One of the life changing things I did when I was seventeen was donate over half of my room. There was a moment in my life where I realized all the stuff I had was causing problems. I had nowhere to go in my room, it was cramped, items were never used, and I felt like I was hording instead of collecting items that I found to be useful. So I decided one day to go through my room and get rid of items that I no longer loved. I started with one corner of my room and quickly I built up a mound of stuff. Soon I had trash bags slowly filling in the hallway. Clothes, Cd's, movies, old Barbie items I had stored away, books, You name it and it was either in the trash pile or in the donation pile. I even gave away a guitar because I never used it. All this clutter and I never realized how much I was hording away in my tiny room.
After I had managed to go through my room, which took several days, I went through all the stuff that I had stored in the front room of our house. The front room has gone through several stages in the time we have lived here. It used to be a pinball room, and then it was a studio, a room for storage, and so many other transformations that I am sure the list takes up a whole page. For me there was this moment that really hit me as I finished up going through all my stuff. I mean it was piles and piles of trash bags that held things that I used to love. All the items had expired and I had no need for them in my life. I had even managed to encourage my dad to emptying out a couple things in the house just so I wasn’t the only one who had done something so bold.
After we had finished going through everything we then decided to go ahead and take it all in the truck to goodwill. I remember the guy's faces. They were surprised when we opened the back of the truck. It was jam packed and they even asked if we wanted a receipt for everything we just donated. We told them no and they seemed to be taken aback by the sudden large amount of items that we gave away. I remember them doing a couple of extra "double takes" as we got back in the truck. I don’t think they expected anyone to make such a huge donation.
Ever since then I have donated in some form almost every six months. I like to go through my items, see what I don’t want and then throw them in trash bags and set them aside. My dad has even gotten to a point where he donates with me. He will give a little of something and I think it makes him feel good that he is letting go of unwanted items.
Sometimes decluttering your life can be really difficult but there is nothing wrong with trying to let go of the things we hold close to our hearts. Sometimes we hang on to too much and you would be surprised at how wonderful of a feeling it is to let go of the materialist items. For me its a nice reminder that even though I have all this items I can still let go and remind myself of how little materialistic things mean in life.
Don’t be afraid to let go, make a change and declutter your life. You never know, you may feel better afterwards.
