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Any White Elephants lying around your home?

I think to myself “It’s high time to do some spring cleaning around the house” so I potter around the house and try to bag up the stuff which aren’t really useful to us anymore. I pick up something to give away and then the part of me that wants to cling on to things says, “Who knows it may come in use to you in the future and besides if you go to buy it in the shop today it will cost and you an arm and a leg” and then the other part of me counter attacks my previous thoughts by saying, “What’s the use of keeping it? You don’t use it any way, so why don’t you give it to someone who can make some use of it before it simply disintegrates in front of your own two eyes and you have to chuck it out as garbage”. The conflict of thoughts lasted only for a split second, because heart-of-hearts I knew what had to be done… and I continued to bag up the stuff to give away to the poor. My mission is still not complete as there is loads more to sort-out and bag up but I sure was amazed to see as to how much had got accumulated over the years without my knowledge.

I bet that I am not the only one around on planet earth who is faced with such dilemmas. Aren’t you faced with the same as well? I think that we all have an itsy bitsy side that wants to cling on to things and sometimes it may be for sentimental reasons. Nevertheless I guess we should have limits to everything that we do, because we can’t just go around and get rid of everything that we possess and likewise on the contrary it doesn’t make sense to cling on to unnecessary stuff either. Anyway taking into account the number of less-fortunate people around us who are stricken by poverty, I believe that almost 99% of the time one man’s castaways are another man’s treasure. Therefore, I think that we should always take the time to give the stuff that we don’t want away without simply letting them lie around the house like white elephants and perish over the years.


I think that there is a tendency for more junk to stack up,
  • When you don’t have to move house from time to time.
  • In houses that have wall cupboards that reach the ceiling and are only accessible with a ladder.
  • When the owners of the house are too old, sickly or busy to sort stuff out and give them away.

Do you agree with me or not? What do you do with your old stuff? (im just curious…… that’s all)

Comments

Anonymous said…
There was a time I used to just giveaway things…….my clothes, jewellery (not the gold ones) anything at all. I just didn’t get attached to anything. Now it is different. I can’t say I get attached still but I feel I need them or will need them. There are enough clothes in the cupboard that I know I will never wear or too old, but I feel the cupboard will get empty if I give them away. : )
Other things stored in boxes, are there because I feel my son might need them for some school project and most of the time in the past, as soon as I discard something he would come home and say he needs something similar for a school project. So now I hold on to them :)
santhoshi said…
I have been trying to leave a comment since yesterday and keep getting disconnected ARGHHH. Usually I try to make a habit of giving things away before buying new stuff. Ya right! all lies i am still in the proces of decluttering a lot of junk. But the important thing is we have started. I think i would really like to have an empty wardrobe so i can fill it up with new stuff....
Angel said…
Sigh... just started to move rooms and have founf piles of brand new clothes, unworn for years that I feel I have to hang onto incase they come in handy to wear to work. Broken candlesticks I can't bear to throw away because they were so pretty once... etc. etc. ad infinitum have to move into a smaller space so some things just have to go!
Hey Mia, I remember the drill when it came to school projects when I was in school; (Errrr it was almost like a nightmare) I used to go hunting around the house to get stuff for it. It was almost like a treasure hunt :) So I guess in that sense its best you cling on to stuff that you even remotely think that will come in handy to your son for his projects.

Santhoshi, good to hear that you too have started but I don’t know about the progress at your end, but at my end its rather slow coz I only have the weekends coz im working and when the weekends come I have to get into the mood to spring-clean otherwise I end up lazying around or going out with my friends, hence progress is very slow at my end :)

Angel, I think that the fact that you have to move places will be an ideal opportunity to get rid of your junk coz it will automatically force you to go through your stuff when you box them up to shift. At that time you will be able to quickly sort out the stuff that you don’t want and get rid of them.