Decluttering
Belongings accumulate over the course of our lives. The older we get, the more we have.
We live surrounded by our things — and more often than not, by boxes we have packed away with the intention of going through them . . . someday.
In recent years, ideas about decluttering—from Marie Kondo’s question “Does it spark joy?” to the Swedish Death Cleaning practice—have encouraged many people to rethink the belongings they keep. Over time the task can seem overwhelming. The sheer volume creates emotional resistance that makes it difficult to know where to begin.
Without a clear purpose, sorting through a lifetime of belongings can feel almost impossible to start.
Sometimes the difficulty in letting go is not the object itself, but the memory attached to it. Preserving the story allows the object to be released.
And yet most of us recognize something else: once we are gone, we will have no control over what happens to the things we leave behind.
Decluttering allows us to simplify our lives and make those decisions ourselves. But without a way to preserve what we choose to discard, letting go can still feel like losing something that mattered.
Explore the emotions and realities behind decluttering—one box at a time
Piles
We live surrounded by the things we intend to sort through someday — along with boxes of stuff filled with who-knows-what that we have postponed opening.
Emotional Resistance
The difficulty lies in separating the memories attached to objects from the feeling that letting go might mean losing a little part of yourself — or a little part of your past.
Taking Control
Decluttering allows us to make choices about our belongings while we still can—rather than leaving those choices entirely to others.
Saying Goodbye
Acknowledging the role an object played in our lives makes it easier to let it go. Marie Kondo advises to keep what sparks joy and say “thank you and good-bye” before releasing what does not.
One Object at a Time
Decluttering can feel overwhelming when we think about everything at once.
Since meaning often lives in individual objects, Memoir of Things™ offers a way to preserve the story before saying good-bye.