There's nothing like the feeling of absolute lightness that comes at the end of having a yard sale. (Well, my legs feel like cement pillars from standing all day, but that's another matter.) After our most recent sale in August, our garage (which had been a minefield of outgrown kids' stuff) was so empty that one of the yard sale visitors asked me, "Are you moving? That's the cleanest garage I've ever seen!"
Before you start getting those cartoon dollar-signs in your eyes, let me tell you that having a yard sale is not a plan for getting rich (not even close; shoppers want bargains!). It's a plan for owning less stuff--finding good homes (i.e., not the town dump) for the stuff you no longer use (or never used in the first place). If you need a little inspiration to rid yourself of excess baggage, here are three books that continue to inspire me to "live leaner" at home:
Making Peace with the Things in Your Life by Cindy Glovinsky
Glovinsky is a psychotherapist as well as a professional organizer, so she "gets" all of the complicated feelings we may have about the things we've accumulated through the years. My favorite term she coined is Thing Nausea: "Sooner or later, as you continue to sort and scrutinize, decide about and dispose of your Things, you will reach a point where you feel that if you have to look at another Thing, you will throw up. You will reach the point of Thing Nausea. It happens to everyone. Runners call this hitting the wall."
Just realizing that Thing Nausea is a normal stage of the decluttering process is helpful on its own, but Glovinsky advises us to look at what we've accomplished already, not to "overfocus" on the things still left to do. Personally, Thing Nausea works for me in a completely different way: I'm so sick of the stuff, I have no problem parting with it!
The book's a classic for a reason. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Spending two years in a one-room cabin, a wise man becomes even wiser with the free time and space to ponder, unfettered by belongings.
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir by Roz Chast
I loved this book so much that as soon as I finished it, I read the whole thing again. I can't remember ever doing that with a book, but the main reason is because, as they say, "it spoke to me." Like Chast, I had a mom who could be domineering and a dad who was challenged by dementia at the end. And like Chast, I had to undergo "the massive, deeply weird, and heartbreaking job of going through my parents' possessions."
Yes, Chast is a famous cartoonist, but she also happens to be insightful, achingly truthful, and just plain brilliant. She writes, "It's no accident that most ads are pitched to people in their 20s and 30s. Not only are they so much cuter than their elders, but they are less likely to have gone through the transformative process of cleaning out their deceased parents' stuff. Once you go through that, you can never look at YOUR stuff in the same way. Maybe I'm less naive about the joys of accumulation." (Amen, sister!)
I wish I could take Roz Chast out to lunch so we could commiserate about our similar experiences, especially because she managed to find the glimmers of humor in the ordeal. But even if you haven't had the same experience, read the book and you will realize that someday, somebody is going to have to go through all of your stuff. It might as well be YOU.
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How 'bout you? What gives you inspiration to declutter? Do tell!
P.S. The books have Amazon.com links, but in the spirit of having less stuff, why not get them from your local library?
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