Dec 19 2008
Organizing Your Emotional Attachments
Yesterday, I talked about Procrastination vs. Organization and how the two simply do not go hand in hand. I referred to procrastination as one of the largest problems with getting organized and dealing with clutter. However, there is another thing that often stands in the way of reducing clutter and getting your life more organized. Guess what that is?
Yep. Emotional Attachments. Face it, I cannot think of any one single person I have ever helped organize or eliminate clutter, who did not have at least a few items in his or her home that they were bonded with. There was some story that was behind the item or it belonged to someone special, or it was given to them. Even when the item is unsightly, too big, too small or just plain not needed, these people kept the questionable items. Why? Because they admitted, they just couldn’t let them go.
One lady I worked with had 6 file boxes full of art work her child had made at school. Her daughter was entering middle school (6th grade) and she was looking for another way to store it. She was willing to part with some, she said, but much of it she really wanted to keep. Later this afternoon, I will show you what we did, and tell you how you can eliminate art and school work clutter too.
A gentleman I worked with, had two closet’s full of clothing, because when his father passed away, his mother gave him all the clothes. He was having trouble parting with them, because he was afraid his mother would be upset, yet he only wore a handful of things. Again, stay tuned tomorrow to find out how we rectified that situation, and how it might help you (even if clothing isn’t your problem).
Please do let me know if there are any problem areas you are dealing with. Do you have an emotional attachment to something, and you aren’t sure how to let it go? Tell me about it. See ya in a couple of hours!
I have some of my mother’s clothing and all of her jewlery. It doesn’t take up alot of physical space, but it takes up a LOT of emotional space. My plan is to make some sort of craft object (jewlery piece, artwork, something) for neices and a nephew to pass my mother’s stuff along. But…when? how? and mostly, will it be appreciated? Certainly not like I appreciate it. sigh. Am I wasting my time and emotion? It certainly cheapens my mother’s memory to just toss it all. That’s the bottom line to emotional attachments….to just give it to charity or worse, garbage…is diminishing the respect of the memory of what that person held dear.