Tackling a de-clutter leaves me out of sorts

Surrounded by a sea of dusty bank statements, diaries from my school days and old university essays, I was wondering what on earth I had started and where I could hide.

Big life changes are afoot and I need to streamline my belongings and really get top of the clutter.

But the big question I was pondering as I surveyed the piles of ancient paperwork and the rest of life’s souvenirs was why have I kept so much stuff?

I haven’t even made a start on the bigger items because I thought they would be harder – two bookcases full to the brim and an overflowing wardrobe are amongst the other things on the to-do list – but it’s already a bit overwhelming.

Some of it is easy to part with – bank statements and credit card bills from eight years ago can go straight into the shredder without a second’s thought.

And it will be an easy goodbye to the VHS tapes that I can no longer watch because the player already went years ago.

Although, believe me, they aren’t easy to get rid of if you want to be kind to the environment and not send them to landfill.

Hardly anyone wants old videos anymore and none of the material is able to be recycled.

Thankfully, I know one charity shop that will still take them off people’s hands.

But it seems throwing away other momentos from my 35 years on the planet, such as old birthday cards, postcards and concert tickets, is a lot more difficult than I thought.

Yet I know that, as nice as it is to take a trip down memory lane, to keep everything is unrealistic and unnecessary.

I imagine for some people this process would be a lot simpler and maybe they wouldn’t have even collected the items in the first place.

And the truth is that I do realise most of these things have been sat in a box gathering dust since the last time I moved so would I really miss them when they’re gone?

I haven’t really thought about them since the last time I took then out and quickly put them back in again because I couldn’t face dealing with them.

But it’s still hard to take the plunge and throw them in the bin or in a recycling box because that’s a pretty final decision as one the binmen have gone, there is no getting them back.

So the approach I have chosen is to streamline the collection by limiting myself to only one or two small boxes for these nostalgic items therefore making it more manageable for the future.

This also ensures I keep those that are really important to me.

Tickets for concerts that I can’t remember very well and don’t bring back memories, for example, can go.

Anything that could be recycled has been to reduce how much of it is going to landfill.

I like having keepsakes and I’m sure one day I will enjoy looking through them and be very glad I didn’t send them all to the tip.

Now I have just got to pluck up the courage to tackle the wardrobe as I continue my decluttering mission.