Letting Go Of Things

I find myself challenged to let go of things.

One of the realities I am forced to face is that - like it or not - I am reaching the point in the program where many of the things I currently own have a limited use or even no use by me at this point.  That perhaps seems a bit hyperbolic, but in point of fact it is also true:  while the end is not nigh, it is definitely in the far horizon. Add to that a double reality of small living space of an unknown duration and two locations besides that where things are stored, and suddenly one has a lot of things that one needs to address.

I am at least grateful for the stopping point of an apartment rather than a house, because that meant that I could not just move all my problems from one place to another without thinking about them.  And with the impending sale of The Ranch and the wholesale removal of items that I might have dithered about, I am not confronted by another huge hoard of items that need assessing.  For better or worse, our current "store" is determined.

That said, it is likely still too much. Which means I get to ask questions like "How likely is it I will ever use this again?" and "Would I miss this if I let it go?"

Yesterday's example was a simple one, sorting T-shirts.

This is the second go I have had at this, as I already did this once during my move last year and donated a pile.  They are all in a single drawer, but my semi-organized system was breaking down, so it was time to reorganize and reduce again.

Again, everything came out.  Again, I looked through it all and asked "What will I never wear again?"

A few are a victim of a "sizing difference" from which I first bought them.  But others?  I have not worn them in years; the likelihood I will wear them in the next twenty or thirty years is almost nil.  And so, into the donate pile they will go.

I need to get better and more active about these kinds of activities.

This always raises an interesting and secondary question in my mind, of course:  as we are society of retail and services and, as I go on, I and a great many people like me require less and less (or like some younger generations, are actively choosing less and less), where does leave an economy that is largely dependent on such things?

It remains secondary, of course.  I should not keep buying that which I neither need nor will use.  And I certainly can benefit from subtracting from that which I own instead of adding to it.