Clutter [publisher's letter]

It’s incredible to me how much stuff I accumulated over the years, and even more amazing how much of it was given to me by family and friends of family. From clothes to knickknacks, boxes and boxes of “treasures” came to occupy a whole room wherever I lived.

As the article in this month’s edition on page 16 points out, clutter can suck the energy out of you, and I certainly found that to be the case. I thought about those boxes more than I should have, and it took our massive move from the horse ranch (downsizing to a townhouse!) to finally push me to take the plunge and purge.

It took the entire summer to go through those boxes and painstakingly decide which pile each item would be placed in―the antique store pile, the thrift store pile, the landfill pile, or the keeping pile. The idea was that the majority of items would be in the first two, with very little going to the landfill or me.

Something I think that people underestimate is just how painful it can be to part with long-held items. I certainly found this to be so, even when they weren’t necessarily my heart things. The issue was that they were given to me by people like my grandma and my mum, so I was attached to that fact, not the actual items themselves.

Despite the emotions elicited from this vast undertaking, I persevered, with my husband dutifully making trip after trip to the various places my things were supposed to go. It really did take the whole summer to assess each belonging, read through old letters and journals, and fuss over whether or not something was staying or going. There were even times when I’d set a group of items, like old crystal, out on the table to see if a piece or two “spoke” to me.

It’s true what they say, “Declutter your house, declutter your mind.” What a feeling it is to lighten the load to the degree that I did. Nowadays, I have no stored boxes, except some necessary tax papers and old photos, and it isn’t wall-to-wall stuff in our home. I must admit though, going at it like I did that summer isn’t for the faint of heart, and I still feel a little twinge when I think about a few odd things that were especially dear but had to go.