The Essentials . . or Not. What Will You Miss?
Sometimes, when you’re not watching, the mess grows into something too large to handle.
Something has to be done.
You stand there, arms akimbo, surveying the room. What’s to stay? What’s to go?
Each item you pick up, take in, turn in your hands. You set it back upon the shelf, but grasp it once again before the hand pulls away.
What did it mean to you? Why does it remain?
The problem when things get out of hand like this is that the cumulative weight of their needless existence catches in your bones, causes you to move more slowly.
Sometimes you have to get rid of everything, or nearly, to figure out what you’ll miss. What you needed at all.
Keep the bed, the toothbrush, the books, the pen.
Keep the essentials, let go of the rest.
I don’t have to spell out that I’m not exactly being literal here (but hey, it’s typing, and the nature of it is that I spell it out). But part of this is literal. Maybe a big part. Let Marie Kondō help you weigh things with her amazing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Your thoughts? Leave a comment below…(oh, and sign up to receive 1-2 weekly articles in your inbox 🙂
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Figured you were the non-sentimental type, being a nomad and all.
My favorite thing about purges is piecing the memories back together and watching the past unravel like a murder scene.
It reminds me of stubble fires for some reason.
I really like your blog, btw. It’s very elegant.
Thank you, sir. True, I’m not sentimental with objects… usually… But, not so much with memories. Actually, I may have a low threshold for sentimentality, so maybe what’s maudlin from me is totally normal for others. But I certainly relate to that notion of unraveling things like a murder scene. A sort of death *is* involved, one could argue. Thanks for reading 🙂
I’ve been ignoring a little voice telling me to simplify for a while now. I look at my stuff and “the cumulative weight of its needless existence catches in my bones”. Thanks for the perfect description.
Ha, yes. It’s very easy to ignore—one of those short-term-easy, long-term-screw-yourself things. Thanks for reading, Brian!
linger too long and the langoliers will getcha!
This is scary, but TRUE!
Love this post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Meggan.
The reason I love minimalism is that it removes all the inessentials so we can focus more on the things that really matter to us. Nothing’s wrong with keeping things though. The point is to fully understand the reason behind keeping those stuff. And yes, those are personal reasons. No right or wrong. 🙂
A great woman once said, “Keep the essentials, let go of the rest.” I admire her. 🙂
hehehe, you’re awesome. And you’re right…there’s no right or wrong, no black and white. Maybe just “better” and “worse”…but who knows what that even is…