A lot of people tell me they have problems getting rid of things for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s too overwhelming to find a starting point. Naturally items to which we are strongly attached emotionally will pose more of a challenge than others. I certainly have categories of things that are more difficult for me to purge (e.g. jewelry, shoes, scarves).
When attempting to declutter, or purge, most people focus on things that they don’t want to keep. My mother taught me a new strategy that I’ve found quite useful. When my mother purges she focuses on what she wants to keep rather than purge.
Over the last two months I acquired 6 new pairs of socks (4 gifts, 2 purchased), prompting me to reevaluate my hard-to-close sock drawer.
The newest additions to the sock drawer.
I LOVE having fun, fresh socks to wear. And since most of my favorite pairs were given to me as gifts I have a hard time parting with them (sentimental reasons). One time I had a black pair with moose on them given to me by one of my favorite people in the world. Even when the heels ripped open and the toes started to wear thin I put them on over a base pair just to keep them a little longer.
Since I know socks are one of my harder things to purge, I decided to try out my mom’s strategy. I dumped all my socks onto the bed and plucked out my favorites. It was fast and easy to review the sock pairs and select the ones I loved best to keep. Then I moved onto the “maybe” pairs and swiftly processed them into one of three piles: Keep, Trash, Donate. The rest were all donated, unless they didn’t make it through the quality assurance test.
I ended up throwing out 4 pairs in sad condition, donating 13 pairs, and changing my mind about 2 pairs. One pair was too ratty to donate, but could still be worn a couple more times, even without a base layer. And the other pair belonged to my father, again sentimental reasons.
Psychologically, I enjoyed selecting my most favorite things to keep and then purging the rest. Somehow it felt nicer and easier than selecting things to purge, even though I accomplished both in the end.
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