I feel anxious in rooms with too much stuff in them. If I can’t freely move around without shimmying around or walking into something, I get all itchy and twitchy. I like more color than in the photo featured above, but I love how open and airy the room looks.
Perhaps it’s because I’m allergic to dust. Maybe my brain knows that cluttered spaces are more likely to be dusty, so it starts bombarding me with the heebie-jeebies to make me want to run far, far away. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I don’t always succeed in keeping the clutter at bay, but I try.
My design aesthetic leans toward minimalist. I like a lot of floor space in a room, with little more than the essential pieces of furniture (though I will never embrace the minimalist practice of sleeping on a mattress on the floor. One, I don’t like the way it looks. Two, we live in an old, drafty house, and just thinking about lying that close to the floor makes me shiver. Plus, easier access for spiders…eek!
Somehow, though, my aversion to clutter dissipates when I step into a thrift store. It seems the prospect of finding something amazing for very little money among the stacks and stacks of dusty junk is the ultimate antihistamine. But I still want to come home to a relaxing, uncluttered space. So as much as I love thrifting, I try to stay conscious of how much stuff I bring into our home. If I don’t have a place for it, I don’t buy it.
Similarly, I like to remain aware of the stuff that’s already in our home. If something no longer has a purpose and is not adding value to our lives, it’s time to say good-bye. In general, I’m not attached to “stuff.” I can usually part with things I no longer need without a second thought.
Lately, though, I realized I’ve been holding on to several items out of emotional attachment or a sense of obligation. One example is my red 1950s chrome and Formica dinette set. It’s the real deal, not a reproduction. I had wanted one for years. The gray ones were everywhere, but I wanted red. I scoured local garage sales and auctions, and watched eBay like a hawk. When I finally found this set at an antiques store in 1998, I was happy to plunk down the $265 asking price.
I proudly used the vintage set as my dining room table for the next decade. Then, when I decided to downsize and move into a 1-bedroom condo, I no longer had the space for it, but I couldn’t bear to let it go.
Two years later, when Tom and I got married and bought our current home, the red dinette set came along, and found a new home in our basement, disassembled and wrapped in old bed sheets to protect it from dust and scratches.
I still love the table, but it just doesn’t fit with the décor and layout of our home. Since we plan to live here for at least several more years, I decided it wasn’t fair to the dinette set to keep it hidden away in the basement for potentially another decade. Perhaps there is someone else out there who can give it a proper home.
This afternoon I’m taking what was once my most prized possession to a furniture consignment shop, along with a few other things I’ve been holding onto for similar reasons. It’s a little sad, but it also feels good to let go and focus on the present.
Do you have trouble letting go of things, even if they no longer serve you?
A new Peculiar Girl post is coming soon. Sign up for e-mail updates and be the first to know when fresh content is available!
Feature photo by Ndecam on Flickr.
- Like this? Help spread the word:
Recommend on Facebook-
- Share on Linkedin
-
- share via Reddit
- Share with Stumblers
- Tweet about it
- Bookmark in Browser
- Tell a friend
I just spent a week in Oklahoma with my daughter and sister, where we put in 11-hour days cleaning up my mother’s over-junked, seldom-cleaned house. (My mother at 96 is in great health for her age, but went into a nursing home for a safer, higher-care environment. We had been asking her for 3 decades to please clean and discard. She left the job to us because “I’m not much for keeping house, and you girls are so efficient.”)
We did find some family treasures and precious memories–but for the most part it was an onerous task that made us each FAR less attached to stuff (and none of us were that materialistic to begin with). It was also a cautionary tale in different types of legacies we leave to those we love.
Clean it up. Get rid of it. Words to live by. For ourselves in the now and those who follow in the future.
Liz, we had a similar experience, after a relative passed. There was just so much stuff. I vowed never to leave a mess like that behind for my loved ones.
This is a tough subject for me.
My house doesn’t scream “hoarder,” but it’s starting to feel a bit small with all the sentimental stuff I can’t/don’t want to let go of. My condo isn’t very big and I have no basement, so something has to go. But what?
My problem is so much of my stuff is hand-me-downs from long-gone relatives. A walnut Victorian marble-top parlor table that always held my grandma’s delicious holiday punch in her dining room. Her old china cabinet that I adored when I was 5 and still adore. It’s like a miniature china shop when it’s all lit up, and it’s filled with sparkly things from many relatives past. Charm bracelets and expensive diamond jewelry that belonged to my aunt and mom and grandma. Even my own collection of Barbies and Matchbox cars — so many things.
When I keep my things, I keep my memories of happier times. My parents and grandparents are gone, and being single and childless, I have no one to leave them to. I’m the last generation of both my mom and dad’s side. No blood nieces and nephews either.
I hate the thought of selling these things, especially for a pittance. All my antiques are well made in U.S. I hang on to them as long as they serve a purpose. Maybe if their only purpose is to remind me of the people I miss, it’s time for them to go? But what a depressing thought.
Tani, but are you living your life surrounded by things that represent you? It sounded to me from your comment that you are surrounded by things that remind you of everyone else but you.
Take photo’s of the items & look at the photos when you crave sentimentality & sell off the items – even if they don’t garner a kings wages if you don’t truly love these items. Look at it this way – if these items had not been thrust upon you – would you have purchased them yourself?
Also, if you would rather have a different furniture style that better represents you & your esthetics – you should! This is your only life too ya know.
Sounds also like you have become the relectant good steward of your families old things. What’s the worst that could happen if you parted with those things? Not a darn thing that’s what.
I’m a firm believer & advocate for surrounding myself with things that I love – not stuff that old Aunt Trudy loved.
My parents down-sized their belongings quite a bit. I know they don’t want us kids to have to go through a big clean out when the time comes. I appreciate that.
I don’t hold on to a lot of stuff, but other people have said it helps to take pictures if you are just holding on to things because of the good memories. Pictures of the items can help evoke those good memories without the item itself taking up space and feeling a bit too weighty in your life.
I like to think about the pleasure the new owner will get from something I no longer need.