Dear Diary.
Well, that’s another year of uni done and dusted. People still ask me: What are you going to do when you finish uni?
My answer is still the same: I have no idea.
What I would like to do is be one of those old men who sits in his enormous library filled with shelves of old books, my laptop in front of me as I write fantasy stories endlessly. Expressing myself and my thoughts in a way that is legible and isn’t tongue tied has always been tremendously difficult for me, and writing gives me a way to do it.

Sadly however, economically this fantasy of mine isn’t really feasible. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
As I’ve finally had the free time to spend at home going through my belongings, I’ve been amazed at just how much stuff I have and how little I use most of it.
One thing I’ve learnt is that there are two kinds of “Stuff” people.
The first is the kind who doesn’t like clutter, and minimise any material belongings by regularly culling their stuff. These people tend to maybe take a photo or two which is stored on their Google Drive, and keep their memories close to them, rather than physical possessions.
The second however, is the one who hoards absolutely everything that once had some kind of value, even stuff they bought at novelty shops, “…because it’s cute.”
I’m ashamed to say that I have been known as a hoarder in my time, and it hasn’t been easy at times. While holding onto artefacts has had its novelties at times, these things do have a habit of slowly taking over your life.
In the last month I have seriously started going through and culling unnecessary clutter, and the feeling of empowerment is incredible. I think the most serious questions you have to ask yourself is:
1. Does this hold sentimental value?
2. Does this hold any practical value?
3. Does this weigh you down in any way?

In the last few months, I have started culling clutter, which has not been easy. I’m what I would describe as a tactile sentimental, in that I like to hold onto artefacts from times that were important to me.
However, there did come a time where it was time to say: enough is enough. Too much clutter began to mentally and physically weigh me down. It was becoming difficult to organise anything. Something we sadly often forget is the fact that we will often hold onto tools, books, movies and never use them when we could donate them to charity where people in need can get some use out of them.

However, I feel that I need to point out the old fashioned myth that people who do not hoard junk are better able to organise their life. Not true. While there are hoarders who are snowed under by all of their belongings, there are also compulsive cullers who throw away everything, even important necessary items, and as a result, run into problems.

I have witnessed people on both sides of this fence, and I feel there definitely needs to be a happy medium. I am definitely a sentimental person and like to have keepsakes of special events. For example, whenever I travel, I like to bring home a snow globe or keyring to add to my collection. I also keep my photo albums up to date. That’s right, I keep my physical photo albums and go to Big W to have my photos developed every few months.
These are the things that are important. However, there are other things we tend to hoard that simply weigh us down.
I feel like every now and then, it is essential to go through and de-clutter my life, both physically and symbolically.

In 2012, after rationalising and ignoring years of lies, deceit and outright selfishness, I knew it was finally time to walk away from a friendship. This was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. What was even harder was the fact that after ignoring about two phone calls and three messages, I never heard from said friend again, and that was that. Yes, I probably should have spoken to them about it, and yes, ignoring them probably wasn’t the most mature thing I’ve ever done. These are all stories for another day. My point is, eventually, I realised that in order to go forward with my life, I needed to remove the clutter left behind by this friendship.
By clutter, I mean I had to go through my photo albums and throw out all the silly selfies we took, anything of the two of us which didn’t have any real meaning. I did however keep a couple of nice shots of us together at our schoolies trip, another trip we took, and at our mutual friend’s wedding. These were photos I just couldn’t get rid of.
This might sound like I’m rationalising as most hoarders do, but I disagree. These photos were representations of particular times in my life. These were times when I needed my friend. Eventually, I outgrew them, and I needed to walk away. As I walked away, I took a life lesson from the friendship, and by holding onto a valuable keepsake or two, I’m holding onto the memory of the lesson I learnt.
I suppose this is part of the grieving process. I was grieving the loss of my friend, and for those first six months, I thought maybe something would happen and the friendship could be repaired. This is probably what experts call denial.
When I finally decided to declutter, I had accepted it and knew it was time to move on.

To sum up this entry, there are many types of clutter. The momentos from my friendship was just one example. As for other clutter like tools or things you’re just holding onto “just in case”, my golden rule is two years.
If it hasn’t been used in two years, have a look for a family member or friend who could use the item, or better yet, donate it to a charity bin. By doing this at least it isn’t being wasted.

To sum up, it is necessary to declutter our lives now and again. But just because you might be a tactile sentimental person, doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to end up on the show Hoarders.

Want to know how you rate as a hoarder? Click here to take the quiz and find out!
All my love,
xoxo Brett