One of my biggest challenges in decluttering, and one of the biggest challenges that almost every one of my clients face, is overcoming the future: someday. As in, "I might need this someday."
We are careful, prudent people who dislike waste. We plan for the future. We can think of creative and useful ideas for every and any object in our paths. These skills and character traits are admirable, but they are detrimental to our sanity in 21st century living.
The skills our parents and grandparents needed to stay alive are very different from the skills we require today. Our parents and their parents kept useful things because often there were not enough possessions or money available to meet their very basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter during the Depression and during the lean years of World War II.
Life has greatly changed since then. Keeping parts of useful things, re-using mayonnaise jars, hoarding scraps of fabric, keeping a garage or shed or even a junk room full of things that "may come in handy someday" is no longer necessary for about 90% of us. We have access to hardware stores, clothing stores, secondhand stores, and superstores (plus adequate transportation to get us to these places) that were mostly absent from our country a generation or two ago. The access we have to rent power washers and tile cutters and folding chairs for a wedding reception precludes the need we have to buy and save all those things ourselves.
But it doesn't stop us from keeping them once we get them.
I propose a change.
Simple, really, but profound: stop saving things for "someday."
Have faith in the infrastructure of our great country, which will assure that you will have access to what you need when you need it. Have faith in your neighbors and friends to loan you extra dinner plates or a couple camping cots when you have out of town visitors. Have faith in your own capable self, to be able to rise to the occasion when faced with a lack of supplies, gear, or materials to do a particular job or task. Have faith that you will be able to earn the $1.99 for a new crochet hook, and will be able to drive to the craft store yourself, if you EVER decide to take up crocheting again.
Have faith that you will be able to find a box in which to send your Mother her Christmas present. And if you can't find a used one, get a brand new one for free from the post office. They will even deliver priority mail cardboard boxes or envelopes to your door, for free. And you can order them online. You don't need to keep a closet full of used cardboard boxes any longer. Recycle them and reclaim some closet space.
You don't need to keep things for "someday." Instead, enjoy the life you have today.
Retain all those excellent character traits and useful skills such as thrift and prudence and creative re-purposing, to be sure! But refrain from cluttering up your home and storage spaces with things you can easily buy or rent when you need them at Home Depot, Joann Fabric, U-haul, or the post office.
Blessings on you this week!
