Living overseas means a yearly vacation of 4 to 6 weeks and getting ready for my trip turns into a yearly sort-toss-give away festival. I need to see which medicines to buy, which means figuring out what has expired, what I need more of. Leaving my kitchen for a month means a thorough clean-out of the fridge and cupboards, what has expired and what needs to be given away before I go? Figuring out what to take with me means looking at all my clothes: what needs to be honorably retired (tossed), what could be given to another person, what needs a trip to the tailors and what is ready for action.
Doing this every year means I have a clear frame of reference; I can look at something and say, “I have not touched you since the last clean out, so you are going into retirement” (which sounds nicer than, “into the trash”).
And I wonder if I will keep up this Marie-Kondoesque habit when I no longer have a built-in check point. When I lived in my own country, I did clear-outs now and then, but it was harder to get enthusiasm for them and harder to know time-lines: When had I gotten this? When is the last time I used/ wore it?
I was thinking of this because I just read one of those pro-clutter articles, about how having all sorts of things around you is good. Hmmm. Not really a believer in that as, first, dust and mold! If you don’t use, move, take care of something, it gets grimy.
And… it attracts bad energy. Explain this in which ever framework fits your personality, but the result is the same. Clothes that don’t fit, books you don’t read or like, kitchen stuff you don’t use and make-up/ cleansers/ shampoo that is almost gone or not your favorite are causing you problems.
They drain your chi or unalign your chakras or bring bad feng-shui or dim your aura or dampen your enthusiasm or counteract your mood board or whatever you want to call it – they bum you out with enthusiasms you will never follow, outfits you will never wear, meals you won’t make and careers that are not right for you.
The very worst of these are things that do work/ should work/ do fit but… there is something off. It’s so hard to get rid of a nice dress or expensive mascara or that yogurt maker… you are sure you will use them but you never do and in the meanwhile, they are joy-stealing lurkers.
It’s difficult to acknowledge that some items are simply connected to bad energy/ bad luck/ bad whatever. I was one caught out at an airport with too much stuff and I needed to buy a bag. The sales clerk was oddly, almost malevolently, obsequious. The trip home was a disaster and I realized after using it 2 or 3 times, that every time I wore that purse, I had a horrible day. I gave it one more chance, had a bad day and then threw it away. Perfectly good bag. But I am a wise and prudent person, sometimes an object is just not for you, no matter the price.
When I got back to my apartment after 9/11, I threw out the dress I was wearing. Perfectly good dress but I did not want to keep something that would remind me of such grief every time I saw it.
Of course, things that are in good condition should be given to someone who will use them or to charity, but if it’s something that you think is malevolent, toss it. Don’t give that negative force to anyone else.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Stay wise and stay safe.
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