Wandering Thoughts 79 / Decluttering Your Life
Today I finally started the process of decluttering, something I wanted to start doing for the longest. This process consists of getting rid of things that don't serve you any purpose and sorting the things that do.
I got to a point where I started noticing how much I owned. Coming to live abroad gave me the excuse to bring a bunch of stuff from my parent's home. Clothes to keep me warm, small items to make me feel at home and the list continues. After 4 years of consumerism, I realized I own too much.
So today I throw all my clothes into a pile and piece by piece asked myself: "Do I need this?" Guess what? Turns out that I don't wear most of the clothes I own. I guess the Pareto's law applies here: 20% of my clothes are used 80% of the time. Which means that everything I don't use / like anymore needs to go.
This process produced 5 kg of clothes that I will be able to donate to people that actually need it. I get more space in my tiny flat and others get to stay warm. Win-win. But decluttering is more than just giving away some clothes, it's a way of thinking.
It allows us to truly evaluate the value of everything around us. It starts with tangible things like clothes or books but it spills into other aspects of our life. You begin valuing only the essential.
For some of you might be tougher to start this process compared to others as we all have different needs but, look around and find one thing that doesn't add you anything. Just one.
Be honest with yourself and you will begin to declutter your life.
Nice use of Pareto's law, i find that it applies to almost everything! I realised how much I didn't use most of my stuff when I moved abroad. I had some stuff shipped and had to deal without it for 2 months, and when it arrived I had completely forgotten what it was!
Needless to say I don't buy clothes anymore...
I also noticed when I moved flats... you much stuff I had to carry that don't serve me any purpose. What's your decision-making process to acquire new stuff now? I'm curious...
Now I find that I buy things from pure necessity. So I've learnt to be patient, try living without something for a while (e.g. I think I need new jumpers, but first I deal with just wearing the warm clothes that I have for a few weeks) then if I find that through necessity I absolutely can't live without something (all my jumpers are in the wash/aren't warm enough) then I buy it. I don't enter any shop without a purpose!