What We Learned From the Unclutter Your 2021 Happy Hour

We were rapt to be hosted by Unburdened Life coach Julia Williamson, who facilitated a group discussion about clutter, organization, the things (physical and figurative) that hold us back, and the powerful freedom of letting go. Here are five things we learned from the Unclutter Your 2021 Happy Hour at PUGS.

1. (It should go without saying but) unburdening your life is a conscious decision.

We all have hopes that we’ll be better at things one day - cooking, going to the gym, playing guitar - but until we decide to practice, that will never happen. Removing the clutter from your home and mind is just the same. Williamson said it’s important to have a plan and to practice. That doesn’t mean you have to clear your calendar for the rest of the month. You can start by finding five things a day that you can get rid of, or join a work party to figure out a project like photo archiving or paper organization.

2. Your “stuff” burdens and your emotional burdens are often connected.

Have you ever found yourself unwilling to throw something away because it belonged to someone you loved? You’re not alone. In fact, we imbue objects with meaning all the time - that’s why we have a favorite pen, mug, and child. Just kidding. Of course, we mean favorite dog. Williamson said the key was to recognize the feeling and think about whether you can keep the memory without keeping the item. If you can’t, fine, then keep it. But often we can divorce the feeling from the thing, keeping the story or the emotion while letting go of the item - which can be incredibly freeing.

3. There is a gendered dimension to clutter.

For a whole range of reasons, women tend to own more stuff than men. We tend to have a longer-term view and can imagine how items might be useful again in the future; we tend to have more clothes than men; and as the primary caregivers of children and parents, we frequently wind up holding the bag for other people - literally. We wind up with grandma’s uncataloged photo boxes or dad’s dusty golf clubs. We have our grown-up kids’ video game consoles and once-important documents from long-dead relatives. When women look to declutter their homes and lives, they often find that they’re hauling other people’s possessions, memories, and plans. It can be difficult to know what’s valuable and important to keep, Williamson said, but you should start with what’s important to you.

4. Be ethical about disposal but likely, no one wants your trash.

Williamson talked about thrift stores, recycling, and other places to offload the things you don’t love. She said while it’s important to be thoughtful about where we send our things, we shouldn’t just keep things because we don’t know what to do with them. Some things are just destined for the trash. And recycling, as we know, isn’t an effective panacea. That means the answer, as it has always been for sustainability, is to refuse. Stop buying stuff.

5. You have a responsibility to pass on the things you don’t love to those who will.

Williamson used the example of a canning setup she hasn’t used for years. She loved it once but it was no longer a regular part of her life. She had been keeping it because of the idea that she might get back into it one day, which makes sense on the surface, but then she changed her perspective and realized that she was actually keeping it away from someone who might use it all the time. That made the decision less about her goals and self-realization and more about the wish for beautiful things to find owners that love them.

You can sign up for tips and find out more about Julia Williamson at Unburdened Life.