Display comments on survey response

Great question you asked Gayle👍

“ YOLO...you only live once, which, when applied to decluttering means I don't need to keep enough stuff for several lifetimes.”

I LOVE THIS!!
Thank you for these words.

Hang in there! These past few years have been about caring for and ensuring your mother’s comfort. You’re fresh-going through a transition and you need to be kind and compassionate to yourself. I have not been in your shoes though I can empathize. ❤️ Keep being part of decluttering communities and take one day at a time.

I hear you! In my opinion, you are just fine to keep this last doll from your childhood.
And how wonderful that you have a guest bed set up for your grandchildren.

I felt silly keeping a dearly loved stuffed couple of monkeys, when I was 50. I took photos before giving them away to a charity. They didn’t take up space ad they sat high on a bookcase in my bedroom. I was 14 years old when I took a very special vacation with my Mom who bought them for me when she saw me fall for them in a shop. I am older now and they are truly the only item I regret giving up, and which I did because I knew how much I loved them, my mother was dying and I didn’t think I’d have the strength to part with them after her death, and I thought it was silly or ridiculous to have these way up in my bedroom. I’m very grateful for the photo I took! I can’t hug the photo and feel the love of my Mom but I can enjoy the memory. Perhaps, by the way, take a photo of your childhood item and write a little note about its history so that when others are going through your items they can enjoy the childhood item and memory and then they can feel free to release the item if there are no takers and keep the photo and memory if they like.

All this to say I was silly to think it was silly to hang onto them. If I had shared my thought with someone than I would have learned it was quite alright to keep it and enjoy it.
My arm-in-arm monkeys only brought me pleasure, just as your childhood doll does every time you lay eyes upon her. 💓

Your childhood item is on display and you treat this doll with respect and do not shove it in a box in a hideaway place forever, or till you can make a decision (not that there is anything wrong with that - I have my own share of containers to unearth and enjoy or release in my own decluttering journey - ie. I don’t show proper respect to some items that I purport to care about).

Thank you for sharing. I’m a stranger but it’s heartwarming for me to hear your feelings about keeping your treasured doll. 💕

I am glad I read your responses. Thank you!! Your reply made me think of my own items in this category and in your shoes. I hadn’t understood that it’s time for me to let some of that go, or maybe most of it. 🙏

I really appreciate that you shared your difficult decision and your thorough reasoning. I don’t envy your decision. I feel for you and I also believe you’ve got this. Being external to this may I offer my 2 cents and an idea?
In rereading your survey answers it sounds like you’ve worked through which set is staying and which one is leaving 👍. Maybe take a photo of both sets for the memory and decide to keep the set that will bring you more enjoyment and usage. (Instead of keeping the set that will cause you the greatest regret to release why not keep the one that will bring you the most joy 💕. )

Ooh, I really like your zigzagging cleaning and organizing question!

Thanks, Alexis! Is this the article about procrastination you mentioned? https://www.sciencenews.org/article/procrastination-harm-fix-resolution

Lynn,

No identifying information other than your first name will be visible to the public. Identifying information that the form collects, such as your IP address, is protected by SSL/TLS encryption, but will be deleted regularly within a short period, since it’s not needed to display the survey responses.

We’ve considered that sharing survey responses publicly in written form might affect the willingness of some of our audience members to answer the surveys as candidly as they might have done when only Gayle and I were seeing the responses. But many people have asked for the ability to see others’ responses, so we’ve opted to enable this feature. Our hope is that the opportunity for our audience members to share responses with one another might create a stronger sense of community and mutual support. (If we find that it doesn’t support that goal, we’ll revise our approach.

Please let us know if you have any other concerns, and thank you for your survey response!

Ed

Thanks for answering the survey, Evelin!