all_adream (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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unclutter2011-01-18 01:19 pm
all_adream) wrote in unclutter2011-01-18 01:19 pm
This started as a reply but now isn't!
I began to write in reply to people who were going to move, and was in solidarity but also wanted to point out that I feel some of the articals (even ones that I posted here), may be too extreme or missing the point or simply have a point of "empty everything out" as opposed to fine-tuning it more. What do you guys think on this theme?
Yup, my partner and I are moving from some places that are not finished and bulging with stuff (my old house which still has a lot of my valued things in it, my boss's 150-year-old office building that he just sold to a really creepy person who is pushing us out ASAP, my office rented downtown that I haven't been to in a couple of years since I had an accident, etc.), plus this apartment we have been in for half a year maybe, plus the fact that my partner and I plan to buy a house together somewhere else, which will require pruning everything from at least the old house and this one and any incidental things that I may have stashed in the office I have worked at daily for over 15 years, etc. It is amazing the amount and categories of crap I have, and how a lot of it is pretty much "me saving it for smarter generations" or "for those who would appreciate it" or even as sort of magical talismans. To me, some of the unclutter articles are ruthless and maybe miss the point: sure, if someone wants zero crap or belongings, it can be done, but then is the person's life utterly impoverished of things that evoke good feelings and memories and actual links to other time periods? I firmly believe that, say, a coin from 1957 or 2009 or 1678 *has* some of the energy of that time, because it was around then. My body was not necessarily around for all those time periods, and so it does not have a material link like that.
Additionally, when I lived in a dangerous area a year or so back for a long time, I *intentionally* packed the house with clutter, so that if people came in to steal stuff (they did), it would be harder for them to see something of value, and also I hoarded disposable stuff like recyclables that I planned to get rid of sometime as an extra layer of energetic insulation, in a way. I didn't want the cootie vibes of people, their noise and the petty criminals that actually came into the downstairs of the house and yard, and whatever cootie vibes some people swore were from ghosts etc., just roaming around unrestricted. Of course, I had nice Buddha statues and stuff too to combat the bad energy and try to balance it out, but I actually felt that it served a purpose in its way.
Can anyone relate to this? To me, it's pretty much the same as having extra fat on your body to keep you feeling safer from other people's energy or intentions etc.
Yup, my partner and I are moving from some places that are not finished and bulging with stuff (my old house which still has a lot of my valued things in it, my boss's 150-year-old office building that he just sold to a really creepy person who is pushing us out ASAP, my office rented downtown that I haven't been to in a couple of years since I had an accident, etc.), plus this apartment we have been in for half a year maybe, plus the fact that my partner and I plan to buy a house together somewhere else, which will require pruning everything from at least the old house and this one and any incidental things that I may have stashed in the office I have worked at daily for over 15 years, etc. It is amazing the amount and categories of crap I have, and how a lot of it is pretty much "me saving it for smarter generations" or "for those who would appreciate it" or even as sort of magical talismans. To me, some of the unclutter articles are ruthless and maybe miss the point: sure, if someone wants zero crap or belongings, it can be done, but then is the person's life utterly impoverished of things that evoke good feelings and memories and actual links to other time periods? I firmly believe that, say, a coin from 1957 or 2009 or 1678 *has* some of the energy of that time, because it was around then. My body was not necessarily around for all those time periods, and so it does not have a material link like that.
Additionally, when I lived in a dangerous area a year or so back for a long time, I *intentionally* packed the house with clutter, so that if people came in to steal stuff (they did), it would be harder for them to see something of value, and also I hoarded disposable stuff like recyclables that I planned to get rid of sometime as an extra layer of energetic insulation, in a way. I didn't want the cootie vibes of people, their noise and the petty criminals that actually came into the downstairs of the house and yard, and whatever cootie vibes some people swore were from ghosts etc., just roaming around unrestricted. Of course, I had nice Buddha statues and stuff too to combat the bad energy and try to balance it out, but I actually felt that it served a purpose in its way.
Can anyone relate to this? To me, it's pretty much the same as having extra fat on your body to keep you feeling safer from other people's energy or intentions etc.
no subject
In a moment of brutal honesty, I have also accumulated things at times to hide my unhappiness. There are things in my life that I can't change in the ways I want to, people's opinions that hurt and at times I've spent money to try and convince myself that I can be happy, I can have 'things' that make me smile. The problem with that is that in reality I didn't need or really want the things in question for anything more than passing interest but I still live with them. The same guilt that applies to throwing out unwanted gifts or still usable items above, applies to the things I bought to make me happy, but now they're having the opposite effect. They're encroaching on my life, stopping me seeing the things I do like and I do want because of the clutter.
I'm never going to be a minimalist, but I know that I don't need half the things I own and that I actually like to have the space to move and to see the good things that I do have. I have no intention of getting rid of all of my books, but why am I keeping ones I don't like or have no real intention of reading? I love music, so I'm never going to clear out all of my CDs, but seriously just because I bought them in a sale when there were 5 for the price of 3 or there was one track on a CD that I liked once upon a time, do I really need to have so many CDs? And yeah, the ones I do like, I'm still going to buy the hard copy CD editions and not just the downloads - I like having the real thing (LOL). I'm never going to be a size 10 again (short of some drastic nip/tuck type surgery - which isn't going to happen), so why keep clothes that are? And if I did get back to that size, then I'd deserve a shopping trip for new clothes for my efforts! I could go on but I won't.
For me, I think, this uncluttering business is about getting rid of the things that are having a negative effect on my life by taking up space that could be free or filled with something that I really do like seeing. I am not about to move any time soon, although to make the life changes that I'd like it would be one of the things that would need to happen, but I've begun to look at my things with an eye that says, "If I were to move, what would I really want to take with me? If I were to start over somewhere new, which parts of this life do I want to take with me?" Maybe I should make new mantra - Quality not Quantity.
I should also waffle less - my apologies, when I started writing, I hadn't intended to go on so long! xx
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Oh gosh, me toooooo. Even if I do not use the usable things, or they are only barely usable. One of the things I am trying to get rid of now is perfectly usable, relatively new $clothes that I just don't find comfortable. It is hard.
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