When to say Enough Stuff is Enough Stuff! Owning the Right Amount!
When you constantly have mental and physical “stuff” entering your life, how do you know when it’s simply ‘enough’?
At times there seems to never be enough, and you want more; yet, at other times, there just seems to be too much and you wish for simplicity and ease again. Ownership is a double-edged sword. We bring things into our lives because we believe it will create simplicity and ease. What we have really done is just added to our burden of ownership.
Media and social images lead you to believe that what you have is not “good enough”. It’s not the latest, nor the greatest, and you just won’t function as efficiently, look as good, or even fit in with our modern society.
There are 2 forces at play here:
A continuous cycle of excessive ownership
A need to have clarity and harmony in your life
It is a personal choice and a personal decision as to what you own. Everything you pick up in life, you have to carry until you make the decision to put it down.
What is enough is different to you and different to those you share your life with.
What is personally enough is in your control.
2 Barriers to “Letting Go”
If you have emotional ties with your stuff or feel great comfort from them, then this is one barrier to your ability to let go.
If you own thing for “What if…” and “Just in case!” reasons, this is just another barrier to owning less.
There is no ideal amount and like the rest of life, things must strike a balance. If you find the scales of balance tipping in the wrong direction, you will feel more motivated to balance the scales again.
Life is a compromise and involves some negotiation and compromise with yourself and with those closest to you.
How do I know this? Because, like you, I am continuously trying to strike a balance, compensating where I can for when I have under or over-compensated.
When I first started decluttering over 10 years ago, I was completely unbalanced. There was literally stuff propped up in cupboards and dangerously filling the loft. I was sucked in by all the promises that advertising delivers to make my life easier by owning their product.
I learned a valuable lesson when I was a young child that I stopped to apply as I grew older. My Dad was a carpenter, and his tools were never new. What he had, he had owned for years, yet they still performed their job perfectly. They were built to last. His responsibility was simply to maintain them: sharpen them, clean them, put them away properly. I watched him do these many times. When I last visited him, I recognised all the same tools still in perfect working order, organised and still his primary tools, 30 years after I had last looked them over!
Keep the quality in your life and intentionally release the stuff of little value and function.
Ask yourself:
Does this serve in supporting the quality and aesthetics of my life?
Does this serve in supporting the function of my life?
How much out of 10?
If less than a 7, consider passing it on to someone who would value it more than a 7.
Your stuff is meant to support the life you want and reflect what you value.
Anything excessive will burden you through the maintenance it requires and the space that it takes up.
Balancing the scales of ownership takes the deliberate effort of:
Clearing your excess
Maintaining what you intentionally own
Reviewing your needs as your life and interests change
As you declutter more, you get better at identifying what is important and what is not. You get better at dealing with emotional obstacles to decluttering.
And what do you gain?
Freedom: physically, emotionally, and knowing you have the power of choice.
Space: room to move and think, relax, and enjoy.
Time: less need to clean, repair, maintain, tidy, and organise.
Money: no longer spending on stuff that you probably never needed in the first place.
If you enjoyed reading this article, please click one of the share buttons below.