep your 'stuff' ;0)
It's usually a storage problem... once you have something adequate to put it in, it doesn't cause a problem. I've got various shoe-boxes, gift boxes a set of 3 suede storage boxes (full of tickets, photo's that need an album, medals, the children's hospital bracelet's from birth... everything!
SAVE THE STUFF! xx
Huntresss
NOWAY lol... you can't imagine the amount of storage boxes I have with every kind of stuff!! in my life is not a storage problem my friend I feel is something I have to deal with seriously. I will keep the children's hospital bracelet's from birth and those very very significant things I will end up giving the kids when they have thier own apartments [evil laugh] but I guess if I never miss a thing is because I don't need it!! and in fact I don't even remember what's all that I have in those boxes ;)
sophisticutt
lol ...true true...
dump the junk and keep the stuff... i get it ;0)
gerinceto
I know what you mean. I feel the same with all my stuff all over the shelves. I keep collecting things from the places I've been or the people I've met, the things I've bought... This my feature annoys me and in the same time i can't stop doing it.
From time to time i get rid of some things (it's sooo hard to decide which ones to throw away) but soon i bring others and it starts all over again :(.
Once I asked my friend to sort out what needs to be thrown because i can never decide, but i felt so bad afterwards because i kept thinking she might have thrown something important (here comes the question if it's so important why it's in the dusty storage boxes pushed on the upper shelve).
So finally, my advice is regularly to find time for some sorting until you end up with the amount of things you feel comfortably with.
And don't think you throw things- you give freedom to yourself and to the stuff. ;-)
SylviaAst
I have to agree with gerinceto and Huntresss (but you know I still love you loads sophi!)*****
I think ridding ourselves of too many possessions can be cleansing to the mind and spirit. I know of no one that when they died wished they had lived longer in order to collect more stuff.*****
And most of the people who truly changed the world---Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, etc---had very little in the way of possessions. (Even Bill Gates and Ted Turner and Warren Buffet with their billions will not change the world nearly as much.)****
Holding on to a few momentos to bring back happy memories and spark new ones is fine. But lugging around too much is a burden and similar to closing your mind when you graduate high school. You need an open mind and room to learn new things and experience the rest of your life.*****
:) Sylvia
sophisticutt
;0) i really do get your points, honestly lol...
my house is very uncluttered, and i even get the kids to regularly check their clothes/toys/papers andstuff..................
but, for example: i threw away all my art work when i was 16...why? because it was stuffed under the bed/behind wardrobe or wherever, and everytime i had to move it, i got covered in charcoal or something and the work got more and more scruffy/torn.
i should have just bought an A0/A1 folder and put them in there....i'd still have them now...
anyway, these days, i only aquire things that i want to KEEP. if it's something temporary, i'll get it, use it for its time and chuck it when it's done.
;0) xx
Huntresss
Sophi you are a keeper lol. I don't suffer at all when I have to leave things in the trash, I enjoy it! but as gerinceto said, I have this compulsive things of collecting stuff I know I will hate later. Yeah I know is sick but in the momment I keep things I feel they are so important.
Sylvia made a very important point: people who chanched the world had so few possessions, and that made me think about what is really important in life, what do I really need, what makes me really happy, but that is a good subject for the next post, don't you think? ;)