Comments | urbpan: 3:00 snapshot #763

urbpan

3:00 snapshot #763

Jun 11, 2011 20:36

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Comments 7

lizziebelle June 12 2011, 02:40:37 UTC

I've found that the older I get, the less attachment I have to that sort of thing. Which is just the opposite of what I expected. I started a massive clean-out last summer, and it was surprisingly easy to let go of quite a bit. I haven't missed any of it, either.

The hard part, really, is getting started. Once you get past that hurdle, it gains a momentum of its own. I highly recommend it. :)

urbpan June 12 2011, 10:50:56 UTC

Yeah, the hard part is the stuff that I had the attachment to when I was younger. I find it and think, oh that poor boy thought this was important to save! It wouldn't be right to throw it out after he'd kept it all this time.

ndozo June 12 2011, 04:48:25 UTC

That sucks. An organized person I met had taken binders and sheet protectors and put all his letters and ephemera from the past in them. I was impressed. Dumpster? Stimulants? A couple of friends and I are helping each other go through our stuff and our dead relatives' stuff. Having another person there can help break the spell. Actually it sounded like you had a great system, one that has worked for me many times; Put stuff in the basement, basement floods, stuff gets wrecked, throw stuff away. Good luck. Keep focused and go forward, eventually it'll be over. Sorry it's rough.

Dumpster? Stimulants? urbpan June 12 2011, 10:49:50 UTC

My method is time consuming. It would be better to use a garden hose and just soak all those things in the old apartment, then use a pitchfork to huck it all out the window.

Re: Dumpster? Stimulants? ndozo June 12 2011, 17:30:24 UTC

I laughed.

buboniclou June 12 2011, 12:26:46 UTC

That's such a great articulation of it. It's exactly how I feel about "stuff" too :(

roaming June 13 2011, 05:42:54 UTC

Humans make meaning. It's liberating to decide how much and what kind of meaning to ascribe to anything. I feel the way you do about stuff. And I spend waaaaay too much time organizing and shuffling and unshuffling and thinking about my stuff. It's beginning to bug me, the way my stuff runs me. Who's in charge here, anyway?!?!?!

So yeh, I get it. I'm inching toward the hose and dumpster method. Because I have boxes of saved papers and I know for sure if they disappeared overnight I wouldn't have a single clue what was in them that I'd 'lost."