Letting Go: Your Heart's Treasures on Earth
Just as dried flowers don't do justice to fresh, so do inanimate objects grow stale over time. The toughest thing about cleaning my room is getting rid of things people have given me. I don't just mean the surprise gift I haven't used, the book I've never read, or the birthday notes and Christmas cards and pen pal letters from twenty-odd years of life (yes, I keep every one). Sometimes it's merely a notebook that reminds me of a friend, or the scarf I wore on a day spent with someone I'll never forget. And though a battle with mildew a year ago killed off some very personal possessions, I'm still sentimental. I tend to hold onto stuff that is holding me back from a more organized room and a more balanced life. In the past few years, I've learned a couple of tricks to letting go of beloved things that need to go: Take a Photo Fortunately for us, we live in an age of hi-res photos. Before I toss anything I love, I take a picture of it, beca
