De-Cluttering your shelf. De-Cluttering your Life

In the last blog post, we discussed what living simply looks like and what are the various reasons to opt for simple living. In this article, we’ll try to understand the first and one of the most important attributes of simple living and that is Decluttering.

We, humans, are extremely strange being among the ones who are present on the planet earth. We feel contented and happy in accumulating more and more stuff. We love to own the latest Mobile phone, with the features which are going to be outdated in a couple of months. We love buying more and more fashionable clothes so that we don’t have to repeat them in office parties. And the sole reason behind it that we have that feeling that everyone is looking at us, judging us. We have a tendency to try to stay above our league, Isn’t it?  But less do we know that we have a very limited time on this planet. So, we have to take care of what we choose to own, what we choose to be, and how we choose to spend our time.

Warren Buffet put it very beautifully when said that “If you are buying what you don’t need, soon you will have to sell what you need.” Mr. Buffet is one of the greatest investors of the last century. And the kind of life he lives, we can say that he is simplicity personified. He drives his own car, living in the same house for many decades and still one of the richest men living on the planet presently.

So let’s get back to De-Cluttering.

Decluttering is a twin-faced sword. When we talk about De-Cluttering we are talking about controlling our emotions. Buying what will soon not be of any use for us is nothing but our uncontrollable emotions taking a toll on us. So first of all let’s start with clearing what all we don’t need anymore. So the question arises here is how can we classify that what’s required or what’s not required. Now, this might be a debatable topic because our emotions are still ruling our whole system. So I have made a simple rule – make a list of all those items which we haven’t used in the last 90 days. Be it the clothes which don’t fit us anymore but still lying in our closet from so many years, or the old books which we have read and we are not going to read them again, pass it on my dear ones.  There are innumerable people who always dream of the things you are thinking to discard, pass it on.

The other aspect of decluttering is thinking before buying new products. You need to set a series of questions that you need to ask yourself before buying any new stuff and bring it to your home.

• Is this product going to make my life easier?
• Can I afford this product without cutting my basic expenses?
• Do I have enough space in my home for this product?
• Can I survive without this product for more than three months without this product?
• Am I buying this product to impress others?

If any of the above questions make you think that there is no need to buy that product, please don’t buy it.  I know it’s difficult but it’s worth doing it. When you make the decision not to buy that thing, whatever it is, you confront those emotions which are troubling you for so long. And the more you will confront them, the better you will be able to take control of yourself. It will always make you feel light and happy. Remember what you read in the last post? ‘Less is always More’.

See you in the next post

And yes, If you haven't read my previous post, you can read Here ☺

Om Shanti:

Love, laughter, and peace

Himanshu R Nagpal (HRN)

Edited by:- Geetika Nagpal