In a word, yes. It should have been obvious. This picture doesn’t lie. Well, maybe it lies a little bit. There really is a lot more junk in our house that needs to go. But this is a decent start. And it all began with the story by The Minimalists that recently caught my attention. When we sort our things into only three categories- essentials, non-essentials and junk…
“Sadly, most of our things belong in the junk pile. These are the artifacts we like—or, more accurately, think we like—but they don’t serve a purpose or bring us joy. The average American home contains more than 300,000 items, and most of it is junk. While this junk often masquerades as indispensable, it actually gets in the way of a more meaningful life.”
The line between non-essential and junk is blurry. It’s different for all of us. And lines shift over time. One time essentials or very usefuls can become junk as children grow up, housing changes and technological advances render old gadgets dinosaurs.
Just because something once was valuable or useful or loved, doesn’t mean it gets a free pass forever. An honest reassessment of your things can be an eye- opener. It was for me. It doesn’t matter if it’s in good shape. It doesn’t matter if you have room for it to be nicely stored. It doesn’t matter if you paid a lot of money for it. It’s still junk. If you don’t use it, find someone who will. If you claim to love it but still never use it, maybe you don’t love it as much as you thought you did.
Letting go of your junk... winning by losing.