Dabbling with Decluttering
This week I have dabbled in some decluttering. I picked up some tips by listening to the Creative Culture podcast (formerly the Woodworking Talk Show by Steve Ramsey). The guest was Cassandra Aarssen, the host of the Clutterbug podcast . The discussion around anxiety resonated with me. I found the idea that anxiety might be related to why we hold on to items intriguing. Cas suggested we might be holding onto items we don’t need because we see the items as part of our identity. For example, I am a woodworker; I must keep every scrap of wood since this is what I do. I can’t dispose of this scrap because I am getting rid of part of who I am. Cas also proposed that we might hold on to clutter because we don’t want to make a mistake by disposing of it. We ask ourselves, “What if I regret it? What if I need to repurchase it?” which leads some of us to keep clutter. Personally, I am guilty of keeping the boxes for newly purchased items. My thought is, what if I need to return the item f...