Musings

Reflections on life lived by a coast

  • Home
  • Travel
  • Yoga
You are here: Home / Back to Basics / Lightening the Load

Lightening the Load

August 25, 2015 •

Last fall my hus­band and I embarked on a declut­ter­ing project. We rec­og­nized that we were ill pre­pared for sud­den life changes that might force us to move or down-size on short notice. Our garage was clut­tered with remod­el­ing debris, old or bro­ken fur­ni­ture, skis and sport­ing gear we no longer used, mildewed books. We found boxes we had­n’t opened since grad school. Our clos­ets were stuffed to the gills.

The first big weekend of cleaning out the garage

The first big week­end of clean­ing out the garage

Although we’d talked about it for sev­eral years, we’d found it almost impos­si­ble to take the first real step toward declut­ter­ing. And then some­thing changed a year ago.

Our brother-in-law’s unex­pected death last August was a wake-up call. Since then we’ve been watch­ing our sis­ter strug­gle with the after­math of her hus­band’s pass­ing. We were able to help her after­wards for a few weeks, but then had to return to our own lives. We did­n’t want to risk sub­ject­ing our friends or fam­ily to a sim­i­lar chal­lenge if some­thing hap­pened to us.

We also rec­og­nized that a house full of clut­ter takes time to deal with, which would make it hard to act quickly if we were forced to put this house on the mar­ket. Some­times life forces you to cope with unex­pected events like seri­ous ill­ness, job loss or forced retire­ment. We wanted to be less bur­dened, in case we’re forced to con­front some dif­fi­cult choices.

Adding to our con­cerns, we started to hear rumors that my hus­band’s job might move out-of-state later this year. [For­tu­nately, we heard last week that his job isn’t mov­ing!]

What­ever the rea­son, we rec­og­nized that the time had come to lighten our load, so we’d be more agile, less bur­dened with stuff — more able to con­sider our options or ini­ti­ate change on short notice.

Taking the First Steps

Chateau-de-Meursault-TastingShredding-projectWe knew that the first phase of declut­ter­ing would be the eas­i­est: get­ting rid of old doc­u­ments and records that no one needs any more.

We had old bank books, tax fil­ings, school projects, tick­ets, expense receipts, reports for for­mer employ­ers or clients… We had years’ worth of paid bills and credit card state­ments. We had shrink-wrapped soft­ware for com­put­ers we no longer own.

We had sou­venirs and memen­tos from travel hol­i­days, fam­ily mem­o­ra­bilia, and other keep­sakes. We had cal­en­dars from col­lege, love let­ters, greet­ing cards and old jour­nals. Some of these are worth keep­ing, so we’ve begun a back­ground project to scan and dig­i­tize the ones we might like to see again some­day.

To dis­card doc­u­ments with no emo­tional or prac­ti­cal value, we bought a heavy-duty shred­der that can run for hours before over-heat­ing. For weeks I focused intensely on shred­ding a life­time’s worth of paper doc­u­ments — decades’ worth of detri­tus. Day after day I loaded up the Prius with bags full of shred­ded doc­u­ments, for dis­posal at a recy­cling cen­ter ten miles away.

I’ve learned my les­son about accu­mu­lat­ing unnec­es­sary paper. These days I shred incom­ing doc­u­ments that have no value, so I don’t accu­mu­late a bunch of junk I’ll have to deal with later.

Tackling the Harder Stuff

Waiting for the donation truck

Wait­ing for the dona­tion truck

Hav­ing dis­posed of the paper, I’ve switched my atten­tion to prun­ing clos­ets, look­ing for house­hold objects, unused appli­ances, gad­gets or gar­ments we can donate to char­i­ties.

Over the years I’ve donated clothes that no longer fit, so what remains is harder to give away. These clothes still fit, look good, and are made from high-qual­ity fab­ric or mate­ri­als. But, they’re either out-of-style or too dressy for my cur­rent lifestyle. So they hang in the clos­ets, unused, col­lect­ing dust. Good can­di­dates for dona­tion.

So, I take a deep breath and remind myself that, rather than hold on to them indef­i­nitely, for some occa­sion when I might use them, it’s bet­ter to give them away today to peo­ple des­per­ately in need of warm or use­ful cloth­ing. I try to remem­ber the yogic prin­ci­ple of non-attach­ment.

With prac­tice I’m get­ting much bet­ter at find­ing things to give away. As a result each week I’ve col­lected bags and boxes like these for the dona­tion trucks to pick up. Space is open­ing up in our clos­ets.

Words to Live By

Rather than just ran­domly giv­ing stuff away (which might be a good prac­tice too), I’ve found the prun­ing process works bet­ter when guided by a set of prin­ci­ples. What works for us are these guide­lines a friend shared with us last month:

Do you use it?

Do you love it?

Does it bring you joy?

If you can’t say yes to any of these ques­tions, then you’ve just found a good can­di­date for dona­tion.

It also helps to devote con­cen­trated time to sort­ing and prun­ing, so you get more effi­cient (and less emo­tional) when work­ing through these ques­tions.

If you really want to prune heav­ily, then this mantra from a Bud­dhist friend offers addi­tional wis­dom:

Can you sim­ply remem­ber the joy, and let the item go?

If you’re on the verge of declut­ter­ing your house­hold, good luck!

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

Recent Posts

  • Wet Sand, Wet Boots, Birds
  • Living with Vintage Items
  • Slowing Down
  • Reflections on My Camino
  • Going Off the Beaten Track in France

© 2020 by Christine Thompson. All rights reserved. • Log in