De-Cluttering My Life

Well, we made it through another Wednesday unscathed. I have been having a pretty good week so far, and tonight I played a gig to top off my "hump" day. Can't say that I'm not happy about that.

I have been seriously planning and scheming (in my head) all the ways that I can de-clutter and lessen the amount of "stuff" that I (we) have. One of those approaches involves selling the stuff that is of use to others, but of no more use to me. I have some pretty expensive (well, it used to be anyway) music equipment that I haven't used in years and could be sold on Ebay to generate some additional cash flow and make room for less clutter. Other ways that I'm approach are to decide what has been used in the last 4-6 months, and if it hasn't, it's got to go. Minus the camping stuff, kayak, and other stuff that I know I'll use when it's warm again.

So, why the reasoning for this? I feel that I need to simplify all aspects of my life so my mind is less cluttered. Plus, it's good for your mental health to de-clutter and streamline all the stuff in your life. This is evident when you see elderly folks that tend to clutter stuff after their spouse passes away. They do so to "hold on" to the memories and the tangible from what was in their life.

Another reason for this mode of getting rid of stuff is because I have become very anti-consumer in philosophy as I hit this 30th year mark in my life. I hate consuming things and buying things just because I can. It drives me nuts to see an over abundance of packaging used on items, people running up credit cards and the banks charging F-U interest rates, the gluttony of collecting junk, and then going back for more. I'm not in any way saying I'm "better than that" or "holier than though," so please don't take it that way. I'm just saying that I refuse to be like that and it depresses me that so many are trapped in that mode of addictive behavior. I want to help those people and heal that emotional wound that causes them to do this.

Do you have ways that help you de-clutter your life so you can think more clearly? Do you have traditions or ritual times of the year when you do this? I can't think of a better time than the holidays, given the fact that we'll probably all end up with more than we had after it's all over, said and done.