When I say clean out my room, I don't mean the typical "move things around so it's good enough for friends to come over." I had to have a deep clean for two reasons.
- My family is moving.
- I'm going out of state for college.
Now, it probably doesn't sound like a big deal. Moving is normal, and it's something that many people go through. My family (my mom, dad and brother), and I have lived in the same house for 11 years. I've had the same bedroom since I was seven years old, and I kept almost every school paper, toy, article of clothing, stuffed animal, backpack, book, magazine and knick knack ever since then. I never really saw the need to get rid of anything if my bedroom was still kept in a decent manner.
Moving and college, however, forced me to get rid of things I didn't need. Which, again, didn't seem like a big deal. This summer I started to go through objects in my room, and I went through every single one. Every. Single. One.
I definitely had my work cut out for me. The hardest part was trying not to spend a lot time on it or even the "cleaning" aspect of it. I really didn't mind that. What was really hard for me was that I felt the need to keep a lot of extra things (toys, papers, stuffed animals). I thought I could easily donate, trash or recycle. I found a dusty pink dog (named Trixie) that was given to me by my mom when I was sick once. I also came across three-years worth of French worksheets. Although I didn't retain a lot of information, it was nice to see how much work I put into it anyway.
After looking at each object, I could still remember where it was from and the memories associated with it. Those specific memories were triggered because of the object in my hands, otherwise, I may have not remembered the specific moments. So, in my mind, throwing that away meant losing the memory with it. The idea of that made me anxious to the extent that I didn't want to lose anything.
But was I really losing anything by trashing an object I may never look at? Once I changed my mindset, I felt a lot better about the process. Like for all the toys and stuffed animals, someone else could put them into better use than I can. All of these years I just kept the toys and animals tucked away under my bed or buried in a closet.
I definitely did keep some treasures, however. But I had to prioritize so I wouldn't feel this overwhelmed again in the future. Throughout college, I'm only going to accumulate more objects that I'm going to want to keep, so it's important that I stay up to date with organizing and developing healthy habits.
It's satisfying to see the progress I made. It may have taken a few weeks, but I took care of business. I started with a broken, over-filled closet and a room that was basically a black hole of my childhood (where things came in, but never left). Now I've sorted through everything and gained more from the experience than I thought I would in the first place.
