Decluttering and my perception of self

We cleaned out the garage over the weekend. That is to say, my husband made me help him clean out the garage. He had had enough of the space being taken over by old beds, a broken oven and other assorted rubbish.

Much to my surprise, I did not enjoy the experience and I found it terribly difficult to let go of some of the items. After five months of decluttering, suddenly I was having trouble of getting rid of things and I couldn't understand why.

I did some thinking and realised that it was because it is the garage. It's the place where I store the things that might be useful one day. The old stuff that I want to recycle and turn into new stuff. The place of potential.

I have an idea of myself as being a person who doesn't waste things, who is thrifty and clever and who can turn nothing into something for no cost at all. The garage is where I keep the bits and pieces I use to do all of these up cycling and recycling and inside outing projects. Getting rid of them might mean that I am no longer that person.

My husband had to work pretty hard to get the stuff in the car to take to the tip. I was procrastinating and saying, "it doesn't matter, we can do it later," and things of that nature. However, as always, I was pleased at the end when the space was clear and the stuff was gone. I won't miss it.

Which all goes to show that you should have a partner in decluttering. When it gets too hard for you on your own, they can help and vice versa.

(As it happens, I did end up keeping the bed slats. See my previous post for the cubby house buffet that I built out of them on the weekend.)