Whoa, talk about de-cluttering

A man in Perth, Australia is selling everything in his life. Including his friends and his job.

He says that he plans to walk out his front door with nothing but his wallet and his passport, after realizing that every single thing in his life reminds him painfully of a broken relationship.

It's an extreme example of the zeitgeist that seems to be dictating de-cluttering, clearing, and simplifying right now as a form of healing.

I'm not sure he can "sell" his friends--the idea is that included in the package price will be an introduction to each of them, but it's not like he's stipulating that he will never contact them again himself. The article says the friends (and the boss) are on board.

And frankly, if a friend of mine said, "Hey, you wanna meet the person who's bought my life?" I'd be curious enough to say yes.

Overwhelm

I seem to have overdone it a bit on Project Empty.

Consciously, I love everything about my two-thirds decluttered space. It looks nice, it feels nice, it's simple. My mind feels tranquil when I'm at home, and I've noticed that tranquility flowing into other areas of my life, notably food, family relationships, and money.

I haven't missed any of the things I've gotten rid of. In fact, I'm conscious of a real sense of relief in having most of them gone. I'm eager to finish clearing all 79 areas.

( And yet... )

Pacing is more important than I realized.

Ask Your Doctor

Here's yet another story today about clutter, this one from the medical research world. (Beware: the article deals with some pretty unpleasant extremes of hoarding behavior.)

It seems that some as-yet-unpublished controlled scientific study has found evidence that obsessive hoarding is a Real Illness, a defect in a particular location of the brain. The reporter has helpfully provided a sidebar of bullet points, among them:

--Hoarding is a mental health issue and is not due to laziness, personality flaws, or stubbornness. It is also not related to a history of deprivation, such as growing up during the Depression.

( What a relief! I'm not flawed, I'm just sick! )