Since the New Year, Layla and I have been decluttering our flat. We've arranged for various bits to be donated to charity but we've also spent a lot of time listing various things on Vinted (a platform for selling pretty much anything and everything). I've managed to get rid of quite a few books that have been sat on my shelf for a long time, simply taking up space and not really bringing any value to my life.
Layla, on the other hand, has been a lot more successful than me, making over £150 in the process of decluttering her stuff - meanwhile I'm stuck on a meagre £9.50 so far. Yet, the money is merely an added bonus to this all. The joy comes from the act of getting rid of it in itself. With every shopping bag full of stuff that we sell and donate is more room to breathe and not be overwhelmed in our little flat. Everytime we get rid of stuff, we create more room for ourselves. And we've definitely noticed the difference so far.
In Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, the character Tyler Durden says "The things we own end up owning us. It's only after you lose everything that you are free to do anything." And while the quote in the book's context is perhaps slightly different, I feel on a philosophical level, it definitely connects and is something I have tried to live my life by. A clutter domicile leads to a cluttered mind. More things weigh us down, they make it harder to do anything. Anyone who's ever moved house will agree with that - moving boxes upon boxes of things truly makes you reconsider how much stuff you have.
As the space opens up around me, I've noticed my mind becoming clearer. I'm less irritable than I perhaps once was.
Now let me go find something else I can sell.
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