Recycling baggage (revisited)

Due to work demands (ie, I'm up to my neck in alligators!) I am taking the liberty of re-publishing some archived posts this week. This one, "Recycling Baggage" was written a year ago, but it still applies today. Then, as now, I find myself taking my "day of rest" trying to catch up on chores ... and working to simplify my life! But I'm closer to my goal: freeing myself of baggage or clutter and, through better organization, freeing up my time!

“Do you want me to stop running the dryer?” I ask my husband.

Earlier Frank kidded me about adding to the already high temperatures by keeping the clothes dryer busy most of the day. “You're part of the problem,” he had joked.

Now, it's 102 degrees outside and he's headed out to do some chores.

“I'm just trying to help,” I tell him.

But having spoken those words, I'm ready to take the rest of the day off. After all it's 4:00 p.m. A Sunday to boot. And I realize that when people spend all their time on life maintenance, something needs to change. Which is why I continue to simplify, to streamline.

I've spent most of the day cleaning, an hour sorting through dreams. Travel dreams to be specific. Over the years I've collected brochures, newspaper articles, even maps of the places I'd like to visit someday. Or revisit.

"I'm not giving up my travel dreams. Just the baggage."

The problem is that my "collection" was spilling out of folders that filled a 31 gallon Rubbermaid storage box. The information was outdated; I'd be able to find newer information on the Internet. Frank gently explained this to me earlier in the week. He knows I tend to hoard information. Knows that I have a four-drawer file cabinet filled with the like. And knows I need to let go of the items that provide no real benefit.

I took several days for me to decide Frank was right. Only an hour to sort out the material destined for recycling. It's not like I'm giving up my travel dreams, I finally recognized. Just the baggage.

Are there items in your home that you don't need? That just add to the clutter? Do you collect information? Or objects? Can you let go those of things you don't use? Don't wear? 

 

Comments

[Brenda replies]

Bimmy the Bookish --
There is something therapeutic about tossing out those things we all keep for impractical reasons! And I do THINK BETTER when there is less clutter!

Emily -- I'll bet with the recent move, you've already had to make some decisions over what stays and what goes! Over what even made it onto the moving van! Since my family moved so often during my formative years, my mother keep a pretty clutter-free home!

[Bimmy the Bookish]

Brenda, i think this post would be perennially topical!
I'm not as ruthless about clearing out the baggage as i used to be, but it can be so freeing to take an objective look at all the stuff around us, whether its furniture, or clothes, or hobby stuff, or whatever, and ask ourselves why we want it or need it.

i bet more of us hoard stuff than throw stuff out - but a few trips to the tip with a car load of clutter is really therapeutic for me.

Decluttering my working day and being more efficient to fit in everything that i want to do is a hot topic for me - in fact i recently blogged about how trying to declutter my weekend resulted in freeing up some creative time for my brain, which hadnt been my aim, but was a great result!

i always enjoy your thoughtful posts, whenever you wrote them; i probably wouldnt have trawled back through your archives to find it, so as a recent reader, its great to have you dig it out for me! thanks :)

[Emily]

You know what? I am sitting in an almost empty house with a cup of coffee and the baby by my side wondering the same thing: Can I give them up?

No, not the baby -- or the coffee -- all the pieces of furniture that are about to arrive on a moving truck.

Though this home has more space than our other home, the distribution is off -- it's a temporary rental, so I can live with that, after all we selected it for the backyard play area for our children. Anyway, I am mentally placing furniture in my head and am realizing that some things just aren't practical anymore ... like my love square coffee table (takes too much space) and our second dining set (really, we eat in the kitchen) ... and so much more I'm sure.

Anyway, great timing between your post and my "here and now." I'll let you know how it goes perhaps in a post of my own.