When the word comes up, my friends always tell me how neat and tidy I am. I find it strange because I don’t think I am. Then, when they give examples of themselves, I realise that I’m not so bad.
It seems that this phenomenon undoubtedly means something different to everyone. I’ve never met anyone who is a control and organisation freak. Maybe it’s because they’re a fan of letting things go or procrastinating. Sometimes it is not difficult to see this.
I have addressed this topic before, I actually like cleaning a lot, but only when I want to. Cleaning that is imposed or organised in a certain way sounds very robotic. After all, you don’t need to do spring cleaning on the first day of the month. OK, don’t wait until the end.
Photo by Samantha Gades on Unsplash
In one of my previous articles, I talked about cleaning the items I keep for nostalgia. Without exception, I do this every year (whenever I feel like it) and I am always surprised at the pile.
The point here is that we know the purpose of collecting all these objects and pieces of memories, but if that’s the case, why can’t we feel the same way in the future? As I said, even though I collected them and kept them, at some point I must have started to think that it wasn’t that difficult to remove them from my life, so it wouldn’t hurt to say goodbye. Of course, that can’t be said for all of them. I need another pile to keep me going until next year. I wonder if this is the point I enjoy?
I thought it might have something to do with procrastination. I mean, as the years start to overlap, all the feelings and thoughts in between get squeezed together and begin to taste similar: we can be content to say, “It’s gone with its bitter-sweetness, how nice it was”.
Of course there are detailed moments, and perhaps they are the ones I feel the need to postpone. But since life is linear, it is obvious that we cannot inevitably get stuck in the past.
What we collect as mementos has value, that is true. For example, I am sure there are dozens of objects that have been in your room for years, but you are only now becoming aware of them. Like that old shop that you think has just opened when you pass it on a street you pass all the time. But the nostalgia you put in a box with your own hands is something else entirely.
After all, even the past can fade. It is understandable that experiences turn grey and no longer have the same taste. This means that whether we add new ones every year or not, saying goodbye to the old ones is not as difficult as we thought. And the memories we have postponed have to be replaced by the ones we have now.
What is striking is the continuity. One goes and a new one comes. Maybe it doesn’t have the same value, but that’s not the point. We tend to keep things, whatever they are. This leads to a new purification process.
Live in the moment, accumulate, accumulate, hoard, clean, accumulate, postpone, postpone some more, then clean, start accumulating again.
I started to think about it in a simplified way. I chose to think about it in concrete terms, but also in digital terms, because inevitably most of our lives run parallel to the digital structure.
I regularly take notes, read articles and bookmark them in my browser, keep my books on my bookshelf and my old diaries in a box. I have installed a couple of extensions to my browser to make this process of exaggerated saving more functional.
On the other hand, there are TV series, films, pictures and drawings related to my hobbies, etc. Although my video game library never gathers dust, there are many games I don’t know the name of and can’t remember buying. My watch lists on video streaming platforms are overflowing with extraordinary videos from years ago.
I thought I had 10–20 games. Image by author.
What remains after organising. Image by author
Suddenly, I felt like pulling out the photo albums from the dusty shelves to relive old memories. It felt a little uncomfortable. So I’m going to do my annual digital clean-up. “Only when I want to”. However this time it’s not a pile, it’s a mountain.
“Duty is heavier than a mountain, death lighter than a feather.”
Filing, categorising and tagging has always been a joy for me, even if it can be challenging. Then I think it’s a good idea to go through the videos I’ve saved to watch that have been buried there for years. It will be a nice voyage to see what ideas I regularly dwell on, what interests me or what might be redundant at the moment. I’m sure some great ideas will come out of it. In my opinion, this is what nostalgia should provide.
I always file all my articles. It is a priceless sight to see the growth of my organised writings. Image by author.
After dusting my books, I will put the slumbering ones in empty boxes and put them away so that they do not bother me, and I will be able to see which ones (at least periodically) I can appreciate more. I am sure I will have more emotional moments this way, rather than sighing and remembering past events. My preciousss booksss.
Deleting pictures I’ll never look at again, getting rid of superfluous folders, organising my notes in an understandable way, postponing the useful ones among hundreds of old pages until the next cleaning… It’s a tremendous amount of work, but it sounds like fun. How is it different from looking at old photographs?
I’m sure a lot of things will keep piling up and it’s doubtful that I’ll be able to do this every time. So procrastination is inevitable. This cycle will repeat itself somehow. But I don’t think it is right to force ourselves. This is not an obligation or a necessity, after all, it is an effort that I think will be enjoyable.
I guess it’s a bit like your character being formed over the course of your life. That’s why I understand better why my friends say that. The stifling things in our lives don’t always have to develop in the same way. Sometimes even chaos will be necessary. There will be occasions when we get used to it and add to it.
But stillness will also be essential. This cycle of life should include both order and chaos so that we can maintain our balance. Now is the time to discharge a little. Time to get rid of memories and baggage.
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