Vision - Decluttering Sentimental Items
This strategy is for those of us who have way too many items that spark joy in our homes. For better or worse, we just love it all.
One way to minimize our homes is to use our vision. If we have our vision clear, then we know what we need in our home. We simply keep the items in our home that will allow us to reach our vision. This previous post outlines this strategy with more detail.
Developing and committing to a vision is one of the many things in life that is so much easier said than done.
One issue people run into is that our vision is bigger than our cabinet and our calendar. Often, having a lot of items we love is a sign that our multidimensional selves have spilled out into our material world — and that is okay. For so many of us who find ourselves attached to a lot of items, this attachment is usually not about the items, rather it is about what that item can do for our lives or what we can create with that item. We pack brains with big ideas, and these ideas show up in our material world.
We might keep items with the hope that having the item will allow us to reach this particular vision, but the item doesn’t get us to the vision. The vision can live without the item. And by recognizing that our vision can live whether or not we have the item related to it, we might be ready to let the item go. Further we really can recognize our multidimensional selves in full glory without those items.
Another issue people run into is that we have competing visions. We want to crush it at work and never miss a moment of our young child’s life. Thus, it can be really hard to be clear on our vision. We are trying to do it all at the same time.
In the book Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin also recognizes this struggle in regards to habits. She says, “…when we have conflicting goals, we don’t manage ourselves well. We become anxious and paralyzed, and we often end up doing nothing.” This feeling is incredibly familiar to the sentimental part of me that keeps my friends’ trash after they leave my house. (No. Really. Click the link for details.)
She has a smart solution that can be applied to minimizing and organizing. As she wrote, “…often when we experience a lack of clarity, it’s because two important values conflict. They’re both important, so we agonize about which value to honor in the habits we pursue. When I face values that seem to conflict, I first remind myself to consider whether this conflict might be a false choice. Can I choose both?” When we craft our visions, we need to remember this. There are times we can make space for both of our visions. If we want to crush it at home and at work, then we might be able to move our schedules around to accommodate both visions.
However, if you have meditated on the conflicting visions, and you cannot come to a solution, there is hope simply by recognizing the conflict and getting creative. As she wrote, “When we push ourselves to get clarity, when we identify the problem, sometimes we spot new solutions.” We can find new ways to honor our visions. Rubin gives an example of a couple that sought out therapy because one partner envisioned the couple using their free time to spend together, but the other partner wanted to allot some of that free time to cleaning. The couple decided to forgo therapy and use that money for a cleaner. As she reported, the couple was happier because they found a new way to meet their vision. What she suggests here is very powerful — once we recognize the conflicts we can get creative to resolve them. But until we seek that clarity of vision, those conflicts can really stand in our way.
My goal is to give you two concrete tools to craft a vision that can guide you in minimizing your home. First, those of us with too many sentimental items are often multidimensional idea people that don’t always have room in our homes and our calendars for all of those ideas. By recognizing that, we can release some of the items, but actively keep the ideas. Second, sometimes our visions compete, and when they do we can often find solutions that can allow us to maintain those visions.
For those of us who are overly sentimental, it is easy to get bombarded by items that just bring us joy. A clear vision can help us see through the sentiment. It can help us connect to our deepest needs and desires. A clear vision can help us design a home that meets those needs and desires.
