Sunday, August 01, 2010

how to throw stuff out - and being kind to myself - vomiting clothes


Morocco 2006, Fez
I posted the message on facebook:......Vomiting clothes....
I just tossed out a huge pile of old clothes and it seems to have made no diff to the total stuff in my wardrobe... sorting it out brings back lots of memories.... time to let it all go... new life... new chapter....

A friend wrote: Don't stop there. Ditch the lot :-)
My response: 
What run round in the nude ... ?
I used to do this to myself (not the nude bit, the ditching  the LOT bit) I'd force myself to be radical with myself and I felt bad for months... I'd miss the stuff I forced myself to toss out .......

So now I don't do that, I just toss out what I feel comfortable tossing out...  I'm nicer to myself ( a little bit at least ) :-)

BUT one trick I do have: I mentally mark a large pile of stuff as "You are next" and I label another pile as "In a pinch this too will go" ... that helps me get ready for the next spasm of vomiting out old crap....

Economics too helps: I found out yesterday that even a small space of commercial storage 2meters by 2 meters or so, costs a minimum of $100  / month. That's $1200 per year. So at some point in time the value of my stuff in storage will be worth less than the cost of storage.

As a result I realized: I won't get commercial storage, I'll toss out more, and I'll ask my parents to take a little more of the stuff.
So that is what triggered the clothes vomit episode this morning....
:-)

The connection didn't hit me as clearly until I just wrote about it here. 



Comments: 

C says:
Unlike there, we have an event here organised by students - The Swapping Day - where you can exchage old clothes for others' - nice, isn't it?
M says: You only miss it once you toss it out. As long as you hang on, it stays forgotten :) Better to toss and miss than keep and forget! 55 - 
M says: Sykes! I had a storage locker at $1200+ per year for 20 years - actually for the first 10 years I had 2 lockers! In 2008 I finally took possession of my apartment again and moved all the stuff out of the locker and back home. Guess what? 90% was useless crap which I ended up tossing! I think there's a lesson there somewhere.
H says: OMG, that's painful.... I reckon even in 2 years the value of my crap is going to be less than the storage... the only thing is documents, but hey even those, who cares.

you are right: it only hurts when you let go, when you hold it you never know you even have it and you don't miss is and you don't USE it either.