De cluttering is an exercise in self aggrandizement. Every item that you choose to remove requires admission that it was either held onto past the point of rationality, or was acquired in error.
I don't often make the monetary connection to these ideas, but when I do, it can be rough. In other words, stuff that needs to go, is a reminder of money, and even more importantly, time wasted.
As I've begun processing where and what in my life to change, this is certainly something to deal with. I'm looking forward to the extra room in my life, and house, but I'm also looking forward to spending less money on things, and reclaiming some cash from items that we don't need to hang onto.
Something that I didn't expect are the small moments of new clarity that come along each day. Yesterday, I was cleaning out the refrigerator while my wife was at the grocery store stocking up for Thanksgiving with my family, which we are hosting this year. I emptied out 18 containers of expired food and a few bags of produce that wasn't, shall I say- consumable.
I didn't do the math on how much money that expired food represented. Probably because I knew that it would just bum me out. I did take note though.
Once I finished emptying and recycling the containers, I cleaned up the counter and noticed some ceramic coasters in a holder that have been sitting on the counter for a few months. I placed them there intending to fix the topmost coaster which broke at least 5 years ago during a move. Here is what's silly. We haven't used these coasters in years. I always bristled at my wife's suggestion that I just throw them away with the excuse that I could fix it.
I finally threw them away.
It wasn't some huge breakthrough, but it was significant for me because I wouldn't have thrown them away a couple months ago. I'm sure that I'm in for a lot of moments like this over the next few months. Maybe even years.
Wish me luck. Decluttering is hard.