Discardia: A floating holiday to celebrate letting go.
I always forget about Discardia until it’s too late. I forgot about it in the fall until Ed talked about it on his blog. I vowed I would not forget next time. And I didn’t!
I have mentioned it to Michelle in passing a couple of times each month. She’s never seemed very interested. Sometimes she’s even done the typical teenage “fine, just throw it all away, I don’t care!” thing and stomped off to her messy room. Not the reaction I was going for, obviously. Discardia is about celebrating letting go, not huffing and puffing and feeling forced into letting go.
I was patient. I was also lucky.
TW and I had been watching Clean Sweep quite a bit and I even had a Clean Sweep Birthday which helped to keep thoughts of clutter reducing fresh in our minds.
That wasn’t enough though. We needed to go further than that. And I do believe Michelle got there all on her own this week.
“Mom, I just realized that 75% of the stuff in my room is stuff I have never needed and never really wanted. I mean it was fun to get gifts. And fun to buy. But most of it I never even used or touched or looked at again.”
So Michelle spent several days really cleaning out her room. She hasn’t gotten rid of all of it. The idea of letting go of the entire kit n caboodle all it once is a little overwhelming, I think. But she hit the point where I hope she’s going to think more about whether she’s truly in need of a particular object or simply in need of something, some intangible something that brings pleasure or piques an interest or simply fills an empty space.
Discardia is a celebration of letting go, indeed.
Nancy White talks about Discardia and reflection on the past and quite a few folks on 43 Things practicing Discardia, too.