Starting to Clean Out My Stuff Again After Letting My Pulled Muscles Heal

Last year, I pulled muscles while cleaning things out of my house. After deciding to continue cleaning, I quickly realized these pulled muscles were not ordinary pulled muscles. Yes, they were pulled muscles, but I pulled them really badly. So badly I couldn’t walk, bend down, or lift anything really heavy. My movement was limited, especially since I pulled muscles all over my body.

Once I realized this, I began to cut back on the amount of cleaning work I was doing. When that was too much for me, I began to clean less and less. After cutting back as much as I thought I could, I decided to just stop cleaning (Aside from normal home cleaning such as cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floor, ect.) until my muscles healed.

This past weekend my muscles have healed enough for me to start cleaning again.

Things are slow, but progress is clearly being made. During my break, I realized there are many things I can live without. I also started to clean out more things my relatives left for me that I don’t need.

Letting go of things my relatives used to own has been hard. Although they passed away some time ago, I still feel a lot of stress over getting rid of them. It’s not because I feel like I need to keep these things in order to remember them. I just have a fear that I will need them in the future.

And this was my problem. I always feel like I need to keep my relative’s “things just in case.” The thing is I don’t need their things. During my break, I went through some of the old boxes I stored their old things in and realized there isn’t much I need. I sew a lot, so sewing thread is important. The thread one of my relatives owned dates from the 1970’s… and it’s 100% polyester. It still looks and feels strong enough to sew, but, compared to new thread, it feels off. Really off.

Thread isn’t the only thing I saw that made me realize I didn’t need these things. Office supplies are another. So are clothes, greeting cards, nick nacks, and paper. Lots and lots and lots of paper. I don’t mean magazines either. I mean unused note book paper, unused note pads, and scrap pieces of paper. I’m stunned by how much paper my relative collected and kept over the years.

Now that my muscles have healed (or are healing?) I started to get rid of everything I know I won’t use. Ever. Sadly, I need paper. Just not the kind my relative kept. So it needs to go. So do the thread that doesn’t feel right, clothes, and many other office supplies. I haven’t decided which nick nacks I want to keep and I have whittled down the greeting cards. I decided to keep the ones that mean something to me or have a cover I really like.

Progress to clean out everything will still continue until I am satisfied with the things I own and the amount of them. I don’t know how long it will take for me to do this, but I do know I need to take more regular breaks. Even if I am “on a roll” I still need to take time off to let my body recover from all the movement I am doing.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!