The Declutter Diaries is a series of posts I did for a former blog as a glimpse inside a real decluttering project [with occasional editorial comments from my present self]. You can start with Day One here.
Another day up in the attic–on the fast track to beat the heat. My project today was to go through several boxes of home business materials. I decided to close down one aspect of a home business I started several years ago that I just haven’t had time or interest to work on. Having boxes of old catalogs, order forms and other paraphernalia was definitely increasing my “guilt” for not being a whiz-bang success at that business and adding 6 boxes worth of clutter to my already stuffed attic. [Note: guilt is a fairly good indicator that you are hanging on to clutter from the past. Don’t compound the problem by continuing to store your Past Self’s stuff! Make room for who you are TODAY.]
Sorting through it produced 2 boxes of supplies to sell, one small box of office supplies to be moved over to my other business, and a few odd items that will be turned over for general household use (like a large box of crayons and a bag of balloons!) The rest of it proved to be paper junk that was of no use to anyone, so I threw it away (Woo Hoo!). [When I say “threw away” I’m hoping I meant “put it in the recycle bin.” Just sayin’.]
I have to say I dreaded going through these boxes because I thought it would mean tons of time making agonizing decisions about how to sort it out and organize it. But the real decision was to just let it go [Wait…is that some Disney music from Frozen I hear playing in the background?…]. Once I made up my mind that I really wasn’t going to pursue that business any more, it was relatively easy to sort the stuff into “sell,” “repurpose,” and “throw away.”
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I started to keep “just one copy” of each of the old catalogs, but then I thought, “What am thinking?! I am NEVER going to look at these again and I certainly don’t NEED them.” So I threw them away. What a relief! [Good job, Past Self! Thanks for not hanging on to those useless items and making my Present Self deal with them. I have to say I have never once regretted throwing those catalogs out.]
Do you have any “old business” or projects that you have no intention of doing again? Is it time to say “good-bye” to some of that stuff and just let it go? [cue Frozen music again…]