Saturday 6 June 2015

Saturday Morning and Another Purge

Saturday morning and I found myself home alone.  OH had gone out with the dog, Little Bird had gone to her basketball training and I decided it was a good time to do a spot of decluttering of some things that I find the hardest of all to declutter, namely Little Bird's baby clothes and other items.

Please don't judge, I know I probably should have got rid of these a long time ago, but for reasons I won't go into here, many of the items are very sentimental to me and I find it incredibly hard to throw them out or donate them.

In all honesty, it has taken me years to get to where I am now with decluttering these items and I've still got a box full of them sat on top of my linen cupboard.  I came to the conclusion a long time ago, that I just have to do the job in small spurts and let go of what I can when I can.  I don't put too much pressure on myself, I just keep going back to the box and deciding if I can let go of a few more items each time.  Baby steps, literally.

On this attempt, I started off well enough and was feeling particularly gung ho.  I stopped part way and had a bath, which was probably an error, as in doing so I had time to think about what I was doing and consequently some things went back into the box once I'd got out of the bath.  Better to be cautious than have serious regrets I say.

Anyway, towards the end, Little Bird came home and took a look through the box with me and we cooed over the tiny clothes she used to wear. It was quite nice to do this.  I didn't get rid of a whole lot, but a good 20 or so items went into the donation pile, were thrown away or put aside to be re-purposed, which did make me feel a lot better. There's still a lot of work to do here, both physically and emotionally, but I'm not in a hurry. I can feel myself becoming more detached from some of the items left, even as I speak, so some progress was made.

Do you have any weak spots when it comes to decluttering?  I guess we all have, but I do believe we'll get where we want to be in the end, wherever that is.  That's the thing about simplifying. It means something different to each of us. I don't want to get rid of everything, but I don't want to keep everything either.  There is a balance to be found and slowly but surely, I think I'm creeping closer to it.

2 comments:

  1. A friend of mine used all the little cotton tops and dresses and made a quilt, she cut out hexagons and then stitched them together, therefore having a nice quilt of memories rather than a box of stuff. I still have a couple baby dresses and a tiny pair of pink shoes, mine are 36 and 32.

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    1. That's reassuring. Maybe one day I'll be able to make the quilt or get the items down to as few as yourself.

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