What process - if any - do you use to help you cull your stuff? Perhaps you've made use of the advice of one of those folks who have branded themselves de-cluttering gurus? A guideline suggested by one of that crowd is to evaluate whether something still gives you joy. If not, according to this guru, it's time to get rid of it. Any of you tried using that guideline? How well has it worked for you?
I've mostly avoided accumulating stuff. But my book collection has always been an area needing continual culling, even with several helpful strategies implemented over the years, e.g., getting rid of an old book every time a new one is acquired. At my daughter's urging, I tried the joy guideline. Unfortunately, a fair number of my remaining books still give me joy. Many of the rest are waiting to be read or, re-read. Honest.
However, joy aside, an impasse is now at hand. I recently noticed this ongoing battle now involves nearly every room in our current home, notwithstanding the floor to ceiling book shelves - completely full, BTW - installed in our main room when we moved into this house in 2010. Fresh culling strategies lie ahead. Books will be jettisoned, one room at a time. But ..
"A house without books is like a room without windows": Horace Mann. Thanks buddy.
I’m not a collector of books, but I’ve always found it difficult to get rid of things like pictures, handwritten letters, things given to me by people I care about, and lots of stuff that might come in handy one day. At 77, I’ve been thinking about whoever will have to dispose of my belongings when I’m gone. If that person might say “Why in h... would she hang on to this?”, I try hard to part with the item. I’ve returned to adult friends and relatives notes and pictures they sent me when they were kids, because I enjoyed receiving from my aunt a thank you note I’d sent her when I was about 10. It isn’t easy but I’m trying to become a reformed pack rat. Jeanne
ReplyDeleteJeanne; Thanks for the comment. I didn't even mention pictures, handwritten letters etc. because those kinds of things are even more difficult for me to cull than my books. So if holding onto too many of those things makes me a pack rat, I guess I'm forced to own that label. Oh well, there are worse things.
DeleteNo, no! Those don't make you a pack rat. It's the other stuff that made me a pack rat, like a figurine given to me by an 8 year old on my 21st birthday, a badge from a visit to the UN building, the score card from a Pirates game in 1969, a third builder's level, a bunch of black shoelaces, and old lesson plans. I could go on.
ReplyDeleteHello Pat. Culling? Not often at all. I 'collect' things. A lot of things. Books, Albums, theater memorabilia ... And I'll always have these things. Don't get me wrong, though. I have culled/donated. In fact, while it takes a lot for me to even consider donating books, I have done it often and felt very good about it. And clothes, shoes, etc. Other than that ... Again, I 'collect' things (lol).
ReplyDeleteBe well,
Bob
Hey Bob (another home run!); Glad to know I'm not alone in the need for culling, as Jeannie's comment above (and yours) seem to indicate. I didn''t really think I was alone but it's still reassuring when at least a couple of people share their stories here, the whole point of my blog.
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