Feeling, Meaning, Value: Untangling Emotional Attachment to Stuff

The Weekly Tittle is an exercise designed to focus your attention on a specific space, aspect, or challenge of decluttering and organizing your home. We assign a new tittle in each webcast/podcast, then check on your progress the following week.

Hold On Tightly or Let Go Lightly?

This week’s assignment is to ponder your relationship with an object to which you feel a sentimental, nostalgic, or other type of emotional connection:

• Identify an item that you’ve been thinking about releasing back into the wild, but about which you haven’t been able to reach a decision yet.
• Reflect on any feelings, memories, experiences, or emotions that the object invokes for you. Try to answer the following questions:
  • Are your reactions to this object largely positive, negative, or mixed?
  • Do you own other items that invoke the same memories or emotional responses or that remind you of the same person, period, experience, etc.?
  • Is this item the best representative of its kind that you possess? How does this one compare to the category in general?
  • Do you display the item or keep it in storage? Would you display it if you had a sufficient suitable space?
• Now consider whether you’re any more—or less—ready to let this item move on out of your life. If you still feel stuck, make a note on your calendar to return to this exercise after allowing a week or two to pass.

For the full discussion of this week’s tittle, watch the Weekly Tittle segment on YouTube.