Oprah Winfrey changed my life - How I decluttered my life.

Seriously folks, its true.  It all happened about ten years ago.  I was watching Oprah one afternoon and it featured a woman who went to people's houses and decluttered their lives by removing the things they were keeping for no good reason.  This included clothes, household objects, worn out furniture, make-up and even medicines.  It was a light bulb moment for me and as I was, yet again, just about to move house it meant that I took everything to heart (actually I made notes during the programme).  Most important of all is the fact that we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time - so why have you got your wardrobes and drawers full of stuff you never wear?

A quote which I keep in mind at all times by William Morris 1834-1896 is "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" and quite recently I read a short article by Paul Coelho who, after years of collecting books for his personal library decided that it was nothing but a selfish act to hoard so many in one place where they would never be read.  He subsequently began donating them to his local library, charity shops and leaving them in coffee shops to be read by who ever found them there.  Books are meant to be read, not left on shelves for years. All of the above philosophy makes perfect sense to me and I have been under the impression that this is how I live. 

Last week I had to travel to my house in England which I packed up six years ago.  The house is to be sold and the grand plan of keeping very useful and beautiful things in boxes in the spare room until we return has crashed.  My job was to clear that room. I found that my philosophy was a complete shambles of inconsistencies and untruths. 

The boxes were full of useless clutter.  What was I thinking all those years ago?

So no longer could I continue keeping unuseful and ugly things in boxes wrapped in newspaper dated 1988.  No longer could I have any need at all for 4 large boxes of very old and worn books.  That record deck and video player were neither use nor ornament and why the heck were they packed away so carefully?

I spent four days solid sorting through and unpacking a pile of crap and wondering why on earth it had been there for six or more years.  In fact some of it had been packed to move to that house in 1988 and never made it out of their box back then.  After assessing the situation my first plan of attack was to order a skip which I filled very quickly.  The rest of the previously believed precious items were given to various charity shops in Holmfirth or sold or given away.  I whittled the prize possessions down to fill 3 tea chests which are on their way to Hong Kong and the majority of those items are photographs featuring me as a teenager, our wedding day,our baby photographs and pictures of our various travels abroad before we landed in Hong Kong, which I have longed to have with me for many years.  That made me very happy although they haven't arrived yet.

I do have one large black cloud hanging over me though.  Quite sensibly I gave away our record collection of LPs and 45rpms.  We have not had access to a record deck for at least ten years and after trawling various Internet sites to see if they could be sold, the general consensus was that old vinyls are only worth anything if they are in unused condition. If you played them, took them to parties, lent them to your mates, stood your coffee cup on the cover or wrote your name on them they are rendered worthless.  But it was hard parting with them.

Flicking through the stack and reading labels was heartbreaking because they brought back memories and because they were destined for the charity shop.  David Bowie, Starman.  The Beatles, Hey Jude.  Herman's Hermits, Something is Happening and the all time classic Black Lace, Agadoo!  Ok not everyone can be totally cool all the time. 

So I kept 10 LPs, some old Faces and Rod Stewart stuff and some reggae albums that I think my son might play one day.  The 45rpms I kept are:-

Land of a 1,000 Dances - Wilson Pickett on the Atlantic label.

20th Century Boy - T-Rex

Sittin' on the Dock of Bay - Otis Redding on the Stax label

I'm on my Way - Dean Parrish (which I am told is a valuable Northern Soul classic!)

What would you keep?

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Comments

[David]

But I should tell you that inspired by your blog I've just cleared out 5suits, 11 prs of trousers and 10 shirts plus 20 pairs of M&S underpants mostof which were at the bottom(!) of the pile and were probably purchased inHuddersfield!

[Timmy]

FIRST !!! woop woop

MR TIMMY THINKS !

this is a load of rubbish. you dont think some people might not want to have things in there lives cheanged ! you are crazy !

whos with me duudes ! ?