become less attached to material possessions

I’m going to mark this goal as done because I believe I have achieved my original intent with it. I no longer feel the same attachment to my material possessions as I used to and it has become so easy to say “I don’t need this, it can go” and let go of stuff now.

I’m still working on decluttering all the stuff I have accumulated over the years, but I think I’ve got the source problem licked :)

I am a self confessed packrat and have far too much stuff. It clutters up important areas of our house so I then move it to somewhere like our spare room where it collects in piles. The piles then tend to topple and cause even more mess and clutter.

I’ve started to attack the clutter and we’ve had a number of productive purging sessions here over the last 12 months. Cleaning up the clutter only solves half the problem though. I need to break my attachment to my material possessions and even more importantly, the urge to purchase/acquire more uneccessary stuff!

I’ve noticed that since we started purging the whole process has become easier. The first step was to break the feeling of “security” or “preparedness” that having all this junk was giving me. Strangely enough it was a blog post by Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, on traveling light that caused the lightbulb to suddenly go on in my head. Starting to think about what items I really needed to take away on a trip with me flowed over into thinking about what items I really needed to keep around me at home. Strange, but it worked :)

It now feels much easier to let go of stuff I no longer need and it’s also much easier to resist acquiring more new stuff. As we clear a space it becomes motivation to start work on the next area.

The other thing that’s helped with all this is keeping in mind the simple list of decluttering questions:
- Do I love It?
- Do I need it?
- Is it essential?
- Does it enhance my life?

I’m applying these questions to all new acquisitions too.

Still a long way to go, and still a lot of decluttering to do, but I feel like I’m really starting to make headway on forming this new habit.