Richard Axtell – Writer

Last year, during a bout of sad times™, I decided the only way to make myself happy was to get rid of everything.

All of my possessions. Poof. Gone. Goodbye. Toss them all into a metaphorically fire (not an actual fire. I do care for the environment, no matter how much time that would save).

Imagine the cleanliness. I could sit on chairs and not have to move books away. I could lie on the floor if I wanted (the urge to do that does seize me from time to time). I researched Marie Kondo’s method, I looked up Swedish Death Cleaning, I made (okay, quite small) piles of things to be thrown away, things to be donated, things to be recycled…

Then I felt better.

On reflection, it’s clear that the clutter wasn’t the problem. There was something else happening in my life that needed to be sorted, and my brain was using the clutter as a sort of scapegoat. Get rid of this (and this, and this, and this, and this… repeat forever) and then all your problems will be solved!

The piles of things to get rid of, that I worked so hard to create, still hang around my flat. There has been a stack of books by the front door for a while now, waiting to be donated.

These days, when I get the urge to rapidly eject all my possessions from my life, I stop and think to myself: what’s really going on?

Usually I’m just really tired and dehydrated.

Drink lots of water, everyone. It’s important.