Thoughts on Aging
Today we cleaned out some drawers that a mouse had gotten into. As we pulled out the clothes, we triaged them into 3 piles: trash, donateables, and keepers.As I went through the clothes, I began to come to a realization:
All my life I've kept things because I thought someday I'd like to wear them, or just look at them. I kept stuff for nostalgic purposes.
Well now I'm 41. I don't want to wear a T-shirt I wore in High School. For any reason. I don't want to give any old shirts to my kids. I'm beginning to come to the realization that I don't want my old stuff anymore. It's just clutter. I'm not the same person I was 20+ years ago. I have different tastes and needs. I'm tired of having piles and piles of stuff that I've collected all my life. Collected for what? Some future me? I began to ask myself the question, "will I want this stuff another 20 years from now when I'm 60+?" And I realized the resounding answer was "NO".
It reminded me about what someone said after the Ragnar Race: "I'm just going to throw out my medal." What?? Huh? I love my race medals. But...will I really want a pile of dusty medals in 20 years for races I barely remember? What about the dozen shirts I collect each year from the various races I run in? Do I really need to collect reminders about everything I've done in my life? Do I need to keep everything in boxes and boxes all the way to the ceiling?
I think I want things simplified. I don't want tons of everything. Heck I'm getting tired of my fridge being full of beer. It's too much beer. I just want a few of them. I don't want piles of mail everywhere. Bills. Ads. It's just all junk that I have to deal with. Maybe I'm just getting old. And Grumpy.
I have gone through this process recently as well. I've gotten rid of most of my old high school and college stuff. Most of my race t-shirts and race numbers are gone as well. The only things that I never get rid of are books and any writing that I have done. Those I keep forever. Anything else is fair game to get rid of.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to get rid of a lot of books too, but not my writing of course :)
ReplyDeleteNow if I can just send the kids to college I'd be all set.
Don't throw away your kid's early school work. Sort it out and put it in a box. Make sure you keep exactly the same amount from each child. This is vitally important, trust me.
ReplyDeleteI let them keep what they want as long as they don't clutter stuff up.
ReplyDeleteI guess if they became famous I could Ebay all their childhood artwork ;)