3 Reasons Removing Your Stuff Helps
My older brother came back home with his girlfriend last March and as usual, they brought home boxes and boxes of various items. When they moved out back in 2009, they also left a large assortment of items down in the basement as well.
There is so much stuff that almost our entire basement is filled with stuff in boxes.
Of course, I brought some things back with me, but it’s not as bad as what they brought.
But it was only until recently have my older brother and his girlfriend to actually sift through the valley of boxes to fish out useless items.
Those two aren’t the only people out there who accumulate stuff though.
A lot of us are guilty for these things and thus we build up stuff in our house and we don’t bother cleaning it up.
So today, I’m going to give you a nudge into removing items. The reason being is that it can help you immensely.
Here’s why.
Cleaning Is An Act Of Patience
Cleaning takes a lot out of you if you have to do a lot of it. Ask my mom, who is a cleaner herself.
Not only that but she has to clean houses quickly. The standard is cleaning an entire house in about an hour for two people.
For her, cleaning has to be speedy, but not all of us are professional cleaners. We’re allowed to take our time.
Because we are cleaning slower, we can take our time and let our minds wander. Cleaning can certainly do that since it’s relatively mindless labour.
This can try your patience, but can also help you in figuring out what can make you impatient. Either the stress of it all or the anxiety that cleaning may take you the entire day or hours. The reasons are endless.
Also, even though cleaning isn’t exactly removing things from your home and life, it’s still important.
Cleaning can help us discover what exactly we want to keep around and what things to get rid of. Think of cleaning as scouting for items.
Stuff Is Valuable
Of course there are a lot of intangible benefits, I figured I should go with something tangible for this one. This one is money.
As my brother and his girlfriend are sifting through boxes, they’re taking out things they intend to sell. It may not be much in the long-run, however on the short term, selling stuff is smart for a quick fix.
I know for my brother and his girlfriend they are in a different scenario in this case, but generally speaking I filter items by asking questions. I ask two simple questions:
- Do I need this item? and;
- When was the last time I used this?
These two questions alone can help significantly since if I need it but have never used it, I can toss it.
At the same time if I need them item and have been using it I keep it.
By filtering that out with a lot of things can net you a fair amount of money as well.
The last yard sale I did I walked away with nearly $150. It doesn’t sound like much but it’s less than what I had before.
Some of us are sitting on literally thousands of dollars of stuff and it’s all been building up in our homes.
Stuff Pins You Down
At our core, we are materialistic. We place value behind a variety of items, even in short periods of time. But some of the things that we hold value aren’t all that helpful to us.
Take for example that reality TV show called Hoarders. I never watched the show (so forgive me if I mixed up the title), but its a show about hoarders that have an unhealthy amount of stuff in their home.
I feel pretty bad about those people. Sure the collection may be impressive, but it begs the question when is too much stuff too much?
It’s too much if you end up on reality TV.
In the end, stuff keeps us locked down and we keep building up more things as time goes on.
We may not be as bad as the hoarders, but stuff can conflict with our goals and dreams.
My father has dreamed of living in an Airstream trailer and travelling after my brother and I move out and settle into our lives. He can’t do that if this house filled with stuff is still hanging around.
Many others are in that kind of boat for various reasons.
So in that sense, stuff has become a bit of a prison for us. Stuff defines who we are rather than the actions that we do and the things we say.
Let’s stop relying on things and rely on our actions and words.
Remove Stuff
Take some time to remove the things out of your life. They truly disrupt your way of life if it goes way out of hand.
I’m not saying to go for a minimalistic lifestyle. If that’s what it takes, then go for it. However we all need to item detox and cleaning up the house and selling the things we don’t need can be quite liberating and fun.
To your growth!
Eric S Burdon
This post is part of an 3 month writing challenge that I’m committing myself to. Every day for 3 months, I’ll be writing articles with specific criteria in mind. You can learn all about my reasoning as well as what that criteria is right here. This is 88 of 91 of this series.