Over at Shmata Boro, my mama said:
“The second trip to Goodwill was even more fun than the first. I truly love decluttering. As I drove I made up a song for the occasion all about how happy I am to put useful things back into the world, and how I don’t want to have to take care of anything I don’t care about, and how I like having space for the good things to breathe, and a bit about the joy of saying Goodbye to things that were once a good buy. It was a verrrrry happy and spritely little song.
It may or may not have had the words ‘useless crap’ in it somewhere, I can’t quite remember.”
I am so, so clearly my mother’s daughter.
Some days I get in a big decluttering tizzy and feel like I can’t rest until everything (EVERYTHING!!) is gone. The main problem with this feeling is that I also tend to forge strong emotional ties or memories with objects, and I can’t let the item go without feeling like I’m letting the memory go. I actually read a comic just a few minutes ago that articulates the feeling very accurately:
http://english.bouletcorp.com/2012/08/20/the-thread/
I know that realistically, it doesn’t have to be one or the other–I have plenty of wonderful memories without having to hold onto every object from my past–but I still have a box stuffed full of drawings my friends and I did in high school, even though (/because) I never think about those moments unless I’m looking at the drawings.
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You are indeed, mine, all mine. But that’s not the only reason I love you!
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I LOVE DECLUTTERING!!! My husband recently told me that my goal is to get rid of everything. I told him that I only want to get rid of things that don’t have a purpose, because they weigh you down mentally and physically. He said they weigh me down, but not him. I laughed and said that although he isn’t aware of it, it weighs him down too. Little by little as I declutter our new home, he is starting to agree with me. “It’s nice to know where things are…” he commented. Yes, it is. Indeed it is.
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Ah, Megan, I have that same conversation with my honeylamb. Repeatedly. But when I manage to create a little patch of ‘order’ he does like it.
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I think I may also be your mother’s daughter. Mom?
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