UNITED STATES—The more I try to get rid of stuff, the more stuff I feel like I accumulate in the process. I think I have to admit I have difficulty letting things go. If it is stuff that is taking up space in the home, particularly the closet for me, you have to start throwing things away. For me that is a problem, because the first thing that always comes to mind is that I have spent money.
When you spend your hard-earned money, you do not want to feel like you’ve wasted money. The reality is that as Americans we do it quite often. We tend to buy just to buy, when the reality is we don’t really need anything. Just because we have money in our pockets that we can spend doesn’t mean we actually should be spending that money, I wish that was something I took to heart quicker in life instead of later.
It is a hard pill to swallow once you realize how much money you could have saved by just taking a moment and asking that question we all like to ignore: DO I REALLY NEED THIS? At this point, it doesn’t matter, the good thing is that I have realized the importance of spending money for a reason and spending money for the sake of just saying I spent it. The biggest thing is you have to identify the problem of the clutter and properly attack it.
It doesn’t help to continuously tell yourself you will deal with it later. That is just another way of continuing to accumulate clutter. I look into my closet and then I shut it. The thought of just cleaning it out makes me feel exhausted. However, all I am doing is psyching myself out, so that has to be changed, because that should NOT be an excuse to utilize. The biggest issue is I tend to keep notebooks of things, from work and school, I probably have things from almost a decade ago.
It hit me, I haven’t read this crap in years, and I am not planning to do so, so why am I keeping it? Exactly, I have no reason so it is time to start tossing things into the trash. I want to be able to walk into my closet and store stuff without trying to find space to actually store stuff. I have to remove everything from the closet which is the last thing I want to do.
In doing so I can fully SEE everything I have and want to keep and what needs to be dumped. There are some things I am just going to have to trash. There is no way to get around it. If I haven’t worn it in over a year, I should donate the items or give them away. They are just collecting dust or that terrible closet smell that no one likes.
Now there is an opportunity for me to sell some of those clothing items to earn a few extra bucks. It is smart, if I can make some money in the process why not? In addition, I have to stop adding to the closet without ensuring I am getting rid of some things in the process. There is no way I’m going to have ample space because my closet is only so big. Once you pack it, the only way to make room is to start to get rid of stuff, which I haven’t been doing causing a clutter overload. Clutter is always bad because it shows disorganization and if you’re not organized you have things all over the place and that causes a lack of perspective.
Written By Jason Jones
