I'm in the process of buying new furniture and rearranging my room so I thought, why not clear all the items I no longer have a need for. Coincidentally, Chinese New Year is but a couple weeks away so it'll be like killing two birds with one stone.
Spotting the junk and tossing them out is easy but when you're done with that, you start to spend more and more time deciding whether or not you should be throwing a certain something away. The stakes keep getting higher. That's been a massive headache for me and being an overthinker, it didn't help one bit.
I've sort of came up with a simple question to really cut through all the wasted time spent scratching my head. "Have this item been of use to me the last six months?" If the answer is no, it goes straight to the bin. Certainly not a full proof idea but it sure as hell saved me a ton of time.
Some of the items that I've found the question to be not so effective on are things you are emotionally attached to. For me, these mainly included my collectables and books. The six months question easily solves the future potential of an object. If I haven't yet used an item for six months, I can safely deduce that it had no future potential for my-half-a-year-ago-self.
Collectibles and books to me hold plenty of meaning, hence I am so emotionally attached to it. I could have sold either item for money or give them away to create more tangible value for others and myself. However, the personal value and meaning I put to it far outstrip the tangible value it can bring.
The value it had to me in the past was so strong that it overflows to the present and possibly the far future in a sense. Even though I don't use or look at them often. Maybe the act of ownership in itself is its current and future utility. Not the actual use of it.
Anyhow, if you're looking to clear your room fast, you can consider this question as a first layer filter. Now back to cleaning the mess I call my room.
