Declutter Your Life To Declutter Your Mind: Today We Did Some Culling To Make Space In Our Life For More Valuable Things

Mental Health Can Be Improved Simply & Quickly

I read somewhere recently (on steemit actually but I can't recall the source) about wisdom that accumulates with age. There were a number of tips that were offered from those experienced in life (the old) to those less so (the young).

I resonated with many of the points and identified others that conflicted with my life experience; that's to be expected.

One suggestion that did grab me was the connection between clutter and hoarding in the physical space and clutter and burden in the mental space.

I've long known through experience that possessions actually own you. They require maintenance, upkeep, stocktake and consume storage space at very least.

This is the case for small or large possessions. A new car looks great on the lot and is exciting to take on a test drive but owning it means you own the obligation of worrying about where to park it so the paint doesn't get damaged or remembering to pay registration and insurance bills and so on. Handing the car back after a test drive carries none of the mental or emotional strings that ownership does.

I've tended to keep things that no longer serve a use. This is one of the "to be avoided for a happy life" tips on the "old person's" list.

It's folly to hang onto something thinking it may one day become useful. Often it never does or in the cases when a need arises, it's likely that the item is unable to be found at the time.

Today, then, my wife and I sat down with 3 big boxes that we'd had hanging around for some time... they were just storing "stuff". We started culling...

There were some sentimental things that I retained such as some of my first birthday cards and letters from my passed relatives but the bulk of it, including old insurance policies, art projects and photos of no relevance were binned.

Although difficult at first, letting myself go a little and getting into the groove of approaching each item with the "is this of enough use to me to warrant the overhead of keeping it" criteria meant things became easier.

We made a decent dent in the space in our wheelie bin and the experience was liberating. We even found a few things that had been missing and were able to put them back into place.

Decluttering is an act of liberation in more ways than immediately obvious. There's only so much space in an individual's life and I've cleared some of mine today to make space for things of more value.

We made a fun afternoon of it and I recommend the process to everyone.

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