Last Thursday I realized that my habit is not fully formed - while I'm looking and deciding if I need to keep things, it would better serve my purpose to stop and consider the Why of why it is still there, rather than happily marking as another piece of clutter I've removed.
Clutter not understood is clutter that will appear again.
Ok, time to get real with my stuff/Stuff again. So, my reflections...
Saving for Someday
Contacts. These were my inspiration for this post. I went to the cabinet today to see about wearing a pair of dailies that I knew I needed to use up, only to discover that they had expired 5 months ago. I started to wisk them into the garbage ("these can go!") Oh, look at how many have been wasted...
It's depressing and disappointed when we find things we saved for later that didn't work out. When our "someday" doesn't show up. These were supposed to be special, and now they are useless - I cannot use them anymore. Missed my chance and wasted money. Clutter like this reminds me of decisions I've made that were not wise in retrospect, which is a hit to my sense of self-worth.
If I were to leave it in my cabinet, every time I came across it, a little voice in my head would whisper a little statement about what those contacts are, but that little voice wouldn't give me the whole picture. It would probably say, "What a waste! Why did you buy so many? [Enter typical monkey mind rant about buying things.]" But the other story to these contacts is: "Why did you let life pass you by? Why not enjoy things in the moment, make use of what you have? Why always save your good things for the future?"
Your Trash is My Treasure
Paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls. I remember as a kid making fun things with these, so when I saw a picture in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine several years ago to cut them into narrow circles and make little balls for a holiday garland, I decided to start saving them.
Be aware that something stored with good intentions can become clutter. The energy was fresh when I reorganized them from their previous storage and tidily put them up there, but now that they've been sitting again, the energy is definitely stagnant. What makes it worse is that these have been hanging out above our heads for months now.
I'm brainstorming ways to use these (well, I did save them after all!). You can check out my board on Pinterest where I've found some great kids crafts for them. I plan to make some calls to local preschools to see if they'd like the materials for crafts too.
Not Letting Go of the Beautiful
Tissue boxes. Too beautiful to just recycle!
Years ago (sadly, yes) I thought, "These are so pretty - I bet I can make them into something else!" They've been building blocks for Bean, and colorful towers standing idly in the front room. Finally I collapsed them all, thinking I'd cut them into shapes for garlands.
This is how I've been storing them. See how crammed in here these are? Why am I holding onto these so tightly?
Can you guess how many are here? Ninety-three. We have been recycling tissue boxes straight to the bin lately and not saving them, but I've kept these yet. Ninety-three! No wonder the pile was so heavy to lift down to take some pictures!
Fresh Perspective
While I'm looking into the tissue box situation, Bean comes to see what I'm doing (I've been counting out loud, and she just loves counting). As I shove the folded tissue boxes back into the cabinet, she says with impatience:"HEY!! Let's use with that!"
Yes, exactly. :)
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