Until it comes time to take a look at everything you have.

We severely underestimate the stuff we keep and during this pandemic, where many are taking the time to declutter, they’re discovering just how much accumulates.

As someone who has moved more times than he ever wanted to in his life, I’m always dumbfounded at how much is hidden away. It seems no matter how little I desired and how much I gave away, there was always so much.

In the case of those who needed to clean out a loved one’s estate, just the thought of it is enough to cause despair. It’s gotten to the point where there are industries specifically for this purpose (affectionally called “Estate Cleaning Services.”)

And yet, if you’ve ever had to clean out someone else’s place with the commitment you never want to be the same way, it inevitably happens on a different scale. My parents did not want this for their children and have been fastidious in decluttering their home… which was mainly boxing up all the crap us kids left there and giving it back to us.

The problem is we hold on to things because of their perceived value for the future, or nostalgic elements that someone else may want.

I’m sure given enough time, we’ll be talking about digital hoarding and being a digital minimalist. After all, you can store unlimited things digitally, so go ahead and do it.

However, I’m convinced the outward expression of holding onto things is directly related to the inner things we also hold onto. The identity we tie ourselves to inevitably shapes the physical items we surround ourselves with or store for future use.

We think we’re simple people:

“I’m an open book.”
“People know who I am.”
“I know who I am and what I stand for.”
“I wear my heart on my sleeve.”

But the more you dig, the more you discover.

There are many corners of ourselves we hide, doors we’ve shut in hopes they’ll never open again and latent memories of events that triggered domino effects of behaviours.

Before we start cleaning and decluttering our homes, perhaps we should start with decluttering ourselves.

We don’t have a lot of stuff until we start looking.