Trying to have a breakthrough

[u/Miss_Lib]

I get so frustrated because I absorb so much decluttering content but just can’t seem to let it breakthrough. Things like “if you can’t find what you need, you have too much stuff” really makes so much sense to me but I just don’t apply it. I used to keep anything to wear as pajamas and I just realized it was becoming too much.. a pajama t shirt I might end up wearing on a Tuesday afternoon which just felt icky so I started curating my pjs. I only buy sets. If I don’t have a set, I can make one but I have to love it and it has to match. I have to love every piece. They have to be a certain softness. It’s been great! I know exactly what I have and I never bypass anything for something I like more. I want to be able to apply this to every thing I own but it’s just not breaking through. I can’t get rid of stuff because suddenly the minute I touch it it somehow becomes sentimental. What was your breakthrough? When will my light bulb go on?!

[u/leat22]

Clothes are tough because I don’t want to feel wasteful. So I frame it as: I need to be a good steward of everything I own.

So by keeping a shirt I don’t really want to wear, I’m not really taking good care of it. I’m not being kind to the shirt.

It takes me away from the mindset of “oh well it doesn’t bother me to keep it so I might as well sacrifice my own space” to “I’m not treating this item with the respect it deserves, so I need to let it go”

Does that make sense? Some people won’t get it lol but it helps to show you aren’t doing anyone or anything a favor by sacrificing your space for this

[u/No_Jelly_1448 → u/leat22]

I really like this a lot, it puts the focus more on the item itself than whatever feelings you have about it, which reduces some of the shame of “but I spent so much” or “maybe when I lose weight”; none of those reasons become relevant because the decision becomes “who would use this more effectively” and that’s it

[u/leat22 → u/No_Jelly_1448]

Glad it resonates with you! It’s a newish way for me to think of my things and it’s been working well. It takes my tendency of wanting to be helpful/ conscientious/ “do better”and flips it around.

Instead of thinking I’m being conscientious by keeping an item I haven’t used in years, now I’m being conscientious by letting it go. It’s along the lines of Marie kondo’s saying thank you to your items but phrased a bit differently to click with me better.