Identity Clutter: Stuff That Affects Who We Are or Want to Be

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.

Identity Clutter Challenge

This week’s assignment is to evaluate a possible item of ”identity clutter” in your home:

• Identify one or more items that might reasonably be classified as “identity clutter”—something you’re holding onto because you feel a strong personal connection, association, or identification with the item, even though it no longer directly supports the life you want to be living.
• Ask yourself the following questions about each item you’ve selected:
  • Does this item reflect who you are in your life right now, or is it only an artifact of the person you used to be?
  • Is this the best example among the things that represent this aspect of yourself, or do you have something else that better reflects this part of your life?
  • Do you need the item itself to remember and honor the personal history or identity it represents?
  • How might you continue to honor and remember the aspect of yourself that this item represents even if you let it go?
• Reflect on your answers for a few days. Then consider whether you’re still committed to keeping the item(s) in question.

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