Over-rationalization is the Enemy
Excess is the enemy, right? I mean that’s what this whole blog is about, essentially.
But the excess of material things is not the only enemy that some (dare I say, most) of us face on a regular basis.
“Over” anything is bad.
Overeating. Overthinking. Overanalyzing. Over-rationalizing.
Over-rationalizing.
That’s a little something that strikes me most of the time when I’m trying to clean out some portion of my hoard. I stop at an item and I over-rationalize why I should keep it.
I come up with a thousand possible scenarios in which I might need this item or want this item (that I’ve usually not needed or wanted since I acquired it in whatever way). I over-rationalize how it could be important, useful, or necessary. I almost purposefully place far more value on the item than it’s ever actually held before.
This over-rationalization is the enemy of any hoard clean out. At the end of it, if I’m convincing enough, I usually talk myself into keeping something that I was “this close” to getting rid of before. Then, in six months or so, when I revisit that section of the hoard, the same item is still sitting there and it’s still practically untouched.
I’m trying to stop myself from over-rationalizing these days before I even get started.
If I’m not a hundred percent sure that I will use this item or that I love it for some reason, it has to go.
The over-rationalization doesn’t do me any good.
And the truth of the matter is that any object that is still being manufactured and sold can be acquired again if I find that I have made a horrible mistake in getting rid of it and I absolutely have to have it. If I can’t live without it, which is almost certainly never the case, I can simply replace it.
When cleaning out, I’ve learned that moving quickly and going on my first instinct works best. If I don’t like it or know I don’t use it, then it goes. If I give myself time to talk myself out of it, I’ll keep everything. That comes from the low-key hoarding voice that lives inside of me. If I move quickly, I’ll usually be honest with myself and keep only that which I truly use or which truly brings me some kind of joy.
Over-rationalization is the enemy of any hoard clean-out.