My car is currently full of things to take to a charity dropoff. Even though spring has not yet arrived, I’m in the midst of a ruthless decluttering spree, and it feels wonderful.
But how does a single woman living in a 1-bedroom apartment accumulate a carload of stuff?
Some things in my charity boxes:
Books - I like books. In fact, I like them so much that I like just having them around me. They’re decoration. They make a home feel homey. However, when recently cleaning, I also discovered they aren’t getting any younger. My books are yellowing. They need to be dusted more frequently than I want to dust them. On opening them, I found some of them smell very musty even though they’re not stored in a damp environment.
I am one of the blessed owners of a hard-earned Amazon Kindle (second generation) due to arrive today. As part of my thinking about purchasing a Kindle, I reexamined the things in my life and what they mean to me. I found that while I love books and love reading books, this thing I’ve been doing with books isn’t much different than Smaug lounging on his pile of treasure (please, go read and enjoy The Hobbit if this illustration makes no sense to you). They’ve become precious things seldom used, but more enjoyed as baubles to own. What was my mission in collecting all of the classics? Just to know I owned the classics after I had read them? I decided that somewhere along the line I had lost the true value of books and was going to eventually find myself using the back of the toilet tank as a bookshelf. I threw myself an intervention to coincide with my decision to purchase a Kindle.
I put up for sale on half.com the books that I would be unlikely to read again, the books I really didn’t enjoy, the books that were a bit musty or yellowing, and the books that had an e-book version. Over the course of a month I had earned enough for a Kindle. I then used that money to purchase a Kindle. And I’m still selling books.
Even if I sell all of the books I have advertised, I’ll still have many, many books on my shelves. However, through this reexamination of what really matters, I’ve become reacquainted with my love of books and reading balanced by my desire for simplicity.
Paper - I began a quest for a paperless office in 2007 and managed to stretch that process out for a couple of years. I need to write a book (that may be coming!) to help others avoid the pitfalls that I ran into in going paperless, but I’m happy to say the end result has absolutely been worth it. I have a couple of notebooks to sort, and then I will have finally achieved the goal of a paperless home. Going paperless has meant having much less of the things necessary to support a paper-filled home. For example, if you are going to keep paper, then you need notebooks, file folders (manila and hanging), paper itself for printing, multi-colored paper for various projects, boxes to organize the paper and folders, and more. All of that is blissfully going to charity. Who knew that paper could be such a burden?
Schwag - For some reason, at the last convention or two I’ve been to, I’ve felt the need to hit the various exhibit tables and come away with nifty things, like strange-shaped highlighters, lots of cheap pens that don’t write very well, book lights when I don’t read in the dark, sun visors, and more. At the end of the convention, everybody scoops in their bags and shares their finds. It’s adult trick-or-treating. “Did you score the stress reliever ball at table 6 before they ran out? How exciting!” It’s pathetic stuff, and it’s hopefully going to be enjoyed by someone at the charity rather than winding up in a landfill. I’m trying to remember this for the next convention I go to.
My boxes were full of other odds and ends, but this was a reminder to me how easy it is to fill up one’s home with stuff.
I’ve heard the Japanese have a decorating concept that emphasizes the importance of empty space. Room to breathe. I’m looking forward to having some empty space to breathe more easily.
What about you? What are you hanging onto and why? Have you possibly confused form with value? If so, it’s never too early to get a jump start on spring cleaning.
Photo credit: Clearly Ambiguous
Tags: allergies, Books, clutter, ebooks, Home, Kindle, paper, paperless, reading, simplicity, stuff
