Guilt? What about decluttering guilt??
So you’ve decided to declutter; Great!!
I’m here for you every step of the way. You’ve already created a collection of things surplus to your needs and wants in your home.
But sadly you haven’t been able to find a home for them or work out how recycle them. You are faced with an overwhelming sense of guilt as you are left with no other options but to bin those items.
Now what?
At that point its time to accept that it is going to end up in the rubbish. This is honestly the BIGGEST hurdle I have faced when it comes to decluttering myself. It took me a really long time to move past the point of refusing to throw something out that I ‘could use’ just to keep it out of landfill.
First up – We need to acknowledge that when we bring an item home we have already accepted the use of those resources. Their destination was already decided the moment they were manufactured and then sold. We as the consumer only delay this fact. One an item has passed its purpose sometimes we just have to accept this fact and instead make a conscious decision to do better next time.
You might be tempted to just keep that item – maybe you will use it.
But here is the thing. When our mental, emotional and physical state is effected by clutter we are not actually in our best state of mind. We are actually far more helpful to make change when we free up our energy, space and our mind. You need to let the guilt go and remind yourself that lifting weight off your shoulders is HOW you help your family and then your community, workplace and environment.
I want to talk about another type of guilt that you might face in this process. That guilt is money guilt… You know that thought that pops up and reminds you how much you spent on that item that you are about to sell, donate or put in the bin? Yep – that feeling of guilt that reminds you that there was once monetary value attached to that item holds you BACK from finding abundance and joy in every day life.
When we declutter we will be letting things go that once cost us money. That is fact.
We trade our time for money. That is an exchange of energy.
And then we exchange that money for goods or services. That is also an exchange of energy.
The money was gone when you made that purchase. You now get to decide whether that item still belongs in your space. Cassandra Aarssen says, ” You are not any richer because you store this item in your home, and you are not any poorer if you let it go”. I find this quote really helpful. The money is spent, the energy is exchanged. It is now up us to work on our home feeling like a refuge; not somewhere we store goods we feel guilty about passing on due to their cost (or a feeling of obligation that you SHOULD keep them – but that is another discussion on guilt for another day).
One really helpful way to move past this guilt is actually to bless others.
You can opt to sell an item and get back a portion of what you spent knowing that you are passing on an item to another person at a cost that is affordable to them. Sometimes selling things second hand actually blesses people with access to an item they could not have afforded otherwise.
The other way to bless others with our abundance is to gift it to them. If you are feeling guilt over the money you once spent on an item you might wrestle with this, but I promise that gifting people from the abundance that we have is good for both the gifter and the receiver.
If guilt is still a struggle I want to encourage you to come to join my new Membership Community. This is a topic that we will be talking about and we will talk more about overcoming this. If this sounds like a place you want to be please check out the information page
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