Wasting Space and Time

A box of well meaning intentions

I'm still nursing an injury, so major decluttering is still out of the question at the moment, so I'm limited to paper shuffling and organizing the boxes of jewelry from my jewelry business (which is actually starting to look fairly professional). I've managed to pitch over five kitchen trash bags of paper clutter that I was able to sift through. It turned out that I was still holding onto a life I had over eleven years ago. It was definitely time to let go. And boy! Did it feel good!

In one corner of my room was a stack of boxes. Since they were already stacked in the room, I decided to pull my office chair to them and transfer each individual piece either into a keep box, trash box, or a give away box. I figured if I did this gradually and slowly, it wouldn't aggravate my injury. I had a feeling that the keep box would not be full, and that the trash and give away boxes would be overflowing. And they did not disappoint. In fact, I wound up with three separate give away boxes, and one large trash box. Once my neighbor moved them respectively to the trash bin and the trunk of my car, it really started my thought process on the whole "why" we hold onto "stuff". Especially when in reality, it doesn't hold any sentimental value at all.


For example, three of the boxes that sat in the corner included items that had accumulated from my desks at places of former employment. Generally, these things included a mug with the company logo, a stuffed toy of some sort, a decoration or two, a personal organizer (usually to hold pens and/or paperclips), and any other accouterments that may have gathered over my time there. But once they make it to a corner in my home office, they never see the light of day again. Taking up precious space, and in essence, time. Such sweet and precious time.

Why do we do it? We hold good intentions. We think that the cute pencil cup we picked up at Pier 1 will make it to our next place of employment, yet it remains hidden, deep in the caverns with two other well meaning pencil holders from previous lives. In fact, as I sit here typing this, I kind of chuckled, because I have two that didn't make it into the Goodwill pile by pure accident, or oversight. Why? Well, the one used the most on top of the refrigerator is out of sight and out of mind when I'm in my office, while the less often used one sits on my desk. So, why did I keep the one that was dug up in one of the boxes this morning? Who knows? It did match the filing system on my bookshelves. Well meaning intentions. I need to stop doing that, and learn to let go.

That's how clutter get's out of control. We see things and think "Oh, I can use that later on", when in reality, it goes into another box where it will never see light of day ever again. We need to stop this cycle. We need to break free. In fact, I have two separate boxes I can think of right now that I filled that were supposed to be keepers, that tomorrow will become givers once I call my neighbor again to move the box to the trunk of my car for it's own individual trip to Goodwill.

So, if you know deep down inside your heart that you are never going to use it again, give it away. There is someone out there who is looking for that exact piece right now who could benefit from its use. Bless them, and not bury it in well meaning intentions any longer.