What you keep...

Someone will read this and wonder why I had any feelings of loss after purging all my  randomly or seldomly used belongings.

 I can remember like it was yesterday looking at my small pink radio clock that I had since college.  The image is so potent and vivid because I saw it at the bottom of the clear plastic bag that I tossed it in.   My heart ached as I looked at it but I wanted order; everything needed a purpose and place.   I considered getting it out but decided against it because it didn’t match anything that I now owned. Because I didn’t question myself...no words.

In a perfect world, if desired you could go back into your past and recover items that you’ve lost.  Items that seemed unimportant, invisible, but were precious and irreplaceable. 

To touch and hold these belongings again in their last known state would be awesome.

To be like an Alice in Wonderland, escaping to another world where long lost relics sit waiting to be rescued. It has to be possible for someone at least for a short while. 

Unfortunately, I belong to a group of people that wanted free space, I didn’t want random belongings cluttering my empty living space.  I wanted to be able to pick-up and move at a moments notice. 

 I thought, I would one day forget about my abandoned treasures but I have not forgotten, even with the constant remainder that it’s just things.  I have changed my thinking on this minimalism thing now; standing with a wise group people that find collecting fulfilling pieces of history, interesting, and that they should be managed with care and in your possession.

If it weren't for the minor inconvenience of having too little space to keep everything that I’ve owned since I was very young; I would have kept everything.  With learning the extremely painful lesson that you shouldn’t toss everything for the desire of being completely organized I feel empowered.  I want to express my luck in selecting some great former purchases, I enjoyed them immensely.  Or I'm just turning into a nostalgia girl.  Though I still can appreciate open space, it doesn’t diminish my love to interact with what makes me happy.  I keep things under control by selecting nice boxes, that keep my treasures safe and especially away when they don’t match my interior furnishings.  But that does not mean that you toss them...keep your items in nice boxes, you won’t regret it.

Nice boxes.