"...the idea is to replace (or at least supplant) your addiction to clutter with an addiction to space to live in, or to organization."
This was just part of the conversation I had with Menn regarding my post a few days ago.
Why is it that clutter seems to be the norm for most homes? I've seen homes that were spartan (not always because of their choosing but rather because they didn't have enough money to spend on trivialities) and some that were so full of kitch items that it made me wonder how people get around without walking into them.
Is it a social status to have the biggest stuff they could buy and put it in the room to see? This is not limited to any financial status as even those that I know who live near the poverty line has some sort of useless stuff somewhere in the living areas.
Is it because these things have sentimental value to them? My in-laws have gigantic wooden cabinets that are hardly opened nor used but they keep it as memento of past ages. I imagine what lies inside would be more items of sentimentality that they will never throw away.
I believe it's the combination of two as the former deals with how they feel about themselves in the present and the latter deals with how those stuff made them feel in the past. A combination of the two at their maximum setting will make some useless stuff even more harder to let go.
A choice must be made. Therein lies how determined one is in reducing life's clutter. Besides the material things, we also need to let go of emotional baggage that have been tying us to these things for a long time.
"Grasping at things can only yield one of two results:
Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear.
It is only a matter of which occurs first."
Goenka
Goeka source quote
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