My husband calls it the ‘tyranny of existing things’. It can apply to almost anything, but it’s specific in its ability to subtly annoy you to distraction and ill health. It’s the cookbooks that you still want to ‘go through’ and move to the kitchen. It’s the hanging kitchen cabinet door, still not worth calling the handyman to come and repair.

It’s even the weekly coffee date with a group of friends, the date and (friends?) you were over three years ago. It’s like one of those Confederate statues in the United States, or a moss-covered statue of Stalin still around in post Soviet Eastern Europe.

The tyranny of existing things is anything or any situation you no longer need, but can’t seem to shake off. 

The tyranny paralyzes and plagues you. And the more of these kinds of things and situations you have in your life, the more disgruntled you’ll be. Why wouldn’t you be, it’s tyranny! So what to do?

Rearrange your stuff, Part II, on your way to cultivating minimalism.

When people hear the word minimalism, or downsizing, they immediately think of getting rid of things. And while that’s correct – if you want to become a minimalist you’ll eventually have to get rid of stuff – it’s not the first thing to plunge into.

I’ve learned over the years, that most people get a deer in the headlights look when they’re told they have to sort through their possessions and just ‘toss’ what they don’t want, need, or haven’t recently worn. They get the deer in the headlights look and then they do nothing, because just the thought of approaching an existing pile or stash of things, paralyzes them. Not to mention what happens when people like me sometimes casually say, just ‘toss’ it.

And which room to start in, which closet, what stash? It’s all too much, especially of course, if one tends to gather, collect, or hoard. The answer is: rearrange first.

Continue Reading