Top Reasons Why Letting Go of Stuff is so Difficult
First and foremost, the biggest reason why we hold onto things for so long is because we're all sentimental people.
We can all relate to this including myself. I've held on to things that date back to my childhood including a horse lamp, and I still have it!
My mom got me that horse lamp when I was 3 or 4 years old and I've held onto it ever since. It's because my mom bought it for me and I'm very sentimental about it. (please don't tell anyone)
In the 6th grade at North Elementary school in Lansing, a Lansing area Fire Chief came to our school and awarded me with a Fire Chief Badge. And one of my best friends was awarded with the assistant Fire Chief Badge. Together, we were responsible for checking all fire extinguishers in the school twice a month. It was quite the honor for both of us.
To this day, I still have that gold Fire Chief Badge in my possession. Why? Sentimental reasons of course. That's what we do!
There are several reasons why it's difficult to let go of stuff, courtesy of makespace.com:
1. We feel guilty. This is so true, we feel guilty about getting rid of something from someone we love. I still have things from loved ones I would like to get rid of, but I can't do it.
2. Sentimental value. There's always a good enough reason to keep lots of things because of sentimental reasons. Certain items take us back in time to those special moments that bring back nice thoughts.
3. The money we spent. Sometimes we feel guilty about the money we spent on certain things. For example: I have a train set that cost a decent amount of money that is still sitting in boxes. Someday I would like to pull out that old train set and see if it still works.
I've always been one to say "throw it out if it clutters up the house." But then again, not my personal stuff that still means the world to me!