Lessons in Decluttering: The Difference Between STUFF and TRASH

I was cleaning out my closet this week and had an epiphany.

Don’t you love it when you are doing something totally random like washing the dishes or looking at tomatoes and suddenly discover a key to life so juicy that you see lights, hear angels and have to text your husband with exclamation points?

Well I had one of those moments this week, in my closet.

I am practicing 31 Days of December De-cluttering, I am making space for my dreams and desires and I am getting rid of a lot of TRASH. One of my coaches has an acronym for CRAP. I have no idea what it is at the moment…So I decided to make one up for TRASH. Here goes…

Things

Resembling

Authentic

Success (that are truly)

Hogwash

You like it? You hate it? It’s silly isn’t it? But I bet you will still remember it tomorrow.

TRASH are things we *think* are going to make us be all we can be, become everything we want to become, but the truth is that things can never make us become anything other than “people with lots of things.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I *love* STUFF –

Symbols

That

Undeniably

Feel

Fabulous

(Yup, I am on a roll. And no I am not embarrassed. Thick Cuban Skin and the mantra, “I can be as corny as I want to be” playing over and over in my head right now.)

There is an invisible line between STUFF and TRASH that is impossible to see. The only thing you can do is feel it.

Beautiful Shoes that are so uncomfortable I never wear them = TRASH

Louis Vuitton purse that the hubby bought for me used on EBay  = STUFF (Plus I like to think of it as recycling. No new materials were used to make my beautiful purse, and I smile every time I see it.)

Sometimes things start off as STUFF (Symbols That Undeniably Feel Fabulous) such as that pair of jeans that fits you so well you wear it every Saturday until it has holes and then starts looking a little frumpy but you paid SO MUCH for it that you don’t want to give it away…and then those same jeans become TRASH (Things Resembling Authentic Success (that are truly) Hogwash).

And sometimes TRASH is TRASH from the beginning. It’s anything that you bought with the mindset of “once I have THIS I will be in the “in” crowd, or the “cool chick” or the infamous “I will be complete.”

Unless there is a gaping hole in the middle of your body, you are complete. If there *is* a gaping hole in the middle of your body – why are you reading this? Get thee to a hospital, STAT!

(Again, no remorse for the level of corniness in this post, just hoping you are having as much fun as I am.)

As I was saying, the only way to tell the difference between STUFF (that feels good) and TRASH (that doesn’t) is to feel it.

On the outside it looks exactly the same: a book, a pair of pants, a file folder full of papers, a metronome. A metronome!?

Let’s be clear people, unless you are a musician, a metronome (which is a thingy that ticks marking rhythm) is TRASH. If you are me, a metronome was a once useful item that felt awesome while I was taking singing lessons and needed it, and became trash long before I actually threw it away this weekend.

See how things that have value at one point in our lives, can cease to have value during a different chapter in that same life?

But alas, that was not the epiphany I had in my closet. The revelation came when I was looking deep in the back of my closet (while evaluating what STUFF to keep and what TRASH to release) and underneath a thick, heavy sweater, I found the cutest Banana Republic Sparkly Top – with the tag still on it.

I wore that sparkly top that very night for my hot date with James Bond (Skyfall = best Bond movie since Sean Connery!). Don’t worry, The Hubs was there too.

The moment I laid eyes on that sparkly goodness I had all these thoughts:

• You have to let go of things you don’t need any more so you can find and enjoy the things that are right for you now.
• When you start letting go, you open up, you create a vortex for blessings to come flying through.
• You see! Once you started, the universe responded and sent you a gift. It’s a sign! Keep going.

So that’s how it’s going this month, I am taking a look at all the things I own and asking myself, is this STUFF I want to keep or TRASH I want to say good bye to?

You will notice that this post is largely about an experience I am having and not really focused on how that applies in my marriage.

I believe very strongly that the first step to a happy marriage is to live a life that *I* love, to be fully myself, learning and growing – corniness and all.

I bring all my discoveries, bad jokes, James Bond Miss Moneypenny impressions and everything else I become along the way into my marriage. The effect this has on my husband is #1 he laughs #2 he sometimes chooses to have adventures with me (he is the Shredder King of Casa Reyes) # 3 he grows as I grow, doing his own thing and occasionally being corny with me.

So now it’s your turn – do you have something in your house that was once STUFF that is now TRASH? Are you willing to let it go to make space for something fabulous?

Please share in the comments.