I am the worst when it comes to decluttering. I go overboard…known to throw out entire CD pouches; with CDs still in them and this happening in the days when they were still needed. I go to extremes. All or nothing. And if I’m in the mood to declutter, trust me when I say all goes out and nothing stays behind.
When I was studying, I used to switch off to anything else that may have needed attention. Not that I was studying that hard, it was just my brain would be using up all its energy to try get me to look at my books that it couldn’t spend any energy on anything else. The best part however was when the exams were over and I all of a sudden could release my pent up energy on getting rid of things. And rearranging furniture. Generally in the middle of the night for some strange reason (oh…that’s usually the time I used to pretend to study). I’d feel amazing afterwards. Until I needed or wanted some object that I couldn’t find because…I’d given it away or mistakenly thrown it away.
So why am I thinking about this? Because I’ve come to learn that decluttering is good to a limit. Like everything else, even this requires moderation and balance. And decluttering isn’t just about objects. We can de-clutter in all aspects of our lives…objects, people, objects. I used to be one of those social media people who would un-friend or delete others for various reasons. I used to even go through my phonebook and delete numbers (some which I’d look for at a later stage). Now I understand that people enter your life for a reason and in many cases its for some lesson to be learnt or for a particular reason, like some triggers you need to face. I couldn’t wait to get away from certain personalities before. Now I allow them to enter and once the lesson is learnt, wave them good bye…no intense decluttering required.
I doubt I’ll ever stop this habit…hopefully not…but I contain it a lot more and ensure that I don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. And while my want is always to let go of objects in a specific way; I’m finding that there’s a natural letting go that occurs with people. If they were meant to be in your life, they’ll be there. If not, hopefully the lesson has been learnt and you can fill your life with people who want to be there, always.