I really don’t know what to call this “stuff reduction” process that I am going through. Maybe if I knew the name for it I could search the internet for others with similar problems and goals. The process is similar in some ways to getting out of debt or losing weight.
Years ago I had financial debts that were out of control. The interest and fees (late/over balance) alone were more then I could pay each month, not to mention paying the principal. Eventually I found a path to getting it under control, then changed my habits and worked hard for a long time. Now I am debt-free except for one convenience credit card that is paid in full every month.
This blog has previously mentioned that I lost a lot of weight. I lost about 90 pounds over the course of 20 months and have kept it off for more than two years. How I did this may be the subject of another post. Here I’ll just say that it was a long process with daily effort, involving change of habits.
The reduction project is similar to these other projects in that it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes continual effort to change the way I do things on order to improve my life by getting rid of something (ie. debt, excess body weight, unnecessary possessions).
Debt followed me around like a dark storm cloud, and it was so very liberating to be free of it. Being overweight drained my physical energy and insulated me from the physical sensations of life. I see possessions in the same light – as a burden which limits my freedom. A burden that can be lifted by working to slowly reduce that which holds me back from enjoying the limited amount of time that has been given to any of us in this life.
So what do I call this? The word “decluttering” somehow doesn’t seem to fit. Except for the last couple of years I have been a packrat forever. For me this cannot be about just shedding excess stuff or organizing collections. It is about rethinking what it means to own a thing.
