Decluttering Week
This post was automatically translated by AI from the Japanese original.
I read a book on danshari (the Japanese art of decluttering) and started actually getting rid of things in my home.
The more things you have, the more thoughts come attached to them.
Danshari is a bit like a training practice in letting go of attachment.
As you let go of what isn’t important to you right now, you start to feel lighter.
I love stationery, so I tend to end up owning a lot of it.
As a result, I don’t know everything I have, and I keep using only whatever catches my eye.
When I use pens I don’t really love, I faintly feel thoughts like
”It still works, so it’d be a waste to throw it away."
"I want to use it up quickly so I can use my favorites to the fullest.”
When I actually started by throwing out the pens I didn’t like, I got a sense of satisfaction and ease from being able to use only the ones I love, without any reservations.
It also made me notice a habit of mine: I’ve always saved my favorite food for after the food I dislike, play for after homework, always putting rewards off until later.
Using something I love to cancel out the stress of doing something unpleasant isn’t really what I want to value.
Since I’m at it, I’ll choose the things around me to suit who I am now.
My decluttering picked up speed.
Next, I threw out the things I’d been pretending not to see.
A perfume a friend gave me that I hadn’t used in over ten years.
A dead plant I’d left sitting there.
A guitar and amp I hadn’t touched in ages.
These were all things I’d put off because sorting out the contents or hiring a specialist was a hassle.
I cleared away what I hadn’t touched until now, and the place got a lot cleaner.
Or so I thought.
Once I cleared one thing, I started noticing things that had been out of my sight until then.
Every day I found something that made me think, “Huh? Did I have this?” or “I’ve never used this, have I?”
For this whole week, I’ve been throwing out at least one unneeded thing every day.
Even when I think there can’t be any more, I find something unexpectedly.
Today, as I write this, I threw out a clutch bag I bought to wear to weddings. I won’t be going to any weddings anymore, and I have other bags I can use instead.
Letting go of things itself makes me feel lighter, and it feels good.
And another welcome change is that things I’d bought and forgotten, and so never used, are now back on the front line.
Most of all, I’ve come to be able to ask myself, “Is this important to me now?”, starting from the present.
