De-cluttering 101: Why is this even part of a Third Third discussion?

1. You have to toss some of your old life to make room for a new life.


2. If you’re going to relocate, do you want to pay to move it? Or, as one friend said, If you won’t move it, why have it?


3. If you’re going to downsize, it won’t fit. We’re assuming that in this Third Third, kids aren’t living with us. Do you really want to hang onto a place that has rooms that aren’t used, that you have to heat and vacuum? Smaller = less room.


4. Maybe your stuff is more valuable donated than sitting in the attic. My mother's 50 years of mint-condition Broadway Playbills could do more for the theater she donated them to than they did gathering dust. That made my mother feel better, too. Goal: doing good, feeling better.
   
   I once heard a quilter speak about her fabric stash, how she lived in terror of her kids putting it all out on the lawn – “Fill a bag for 25¢” – without realizing that some pieces were truly valuable. Ditto for coin, stamp, and rock collections….


5. Okay, think about your Third Third: do you want to spend it browsing through old Playbills, gazing at shelves of books you read a long time ago, marveling over greeting cards from relatives long since dead? Do you want to re-read and re-read … or find the latest bestseller?


6. Advanced Third Third: maybe you won’t remember any of the people who sent the greeting cards so what are greeting cards from perfect strangers worth? And who are those people in those high school yearbooks?!?


7. Post Third Third: If you don’t get rid of it, someone else may read it. Aiieee! Your kids going through your diaries? Spouses looking at photos of old (very old, maybe dead) boyfriends?


8. Fact: Children left to clean out your shit curse the amount of crap you’ve accumulated and left for them. And it is all crap to them. They will throw the fabric stash on the lawn with signs saying “Fill a bag for 25¢.” Or worse yet, it all goes in the dumpster. Even kids who would prefer to reuse and recycle just don’t have the time or patience, and they’re pissed at adding to the landfill (admission by kid like that).

"So much energy is released when you no longer carry all those bricks on your head."

    -- borrowed from somebody, then changed a bit