Decluttering

It was a New Years Resolution of mine this year to try to declutter my room.
I felt very overwhelmed with my room last year and I'm trying to make an active change to make it feel more calm and more like me. It was really a push to make my room feel like it belonged to an adult Sophie rather than a child Sophie, the Sophie who's going to uni in 7 months and maybe a year abroad in the USA in 18 months; I just don't want as much stuff when I make these changes in my life. I've done some great things so far: I cleared out all of my old maths exercises from last year, I've digitised my physics notes, I've reorganised my fairy lights so they look fly, I've got rid of a lot of old stationary, jewellery, make up, at least two bin bags of clutter and a bin bag or two of old clothes.

I've found looking at pictures of decluttered spaces really helpful, specifically UFYH on Tumblr and Rosianna's instagram and room tour. With Rosianna it impressed me how someone could get rid of so much stuff, including really personal items. I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I have that little stuff because of my boxes and boxes of American Girl clothes and my incredible dolls houses (seriously, I got a child's dolls house age two or three and it was a project of mine which I finished at 10 where I completely refurnished, rewallpapered, refloored and put in lighting with the help of my Dad and all of my family members who gifted me pieces of furniture including an aga and building blocks for children and mini towels and little fimo sausages I made with my Mum. I took it from a clunky child's toy to a beautiful little adult house by browsing for hours on the dolls house website. It's still one of my proudest achievements.)

I read the Konmari book and though a different opinion was helpful, I found it a little unrealistic. My hair straighteners do not give me a "spark of joy" but my straightened hair does. And where does a spark of nostalgia come into it? It feels a lot like joy. Also, I can't empty my handbag every day. I don't have the time to repack my bag in the morning: what if I forgot my headphones, train pass or (the worst of all) my purse?

I think the reason I struggle with clearing out things is because of two reasons: they document parts of my life and I get emotionally attached. Sometimes it's things like a certain person gave me an item and they're a really important person in my life or I got the item in a specific place that I have memories attached to. I've struggled to give away my pink dress I got 6 years ago even though it's falling apart because I loved it for two-three years.

The main things I struggle to throw away are: jewellery and earrings, craft supplies, books and handbags. In terms of jewellery and earrings it's ridiculous because I only wear 4-5 pieces because I'm so overwhelmed by the volume of pieces. I really want to wear some pieces I forgot I had: the blue and pink necklace I got in Paris, my mum's old choker which works beautifully with my school's dress code. Some I can probably easily get rid of ie my old accesssorize pieces but my favourite things from when I was 10 will be harder. Craft supplies are difficult because I got loads until I was 15 when I took GCSE art and began to hate it. I'm starting to do it again and I love it and I can't quite bring myself to throw out my coloured paper. In terms of my books: my parents agree to find my book habit which is extremely kind of them. However I've got to the point where I've filled up three bookshelves and I have no more space so I do need to clear out. Approaching donating books is hard because they so kindly pay for everything. Also, in the height of my illness last year I couldn't really do anything but read, and my mum would drive me to the bookshop and let me pick books out to make me feel a bit better. That feeling of escapism makes me so attached to my books. With handbags: I currently can't wear handbags apart from rucksacks and clutches so I should throw out my shoulder bags, right? I really love a lot of my handbags which makes it really difficult. I'm keeping them for when I'm strong, but right now they take up a lot of space.

Hopefully I'll start to come to terms with throwing away things I don't really need. I've really been enjoying the clearout process so far and I feel much less overwhelmed.

Sophie