Learning to let go of possessions

Before I realise it is a problem, my room is a mess and I find things that I haven’t used or seen or needed in years. As my mum would put it, it’s a real pig stye.

What I can find even harder than the reorganising and cleaning, is the need to let things go....

Nostalgia and sentimentality

I am a sucker for nostalgia and being sentimental. When I think about times gone by and some of my favourite memories, I always get worked up. In the process of making these memories, I always wind up trying to use things to re-affirm their memorability. I keep birthday cards, rocks, stickers, keychains and all manner of bits and bobs that I think will help me remember something special. This application of memories to things can leave me in a pickle. Firstly, it can sometimes get in the way of forming memories and living in the moment. Sometimes, I need to just let it be and put my phone away and not collect a little nick knack. Secondly, it amounts into a pile of leaflets and stuff that fills my drawers and clutters my life. I am trying to remind myself that is not the objects the retain and make memories but the experience I had and the people I shared it with.

Environmentalism

Environmentalism and waste prevention is a huge and important issue to me personally. No matter how hard it can be, I always try to consider my impacts. I find this to be a generally healthy habit and something that gives me identity, purpose and passion. However, sometimes it can lead me to be an unhealthy collector of junk. I always try to re-use and save items from the bin. I’ll pick old pots for plants, keep old papers and pens and pieces of plastic. If I see an old phone or particular items thrown out on the road, I’ll collect them and take them to recycling deposits for old technology. At the time this seems like a great idea. Then life gets in the way and before I know it there are old keyboards and notepads with a few pages left in them in my shelf.

One of the reasons I find letting go of these things so hard is the hard truth I have to face; sometimes you just can’t preserve and recycle everything. Sometimes, you just have to throw it away to landfill and be aware that it well end up in our Earth and our oceans. I will always try to prevent this from happening but in order to do that to my best, I need to have a clean functioning space that allows me to be organised. I’ll never giving up trying but I need to get better at knowing how much I can take on and manage while juggling the challenges of everyday life.