Round Two of Decluttering

The piles are getting smaller...

     But I still am making piles.

My Growing Donation Pile

I am on round two of going through some of our things.  Decluttering started as a way to organize and kind of spring clean our place.  Then, as I started, I realized that I felt so much better with less stuff.  It was freeing to get rid of all that excess stuff.  As I have been decluttering, I have begun to discover that, while freeing, getting rid of stuff is also emotional.  It's one thing to get rid of stuff we don't use, but what about stuff I might use?  What about shirts that fit, but that I realize I never wear.  What if I change my mind at some point?

I realize that is silly, and a lame excuse to hold onto stuff, but the "what if" factor certainly crossed my mind.

And then there was the jewelry box.  My grandmother passed away in 2005.  She had given me a jewelry box full of costume jewelry.  Most of it was broken.  And yet I kept it.  Why?  A connection to a grandmother that has passed on and that I didn't get to be very close to?

Some of Grandma's jewelry

Sentimental clutter is the most difficult.  I could toss nearly everything we own, but that box of my girls' school art projects is still in my storage.  Why?  Because I am attached to it.  I am attached to the memories the artwork holds.  I remember my little first grader bringing me the painting she did in art class, and it is more touching because she is now a married 23 year old.  I have a lot of these little things.  I admit to being a sentimental fool.  I was the mom that scrapbooked my older four daughters' lives in endless books of pictures and mementos.  I gave them to the older girls when they moved out.  Inside are photos of their first days of school, their sports and plays and holidays.  I have tickets and programs and newspaper articles and report cards, all recorded in my daughters' scrapbooks.

When I had Megan, I stopped my scrapbooking.  I feel bad about that, but struggled to mix the paper with the digital photography.  Social media became popular, and I was able to share memories instantly.

Sentimental clutter may be my downfall, but I am developing a thicker skin.  I tossed most of my Grandma's jewelry, keeping only a few items that were still in good shape.

One step at a time, right?

I don't regret throwing the stuff away.  I don't regret donating the piles of stuff I have donated.  It is freeing.  It is nice to have my home not be cluttered.  It is nice to want to have adventures and family times instead of wanting to have just more things.

Call it simple living.  Call it minimalism.  I like it more and more.  It's a completely different way of life and of thinking than anything I have allowed myself to think.  I'm loving it, and am very challenged by it also.