How is it...

[candycat]

... that when you get RID of stuff, you feel MORE prosperous sometimes??

We hit a really bad financial funk this past month. HUGE medical bills, HUGE household bills, AND loss of not only our main income but our backup income as well. All at once. Ew. Yuck. Exhausted our savings pretty much to the penny and we have like... hundreds of dollars left in our bank account. Like, total. To our name. NOT. COOL.

Anyway, I started massively decluttering, because for some reason, when I get stressed, I purge. And with every load that went to the dumpster or thrift store or Freecycle or CL or whatever... I felt better. More in control. More peaceful.

We're not in any better of a financial spot at the moment (well, I did get a little cash from CL but nothing significant) but I feel tons and loads more hopeful and optimistic about what we have vs. what we need. I've realized how much we DO have already and it helped me not to panic about what we CAN'T buy right now.

Does that make sense to anyone or am I just ranting like a crazy person?

[canadianhippie]

no no, i completely agree. I love the feeling of donating my clothes and things I dont need, I know that one day it will come back to me in some way. Its nice to simplify and you value what you keep because its the most important to you.

[SashaBreeze]

I cant explain it but I have to agree with how it makes you feel when you declutter.
I dont think it would really matter if you were in a hard time financially or doing great in either scenario I believe you would feel the same way. There is something very liberating about watching bags of clothes that you never ever have to wash again go away down the donation chute.

[BCFD]

Oh, the feeling is completely amazing! What I'm finding is that I truly do not NEED anything else in my life and it makes me happy to simplify and donate!!

[echospiritwarrior]

I hear you! I'm not sure why, but it sure does work!

[Danidama]

I understand exactly what you're saying, and I'm glad you're finding some peace with it in a rough time. You guys are going to be just fine, and you're right about how you have so much to be thankful for already.

I would love to donate clothes we don't need, but to save money on buying fabrics (except actually the main reason I do this is just because I LOVE to) I use old clothes or clothes I haven't worn forever to change and sew into clothes for my dd. And snuggle buddy clothes, and snuggle buddies themselves- if I can get my hands on some sort of stuffing material, which isn't hard to do... milkweed fluff! And awesome soft drawstring skirts for myself, too... so comfy. It is so much fun to do, and I can't help but go through my clothes literally every couple weeks just to see if there is something else to use for playing with. Plus I love to make quilts, and clothes work fantastically for that, too.

So anyway, that's what I do with clothes instead of donating them, which I used to do lots of before I ever started sewing. I was just thinking of some things I used to have years ago that I wish I had now to sew up with... soft, neato fabrics I could use... Oh wells. Such is life. And someone, somewhere might have some awesome union suit jammies, and be snuggled in them but good. Yes, I'm wearing a pair of jammlies (as dd says) right now, in the middle of summer.

[mommaof3boz]

you are so right. I think it tips the balance over to the most simple lifestyle possible, without the material trappings. You know your going to be living a very simple life for a bit, with simple inexpensive meals, making do with what you have. So the material trappings around you remind you of money spent/blown and its a bit embarrassing. I actually do better with simple living when we are tight on money as opposed to the lush times. wierd I know.

[Ygle]

The other day I was thinking how much stuff we get out of fear... fear that we won't have enough, that we might need it some day, that it won't be available in the future... we hang onto stuff 'just in case' as well... and by letting go of all that and having only what we need and want and use *right now* it's like we are saying to ourselves we don't have to be afraid, and we really believe it. I don't think it's possible if we are still hanging onto things, some part of us on some level will recognize the excess and in the back of our minds it will be festering there, I have to have all this stuff I don't need because I may not be able to get what I need when I need it... truthfully that is the only reason to buy, store, keep, whatever stuff we aren't using in the moment, and it's a scary way to live and the irony is that consciously we think we are better off we feel like it gives us some security, but if we were truly secure we wouldn't need to do that and deep down we all know it. And so once we get down to solely what we actually want and need it really does feel more prosperous because we know we don't have to take any more... we already have it all!

That's my latest theory on this in any case!

[Turquesa]

The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to feel out-of-control over! I really like Ygles post, too. When you liberate yourself from stuff, you liberate yourself from your fears and other psychological baggage.

[clutterwarrior]

Originally Posted by Ygle

The other day I was thinking how much stuff we get out of fear... fear that we won't have enough, that we might need it some day, that it won't be available in the future... we hang onto stuff 'just in case' as well... and by letting go of all that and having only what we need and want and use *right now* it's like we are saying to ourselves we don't have to be afraid, and we really believe it.

There is definitely a fear factor involved in keeping things...I sometimes almost tremble as I leave bags of things at the charity store...that fear that maybe I really do need these things? It really goes against the grain for me to get rid of things, so the purging I have done since joining this forum, has been a huge step forward for me. I still feel slightly tremulous that I am doing this!

For me though there is also some practicality too in my desire to hold onto certain things, like children's books for example...we have lots of beautiful books which I think I should keep for reading to grandchildren that we may have in ten years time; it just seems shameful to throw them all out.

Candycat....yes I do know what you mean too. I am sorry that things are so hard for you right now; I agree with the others that it is a good way to cope with leaner times, by acknowledging a need to downscale and live more simply. I hope that things improve for you soon.