Yesterday I made great strides in the continuing move towards decluttering. I managed to fill three boxes with only two kinds of things: empty picture frames (half a box) and books (two and a half boxes). You can ascertain from the name of my blog that both of these items really got me in the “feels,” as the kids like to say.
My inner shutterbug had a hard time pulling the photos from the frames. I kept reminding myself, however, that the photos can be put in albums and that I really don’t need a photo of my infant daughter on display when she is now twenty-two years old. I kept framed engagement and wedding photos of my husband and me. We were still young (late 20s’) and we looked so happy — because we were. And still are. And that makes me smile. (Okay — so my husband’s mullet makes me laugh, too.) I don’t need dozens of framed photos cluttering up surfaces and making dusting even more difficult than necessary. So I’m being very thoughtful about what I keep and what I display.
I’m a scribbler, so books are precious to me. Even the so-so ones. I feel sorry for them (and their authors), so I want to give them all homes. Our home is a pier and beam home, though, with a crawlspace beneath the flooring. If I kept all the books I am tempted to keep, we would be in danger of caving in on ourselves. I went through my shelves in my new study and pulled quite a few volumes — mostly crafty works on scrapbooking, cross stitching, sewing, etc. I made myself evaluate what the odds were that I would use them in creating anything. I got rid of about half of those types of books, which left empty space on my shelves. It actually felt nice. Encouraging. And those books are no longer glaring at me from the shelves, inciting guilt for projects left undone or never started.
I wish my mom had been able to experience the kind of freedom I’m experiencing from “cleaning house.” It’s interesting how I can almost feel peace blooming from this process, and it motivates me to keep going.
A Scribbler & A Shutterbug 
I so enjoyed reading this post! I know it must be so challenging to clear out some of these items… but I love your perspective on the situation. We could all apply this somewhere throughout our homes; the kitchen cabinets, the sock drawers, the shoe closets, garage, basement storage etc… Love it! 🙂
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Thank you! It is an ongoing effort — adjusting my perspective, and I’ve discovered in the last two years that sometimes you have to do two or three (or four) “pass throughs” to really sever your attachment to things. When I first cleaned out my mom’s house after she passed away, I made several trips where my car was full to overflowing with stuff to be donated. (And it was good stuff — I throw trash away. I hate it when people “donate” trash to charities.) Anyway, my sister and I thought there were quite a few things we each wanted, but time has proven that we really don’t need to keep as much as we thought when our grief was new and our emotions were raw. I expect that in a few months, I’ll be looking around thinking, “I REALLY don’t need/want that,” and declutter even some more.
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You expressed my own “downsizing delightful feeling” better than I ever could–such a sense of satisfaction, such a “release.”TY for sharing.
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