Happy Monday Motivation!
** Apologies for not having written in a while. But I am BACK and will be posting regularly again– hooray! I recently decided to up and move to Europe for the summer, so there will be many more posts coming up about travel, travel tips, and living a life you love. Subscribe for the insider news!
This weekend my dear friend Melissa asked me come donate clothes with her. I happily agreed to go. I was moving out of my apartment and had so much stuff I didn’t need anymore. Melissa is an amazing human being. She likes to do something called a Mitzvah a few times a week. A Mitzvah is a Jewish word meaning “good deed.” She really believes in giving back to those in need, and I couldn’t agree more. So, I went back into my closet and filled 4 trash bags full of clothes. It was daunting: after discarding 50 pounds of clothes, I looked in my closet and it looked… THE SAME. I hadn’t made a dent. I decided I needed to give away more. The next day, I parted with 2 more trash bags of clothes and 4 boxes of household items. After giving these away, I felt lighter and more full of energy. I wanted to give more. I could seriously clothe a village. Several villages. One person need not all these things.
More importantly, I really wanted to start fresh. I’m going to Europe for the summer (exciting travel posts to come!) and I know that I want to come back and start a brand new life. Shedding myself of most of my things will allow me to do that.
Here are a few benefits of getting rid of your things:
- You lighten your load, literally and emotionally. Especially as a traveler, who needs to be dragged down by a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t really need. If you end up needing something, you can always buy it along the way.
- You release any bad or negative energy connected to your things. Ex-boyfriend’s t-shirts, clothes you thought you would fit in but don’t anymore, it all creates a heaviness in your life. Donating it to someone in need will breathe in good energy into your life. Paying it forward always is a good idea.
- You make room for new things to come in. The more space you have in your closet, the more new things and memories you can fill it with. How exciting!
Things are just things. That’s it. It could be all gone tomorrow. Even though there are emotional ties to old t-shirts or that special dress that you wore once and never wore again, you don’t really need them. A natural disaster could take it all away in minutes. What would you really want to save or take with you? Chances are, most of it could be replaced. Or give you a chance to fill your closet and home with new things and new memories. It’s a really powerful thing to do to start life again with a clean slate. Especially when travel and adventure awaits you on the horizon. You learn to live a lot more on a lot less.
I must admit, it was difficult. I had a whole bunch of stuff in a storage unit that I hadn’t touched in two years. TWO YEARS! Clearly, I didn’t need any of it to survive or flourish since I didn’t even remember what was in there. My friend told me to toss the boxes in the trash without opening. I immediately object, protesting that there might be documents in there that had my personal information. It was a legitimate reason to look through things, but we both knew that I was full of crap. She warned me, “Remember that you didn’t even need any of that stuff for the past two years. Don’t hold onto it if you really don’t need it.” I totally agreed with her, reassuring her way too easily.
The moment she left, I quickly ripped open a box. Oh no. It was like opening Pandora’s Box. I saw cookbooks and tons of trinkets that I had totally forgotten about. All these memories came flooding back into my mind. I couldn’t get rid of this stuff! As I rifled through piles of my memories, I realized that my friend was right: I should have just thrown it all away.
What did I want in my future? What were my goals? Where did I want to be at the end of the summer? The truth was I wanted to start fresh, to start a new life. A life I loved with a home that was filled with things that I actually loved. There were so many old memories that laid in these boxes that I didn’t need to bring with me into this next chapter of my life.
With a heavy sigh, I began tossing out the items in those boxes. It was a surprisingly cathartic experience. The more I gave away, the better I felt. I got a chance to say goodbye to my past and make peace with it.
Here are my top tips for cleaning out your closet:
- Create 3 piles: Donate, Toss, Keep. Place each item in one of the three piles. If you are anything like me, you will have a pretty big “Keep” pile. Once you have donated and tossed stuff, go back through your “Keep” pile and repeat the process.
- Ask yourself: Would you buy this if you saw in the store today? If the answer is no, donate it.
- Keep things that you need, not things that you might need. I have a massive shoe collection (what girl doesn’t). It was so hard to give any away. Finally, I decided: anything that was worn down or not super comfortable, I donated. Less heels means more room to buy more while I’m in Paris. Shopping in Paris? That sounds like a good plan to me!
- Imagine your dream house. Would you have this item in your dream house? If the answer is no, chuck it. You don’t want your dream house/closet to be filled with junk, do you? It never looks like that on Pinterest!
- Remember quality is better than quantity. A few nice things certainly feels better than a bunch of cheap things. Granted, this all depends on your budget, but looking nice doesn’t mean having twenty different outfits. It’s about having those one or two outfits that look stunning on you! You can always change it up with accessories.
YES TO THE YING TIP: Collect memories, not things. Back in the day, our parents held on to so many things because it might have value in the future. Now that we have reached such a digital age, many things are not worth a lot anymore. As you clean out your apartment or closet, look at what sentimental value it has to you. If it actually worth a monetary value (i.e. Beanie Babies that will sell on eBay for $100), keep it. If it is from your high school prom, take a photo of it for the memory and then give it away to someone who can use it. The memories are what last forever. Keep those and treasure them.
What strategies have you used to clean out your closet or apartment? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
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Dream big. Why not? This is your time.
Much Love,
Alicia
Yes to the Ying 