How To Part With Your Possessions

A Mess Free Life may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.

At the end of April, I’m having a yard sale. If you live in the area, pop over I’d love to meet you in person!

This yard sale is in preparation for moving later this year. I don’t know exactly when I will move, but my daughter and son-in-law put an offer on a house last week, and it was accepted. Eventually, I will be moving into an in-law apartment on the property.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been getting ready for it by going through every inch of my house, purging, tossing and analyzing what to keep and what to sell.

How To Part With Your Possessions

I’m a super neat person, and I detest clutter, but faced with having to move my possession, I am overwhelmed with the quantity of my belongings. I’ve lived in this house for almost twenty years, and I purge, give things away and hold yard sales regularly.

So where did I get all this stuff?

Most of the time we collect possessions with little thought. Things come into our homes, and they find a place to live. Unless we are actively working on becoming a minimalist, we barely recognize what we’ve accumulated.

Then the day of reckoning comes. You decide to move or downsize, or maybe you have to close up the family home, and it hits you square in the eyes how much stuff you have.

Most of what I own will be utilized in the new home, but not all of it, and I’m struggling with what I know I’ll have to part with. Antiques, and items from my family home will be given away or sold, and I know I’ll have difficulty parting with them.

It got me thinking: why the attachment to things? Why is it so hard to part with items?

Of course, some of what I own I have an emotional attachment. Things that made the trip from my mom and dad’s home to my home feel almost sacred. If I got rid of those items, it would feel disrespectful. Luckily, most if not all of those items are moving with me.

But then there’re others things like my favorite chandelier that I bought just a two years ago. I got this $1ooo chandelier for only $300 after searching for just the right light fixture for over three years. My daughter doesn’t want to put it into the house because it’s not her style. I get that, but I’m not parting with it. Somehow I’ll make it work in my new space.

Other things I don’t mind tossing at all.

As I’ve gone through this process, I’ve tried to apply Marie Kondo’s Kon Mari Method from the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.

She asks you to pick an item, hold it in your hand and ask one simple question: does this object bring you joy?

If it does you keep it and if it doesn’t you toss it (donate, sell or throw away). Not too bad right? Wrong.

Figuring out what brings us joy is the easy part. All you have to do is touch it to realize in an instant if an item warms your heart and makes your soul sing.

It’s in the discarding process, as I can attest that the problem rears its head.

Kondo tells us there are only two reasons you can’t let something go:  an attachment to the past or a fear of the future.

And that’s where I sit right now.

I’m attached to the past I created in this home, and I’m afraid of what the next chapter of my life will bring. I want the stability I created here to be recreated in my, new environment, and I hope I can pull that off.

I won’t know until I get there. But until then, I’ll keep sorting, discarding and questioning which possession brings me joy and which ones don’t.

And somehow I’ll learn to let go of what was and embrace my future. I’ll learn to hold the memories of my home deep in my heart and will create a new home with new memories.

I don’t think this will be easy and in fact I’m certain it will be hard, but nothing stays the same no matter how much we want it too.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, maybe not moving but wanting to clear the clutter you’ll want to check out the following books to help you in your journey.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

Unstuffed by Ruth Soukup

The More of Less by Joshua Becker

These books will help you move past your possessions and embrace what’s most important in life – the people and relationships that have more value than any possession you ever owned.

Have great weekend friends!