Living with Less
Validating Ourselves with Our Stuff
Ellen: "...while reading your book, The Seven Layers of Organization, you wrote about the need to validate yourself with stuff. It made me realize that I don't need twelve copies of my first column as proof that I did something great!"I think this should be posted on the wall of all pack rats!
Christopher: "That's wonderful! You know, I believe I say this at the beginning of the book: Having clutter in your life is just like being overweight. It isn't something that's intentional. It just happens. We, as a culture, tend to hoard things. Having things around us makes us feel validated. There's a deep emotional reason why we can't get rid of our old life and make a new life.
"...They [people] said they walked back to their homes after Sept. 11 and found that their home wasn't nurturing them. They hoarded all this junk that didn't really mean anything...... I realized that before you can detach, you must purge. It isn't about the size of your space or where things should go, but rather the emotional side of things: Why can't I let go? Can I live with less and live with better? Tracing the psychology of why people hoard really cracked the surface of how to implement change in their lives."
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