The Initial Declutter Push

Full of grit, determination, and the motivating messages of trendy YouTube influencers dancing around in my head, I recently set off on my first large push to remove some of the clutter in my life. The junk strewn rooms of our house started to transform in my mind as potential zones of zen and contentment as I pondered what items I could quickly and easily get rid of.

I bought two of the cheapest totes I could find in my local Walmart and set a goal that I was not going to stop finding things to get rid of until those two totes were full. Clothes that didn't fit or that I hadn't worn in years were the first to go. Next, I examined the bookcase for books that I knew I wasn't actually ever going to get around to reading and found a few lucky selections that had just won an all-expenses paid one way trip to the local Goodwill. With my totes about 2/3 full, I faced my first emotional decoupling from my stuff.

I have had the goal of learning to fly for over 20 years now. When I really caught the bug in the early 2000's, I purchased several books, computer CDs and VHS tapes about learning how to get my private pilot's license. I don't know if it was nervousness about starting such a long training journey and fearing the potential for failure that stalled my studies, a simple lack of time, competing interests or some combination of all three but I never used the instructional CDs, I maybe watched 2 of the 20 some videos I purchased and I only read one of the books. I have been hanging on to this stuff for two decades promising myself that I would eventually get around to learning how to fly. At a time in my life

A random aviation related picture for your visual entertainment

where I could probably save the money to actually pay for the lessons and flight hours, I don't have the time available to take the lessons and study the FAA regulations. In short, I knew I was holding on to outdated lessons on outdated forms of media that I struggled to let go of because it was my way of clinging onto the dream of learning to fly. It was time to cut the emotional cord. I forced myself to cram all of the VHS tapes, an old VCR, several books and the CDs into the totes and sealed them up. The next day they were dropped off at my closest Goodwill. As I was getting back into my car, I watched as the Goodwill employee working in the receiving section casually toss all of my "prized" flight training VHS tapes into a random bin. It hurt as it dawned on me that my treasure was pretty much disposable random trash to someone else. I wondered why it took me so long to let go of the flight training materials even when it was clear that they were old. I still want to learn to fly but I don't need to hang onto to all of the old junk to make it work.

I won't bore you with all of the remaining juicy details of my first clutter cleanse but I also decided that I was never going to get around to making project computers out of the three old laptop motherboards I had saved and I was also never going to get around to restoring my 20 year old Pentium 4 Dell desktop computer that had bee

n sitting in my parent's basement for 18 years. These items, and a few other outdated electronics, are going to a local electronics recycler I found in Lincoln. I didn't want to just throw them away and I hope some of the ram and raw materials can be reused somehow.

Seeking to bask in my own glory, I to

ured the house to feast my eyes upon our newfound clean-living spaces. I can't tell a single bit of difference. I guess I have a lot more work to do and I'm all out of VHS tapes to get rid of. Someone touring the Goodwill off North 27th Street is probably asking themselves right about now who the freak was that clearly had some sort of John and Martha King fetish. I'll probably need to take my next load of stuff to the Goodwill off Hwy 2 just to be safe.

Klint Holscher 20220819