What do you do with two thermoses from lunchboxes long forgotten? A thrift store shirt that never fit quite right? A junky party favor from a party that happened just three weeks ago? 100 pens and pencils and crayons and markers and colored pencils that Phil and I and our children could never use in the next 50 years if we wrote ever second of everyday? (But they work and no one wants them and it's wasteful to throw them away...)
Alex tells me that I am a good person and that I reuse and recycle and so it is okay to throw out pencils without erasers and pens without tops and any I don't like. "Send them to Africa," she suggests. How do you get pencils to Africa? Don't they need erasers there too?
When I googled "donate pencils Africa", I found Teach Africa. They want pencils. New ones.
So I threw away lots of pencils and topless pens and party favors.
Alex also told me to throw away almost all of my children's artwork unless it is brillant or a milestone. "It's all about process," she says.
It hit me that decluttering is all about process: the process of retracing your history, appreciating your journey, embracing your present, and planning for the future.
Wrapping up the pictures of Phil and I at 22--the pictures that sit unnoticed on our dresser for years. These are the the pictures that we each had of one another when we lived 5,000 miles apart.
And the artwork...it tells volumes about who we are and what we've learned. Take for instance the lanterns I packed today from three different JP Lantern parades that we attended.
What I keep even tells me something of my future. I am keep some clothing that has been on layaway, hoping, expecting believing that I can wear it. As I fold it up, I am imagining how cool it will look in New Orleans.
So, decluttering is important. It is a time to reflect and evaluate.
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