Too-Much-Shit Shui

[gwywnnydd]

My dear friend treebyleaf introduced the concept of Too-Much-Shit Shui into my consciousness many weeks ago. Since then, I've been making minor inroads on clearing out the piles of crap I've been hoarding for no real purpose other than "I might need this, someday.". I came to realize this weekend, I need smaller goals. I get overwhelmed by the big picture.
So, I managed to get the ruptured soft-sided suitcase into the trash. I cleared out many of the pairs of shoes that do not fit my post-baby feet. I identified clothes that I had been keeping as my "skinny clothes", and realized I'd be happier getting new clothes when I slim down to that size again, rather than pulling out old stuff. So, those are in a bag that is destined for St. Vinnies. I have a box on the dining room table, that is almost full, of stuff that I can't bring myself to throw away, but don't need cluttering up my place, that is also destined for St. Vinnies.
I even got rid of two boxes of books. (Since I had never voluntarily gotten rid of a book in my adult life, this was a significant accomplishment).
Baby steps . . .
I hope that soon I will be able to see a difference . . .

Comments

[burgunder.livejournal.com]

When I did this, it was a lot of effort and often emotionally taxing at first, but it was SO worth it! It's no effort at all now to keep my space clean and arranged, whereas before things would just pile up and scream at me from their little messes so that I felt burdened with the guilt of unfinished proejcts, unused items, etc. etc. all the time. Now, it just feels good and wonderful to be in my own space, and doesn't exert the kind of pressure that I used to feel from all of my Things :) The unclutter process has been pretty constant since I first decided to do it - just this morning, I got rid of all the redundant dishware that I never use. Being able to sell some of the stuff is great, and being able to donate some of the stuff to people who need it when I don't also feels great.

Rock on girl! Liberation from Stuff is mighty.

That's spooky

[gwywnnydd.livejournal.com]

Your description of your stuff screaming at you . . . get out of my head!

I'm sure I will be glad it is done, when it is over ::). Right now, it's daunting.
I suppose I could always set myself the goal of amount of stuff I used to have, measured in time it took to move. I used to be able to pack (including collecting boxes) and clear out of a place in one day (including the massive "Want the damage deposit back" cleaning).
It'd be nice to get back to that :).

Re: That's spooky

[burgunder.livejournal.com]

Almost every post I made in August 2003 was about uncluttering my apartment and life. They seemed to go hand in hand. It's deeply taxing work, but permanently rewarding because once and for all, you never had to sort it and stash it and organize it One More Time. It's amazing how much, for me, it was about letting go of senses of security that provided no real security ... permitting myself to be rid of things that caused me immense guilt and had no other purpose in my life... picking one or two projects that meant a lot to me and culling the rest of my ongoing projects so that I could focus and actually finish something, which has had an immense impact on how I feel and think about myself.

Here's a post from early on in my pursuit of Unclutter: http://www.livejournal.com/users/burgunder/153075.html#cutid1

Good luck!! From the other side, it's soooo worth it. It's kind of an ongoing process, it's taken me 7 months since I started and I still have a ways to go yet, but after the first 2 months of spending a decent amount of time tackling one area at a time, I started noticing how much happier I was coming into my space... how much quieter it was :>

Re: That's spooky

[gwywnnydd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm in need of a headspace cleaning. I've been ignoring the correlation between cleaning my living space and cleaning my headspace :).