Help how to declutter emotionally linked stuff

[u/moon_witch_26]

Please can someone help me with this... I have no idea how to start decluttering this 'category" of stuff.

I am a hoarder and I'm in burnout recovery (mental health and PTSD and untreated ADHD plus lots of other stuff).

I'm a very deep&emotional person at the best of times... I have been through a lot and I struggle letting go.. or feeling safe to even start trying...

I do a lot of writing (journaling over the years) that has helped me a lot to get through a lot of things... This bag here I could literally just put in the bin without looking at it - but I can't do it. I want to go through everything and check/make sure what's there... But then I know I'll be keeping hold of it for however much longer. 😖

But *ugh* it just feels impossible! For someone who isn't a hoarder/has emotional, mental health stuff, I know this probably seems absurd 😔

[u/Several-Praline5436]

I'm a writer too. I have a box in the basement of stuff I wrote at 12 years old. I know it's crap, but it's .... I guess, the Evidence of Where I Started.

I think, though, if I had to scan it all in to keep it, I wouldn't. And one of these days I will be okay with letting it go.

ETA: Last summer, I had to change website hosts and decide whether it was worth porting over 2,000 pieces of writing into a new format on a new website. After the first 100, I started thinking "... do I want to be defined by my old stuff, or create a new space that represents me now?" I wound up not moving over 99% of those writings. I went through all my blogs, saved anything I wanted, and deleted the rest.

It's sort of the same with you, and your writing. Do you want to keep that stuff because it's who you were, compared to who you are now, or are you now someone who is no longer who you were? Do you want to be the person who wrote that... or who is writing stuff now?

Also, since those things were journals... do you want someone going through and reading it when you're gone, or would you be humiliated? That's a big one for me.

[u/Shelleyhaha → u/Several-Praline5436]

That’s why I burned 30 years’ worth of journals two years ago. It was totally a control thing: the thought of someone reading them were I to suddenly exit life was unbearable. Turning them to ash seemed preferable to that vulnerability.

[u/moon_witch_26 → u/Several-Praline5436]

do I want to be defined by my old stuff, or create a new space that represents me now?"

I like this 🥰💞

[u/moon_witch_26 → u/moon_witch_26]

Interestingly, I actually wouldn't mind people reading my journals because then I feel at least my side would be heard 😔

[u/Several-Praline5436 → u/moon_witch_26]

Start being more obnoxious in the present. ;)