The other day, I was having tea at the bread shop with two friends. One of them was saying how difficult it has been this year to get hold of the traditional 365-sheet tear-a-sheet-a-day calendar for 2010. He has been using this type of calendar since time memorial and found it inspiring and even soothing to tear a piece and read its content everyday.
He was proud to have collected boxes and boxes of all the screws he removed from the paper clamps year after year. At that moment, I was reminded of the typical hoarder who would just love to keep things (or junks as some would call them) under the usual pretext:
"Keep this as it may become handy one day" or
"This holds sentimental value" or even
" May be useful for the next generation".
The end result is that huge built-up area of the home meant for comfortable living becomes dead space piled with junks.
I remember in one of Oprah's shows when her invited guest who helps people to overcome hoarding problem has this to say:
"The question to ask yourself is not whether you can use the object, but whether you really will use the object. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven't used an object in over a year - say, you didn't even know it was there until you found it on the bottom of a pile - you probably can live without it".
One resolution for 2010: Stop the hoarding and get rid of the junks. May be easier said than done! Still, there is no harm trying.
4 comments:
Good resolution for 2010 - but don't throw away old friends. They are for keeps. Anyway, this piece reminds me of my dear mother who is such a hoarder. She has more than 20 empty nescafe jars- 'just in case...'
He found it 'soothing' to tear away a sheet each day?
By the way, what kind of use was he thinking of for the steel clamps?
well, he keeps the screws only !
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