Guilt When Decluttering Expensive Items

I’ve done exactly zero research on this, but we all seem to be hardwired to avoid anything uncomfortable – physical OR emotional. 

If I was one of those people who actually retained information, I could probably tell you more about this phenomenon since I read The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter a year or two ago, but alas – I trained myself to get good grades in school by regurgitating information onto a page and then wiping it from my mind completely.

I only remember books by how much I enjoyed reading them. Their contents? Who’s to say?

Now that we’ve established that I have the memory of a goldfish, we can get back to the point of today’s blog post: 

It’s okay to be a bit uncomfortable while decluttering. Even if we’re hardwired to avoid the discomfort.

We might think that decluttering is a negative thing – something to avoid – if it makes us feel bad in any way. “Life is too short! Love yourself and love the mess, amennn??”

Yeah but actually It’s not always bad to feel uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to spiral into something as serious as self-loathing (unadulterated loathing! For your face – your voice – your clothing! Sorry, Wicked has taken over my life), rather certain uncomfortable feelings can lead us toward better choices in our future. They teach us a lesson, which means they’re temporarily negative, but positive in the long run!

One of those feelings is guilt.

When we are decluttering, we may feel tremendous guilt as we select what to release – especially those items that were a bit more expensive. 

Here’s what’s important to know about guilt: 

As Brené Brown says, guilt is about the behavior, while shame is about the self.

We can feel guilty about a behavior without letting it turn into shame. Shame is unproductive, because we’re just beating ourselves up. Guilt, however, points us toward different choices moving forward.

So the next time you’re feeling guilty about decluttering something that you spent money on, remind yourself that this guilt isn’t a bad thing. It will help you make more mindful purchases in your future – and that is a wonderfully positive lesson to take with you!