I would buy wall art, dishes, lamps, clothes, whatever. At least some of that was true for the young adult version of myself. What’s that saying…’we spend money we don’t have, to buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t like’. Over the years I’ve accumulated two of everything, one for ‘2013 Shawna’ and one for ‘2001 Shawna’ – who didn’t have a clue about herself and just bought all the token adult items without really loving them. In decluttering all the items of my early 20s it is clear that I was desperate to ‘adult’ without taking the time to get to know myself as one. I’ve been filling space for the sake of filling space I was so disappointed in the money I had wasted on stuff.ģ. I spent money on ALL of that stuff – for whatever reason I justified at the time. As I saw truckloads of ‘stuff’ leave my house it was like watching loads of money drive away. We live in a culture of excess and we are so used to accumulating every time that we go out. Then we brush it off because it was cheap and we just toss it. We buy cheap crap that doesn’t work or last, or we decide we don’t like it. I think as North Americans we have a certain privilege that we can toss dollars (whether we have them or not) around ‘for fun’. To a point that I’ve felt like my home had become a glorified storage unit.Īt what point can I say ‘enough’? Logic tells us to accumulate only what we have room, money and use for….I’ve just spent a decade and a half doing the opposite. So, why? Why did I just keep accumulating? Since leaving for college I’ve spent my adult life purchasing and storing, purchasing and storing. I don’t miss anything I’ve gotten rid of. The line between ‘enough’ and ‘excess’ is easily crossed These are some of the things that I have learned/relearned/realized during my past year of decluttering my home. All this doesn’t come without its own soul-searching, ugly crying and feeling a bit lost and icky. I had to wrestle the desires to buy more. I had to talk myself into letting go of things. I had to acknowledge that I was in an excess and that it felt like a burden. So it surprised me, and not at the same time, that as I decluttered I would have to ‘confront my junk’. We turn to decluttering because it sounds like it will clear up our space, make our home cleaner and more organized. Most of us will get fed up and try to declutter our homes. Most of us can agree that we have too much stuff. If you click through and buy something I may earn a commission, at no cost to you.
Products recommended here may include referral links to Amazon. I have filled the basement with bags and boxes of ‘stuff’ to be moved out and watched truckloads and truckloads of my possessions be carried off to new homes, thrift and garbage. I have rummaged through every room, drawer and cupboard in my home. I have spent the past year getting rid of the ‘excess’ in our house. They were marked with an obvious decluttering of the house, but the results have crept into all other aspects of my life. These books rustled me up, made me uncomfortable, motivated me to make some big changes. This time one year ago I was reading The Joy of Less (by Francine Jay) and Seven (by Jen Hatmaker) after hearing about them on Instagram. A year since I started decluttering our home.
It’s been a year since everything changed.
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