A while back I started a project of decluttering my dwelling. The purging process took place gradually over a period of approximately five years. Sometimes it was very painful because I had attachment issues to many items. The problems stemmed mainly from the fact that I either paid a lot of money for these items or they have high sentimental values. I still have about 125 cubic feet of stuff locked away in a storage facility. My plan is to clear out my locker before my next journey in about ten months. I foresee it to be the most challenging task for me so far. I have to let go of the past and prepare myself psychologically to achieve this goal.
I own clothing that can last me several lifetimes and with a wide size spectrum. My weight yo-yo'ed over the years. Occasionally I was able to "recycle" my plus-sized clothes in the past three decades. Moreover, I never got back to my smallest dress size. I oddly remember a conversation that I had with one of my favourite professors. He told me that we would only get bigger as we age. Had I paid heed to his comment, I would have given away all the smaller clothes at any one time. For the most part, I owned too much clothing because I could not wear all my clothes in one laundry period.
My former neighbour is also a world traveler. He never took any pictures in his travels. Amazingly he remembers the places that he visited very well without any photos, keepsakes or souvenirs. With the advent of digital photography and online storage, now I just have the keepsake albums, old scrapbooks and old photo albums to deal with. These days whenever I have an urge to buy souvenirs, an image of my packed locker would just pop up in my mind. I purchase souvenirs only to give them away as gifts. There is no greater souvenir than being in a certain place at a particular point in time.
In most cultures, more is better. If I ask young people how many cellphones they have possessed in the past five years, most would answer five to seven. The same goes for computers, cars, shoes, furniture, household items and small appliances. Recently I stayed with a widower friend of mine while waiting for my new rental place to be ready for move-in, I observed that he has two smartphones, two laptops, two monitors, one pad and numerous computer accessories in his home. His kitchen cupboards are full of expired dried and canned food. Only if I could persuade him to donate the extra electronic equipment to developing countries and the expired food to a local Food Bank, someone in the developing world could be educated and persons living below poverty line in Vancouver could be fed.
Armed with this new mindset, I will proceed with the final stages of the purging process to clear out my locker for the past four years.
I own clothing that can last me several lifetimes and with a wide size spectrum. My weight yo-yo'ed over the years. Occasionally I was able to "recycle" my plus-sized clothes in the past three decades. Moreover, I never got back to my smallest dress size. I oddly remember a conversation that I had with one of my favourite professors. He told me that we would only get bigger as we age. Had I paid heed to his comment, I would have given away all the smaller clothes at any one time. For the most part, I owned too much clothing because I could not wear all my clothes in one laundry period.
My former neighbour is also a world traveler. He never took any pictures in his travels. Amazingly he remembers the places that he visited very well without any photos, keepsakes or souvenirs. With the advent of digital photography and online storage, now I just have the keepsake albums, old scrapbooks and old photo albums to deal with. These days whenever I have an urge to buy souvenirs, an image of my packed locker would just pop up in my mind. I purchase souvenirs only to give them away as gifts. There is no greater souvenir than being in a certain place at a particular point in time.
In most cultures, more is better. If I ask young people how many cellphones they have possessed in the past five years, most would answer five to seven. The same goes for computers, cars, shoes, furniture, household items and small appliances. Recently I stayed with a widower friend of mine while waiting for my new rental place to be ready for move-in, I observed that he has two smartphones, two laptops, two monitors, one pad and numerous computer accessories in his home. His kitchen cupboards are full of expired dried and canned food. Only if I could persuade him to donate the extra electronic equipment to developing countries and the expired food to a local Food Bank, someone in the developing world could be educated and persons living below poverty line in Vancouver could be fed.
Armed with this new mindset, I will proceed with the final stages of the purging process to clear out my locker for the past four years.
