…And they said they want my oversized, overly padded, Easter egg colored clothes back. They have also requested my Rolodex filled with fax numbers that don’t work, flow charts for processes that have been long broken, and my three-ring binders filled with old meeting notes. And don't forget my Word Perfect cheat sheets and unexecuted marketing plans. All the things I have collected and hauled around for years in my “just in case” file are beginning to look like a time capsule the size of a storage locker. There are parts of my life that are seriously outdated. Before I find myself on the Hoarder Disorder reality show, I need to take action.
I guess I could procrastinate a bit longer to figure out why I am so attached to useless stuff, but I think we all have a tendency to hold on to our past for far too long. I suppose I could blame it on my grandparents’ post-war mentality of never letting anything go to waste (not likely). Or I could be honest with myself and realize that I hate cleaning out old stuff. For me, it's a pain, time consuming, and the process often gets a lot messier before it gets better.
So far, this is just for the tangible items in life. What about the intangibles? These include things like out-dated thinking or our unwarranted attachment to protecting the “we have always done it this way” behaviors. This is when the cleansing process gets tough.
Don’t mistake my purging as not giving credence to history. I think there are places in our lives where keeping things that work well is justified. Yet sometimes, we have to admit that holding on to particular items comes from not wanting to tackle another messy endeavor. The key is to be honest with ourselves; to call it out for what it is, and then make the decision to either change or not change. The decision is really that simple.
I guess it’s time for me to take a bit of inventory myself and rid the 80’s and maybe even the 90’s from my closets and drawers…except of course my collection of one-hit wonder hair band CDs… those I will take to my grave.
Comments