Getting Rid of My Stuff

I spent thirty years collecting stuff. Now I'm spending twenty years getting rid of it (so far). I have cut down on my possessions for years now, ever since I read Taming the Paper Tiger back in 1993 when I lived in a flat in North Oakland, California. I had an entire room full of boxes of "stuff" and set out to organize it. Well, it has been a struggle ever since, but I've finally got it down to a dull roar, meaning most of my unwanted/unorganized items can fit into two closets at this point.

I still have a few items that tear at my heartstrings, that I have yet to resolve, as to how to handle them. Of course, old family photographs are one item. Another is my collection of valuable old Beatles albums. These will go to my children. My oldest daughter has been a Beatles fan since she was a teen. Now she's a princess among women and deserves to get this aging collection of albums I purchased in the 1960's.

The family photographs are a bit harder to deal with. I have five kids and will divide among them. What else can I do? I will try to give each child lots of photos of themselves. This will require a lot more organizing and sorting than I've put into it so far.

As it turns out... old boxes of filing and paperwork are easy to go through and dispose of because most of the papers are no longer relevant to my life. The only things I tend to hold onto are my writings... I have a backup system because I consider my writings the most important things in my home. I've been writing since I was a teen and still have most of it in my possession. Pretty strange, huh? Luckily I haven't lost much of it over the years.

So, I continue to declutter but the huge pressure I felt a few years ago is over. I'm doing much better with "stuff" now.

Ah, that reminds me of a video a friend told me about recently:

I have to love George Carlin - though he went way over my comfort level with profanity and vulgarity at times, most of what he said was spot on and I have to respect him for that.