Time to Declutter

It’s a new year, and time for a new mind­set. My home is clut­tered with the many things I’ve col­lect­ed over the years — papers, mem­o­ra­bil­ia, fig­urines, and unused gifts. Things giv­en to me, things bought, things just col­lect­ed. It’s dri­ving me crazy! I keep say­ing it’s time to declut­ter, but I don’t seem to make much head­way. Most of these are things I think some­one could and would use if I just donat­ed them. Today I real­ized that I need to declut­ter my life as well.

Some of the things that clut­ter my life are old resent­ments, old hurts, and old mis­takes I can’t change. None of these are use­ful — not to me and not to oth­ers. They are things I nev­er real­ized I was hang­ing on to, and nev­er thought about the need to do some­thing with them. They were just there.

Old resent­ments and hurts have been stored in my mind and in my heart — wrongs I felt were done to me by some­one else. Occasionally I have tak­en them out, dust­ed them off, and looked at them. Then I have put them in a cor­ner, and for­got­ten about them for a while. That doesn’t change the fact that they’re still there tak­ing up space.

I think the worst are old mis­takes. I can only blame myself for those. I can take them out and wish I hadn’t made them, but that doesn’t change the fact that I made them. Regrets are some­times the hard­est things to get rid of. They clut­ter large spaces of time and thought bet­ter used for some­thing else, but I still keep them.

Maybe I’ve nev­er known how to destroy any of this in the shred­der of for­give­ness. First and fore­most, I need to for­give myself by acknowl­edg­ing that I did the best I could at the time, and wis­dom comes with time and errors. It’s time to allow myself to admit that I’m human, and that’s a part of it. I still make mis­takes, but they’re becom­ing few­er with time and expe­ri­ence — thank heav­ens! Then I need to real­ize oth­er peo­ple are human as well and for­give them so I can clear out more. I don’t know their expe­ri­ences, but I’m sure they did things for the same rea­sons I did.

It’s time to let them go so I can start fill­ing those spaces with bet­ter things — hap­py mem­o­ries, new friends, and activ­i­ties that make my home and neigh­bor­hood a bet­ter and brighter place. And then — a lit­tle at a time — declut­ter my home.