Placing that title on ANY of my belongings was NOT as difficult as I thought it would be. I applied the same rule I've heard for cleaning out closets: if you haven't worn it in the last six months, it should go. Of course, there was a lot in these boxes I hadn't seen in a very long time, and one or two of these boxes, given the childhood memories they contain, may never get tossed out. I started with the boxes filled with work-related files (the easiest to deem "unnecessary," since they all pertained to a school at which I no longer work). As I got to more personal boxes, however, the items became more sentimental.
The "six month" rule is all well and good; but there's more at work here, I think. See, I'm turning 40 soon; and while that's never been a problem for me, I also recognize that I'm at a marked point in this journey through the Universe, one where what's ahead of me is much more important than what's behind me. And as I looked at bits and pieces of my past strewn all about the garage floor, I was reminded of a quote my wife sometimes signs her e-mails with:
How can the future be molded with hands full of baggage labeled What Was and What Could've Been? Where can you go with all that stuff,and how much fun will you have with it when you get there? Leave those bags behind,and hope they stay lost before you get to your next destination.
Throwing things out got a lot easier after that.
All right, take a few souvenirs if you must, but just nice stuff. No junk.
~ Michael Rawls
There was also a box of old trophies from my collegiate Speech & Debate days (many of them were fire damaged). At one point, long ago, I was going to make sure each was properly marked and engraved and cover the wall with my successes; instead I merely unwrapped them all and stacked them on my workbench before bidding them farewell. At one point, my son asked me, "Are those all your trophies and plaques? Wow; you were really good." He was in awe. Of me. So now I'm thinking maybe I should hang on to those. Maybe do the engrave-them-and-hang-them-in-the-garage thing after all.
And so about six boxes have gone so far, with another ten slated for review and removal. All in all, I made room for the new car AND some of my wife's stuff, and there's room for more. There are also more boxes to go through: fire damaged film equipment, my kids' old school projects, and more old paperwork for the shredder. Little by little, it seems, I'm shaving away the unnecessary past so that I can relish in the vibrant present. The next 40 years are gonna be sweet.
