your stuff owns you

How do you know if you own your stuff or if your stuff owns you? What a thought-provoking question. It’s really just your mindset at play here.  How you think and feel about your things will determine what you do with them.

Your things need to be proportionate to your living spaces. Everyone has a finite amount of space and when it gets filled up, you’re left with making decisions about all these things that are taking up valuable real estate.  When you can’t let go of things, it may mean that your stuff owns you.

Some things to consider to determine if your stuff owns you. Do you feel obligated to keep something that you don’t like because…

  • it was a gift
  • it was an impulse buy and you paid a lot for it
  • it was inherited from a beloved family member
  • you, or someone you know may need it someday
  • you may not remember the memories attached to an item

If you resonate with any of these statements, it may mean that your stuff owns you.  You become the keeper of things that will, in the long run impact your life in a negative way.  See if you can see the negativity in the statements below about the stuff that you are keeping.

  • your living spaces become cluttered and it’s difficult to get around
  • you can’t find things and are late to appointments frequently
  • you find that you’re stressed out all the time
  • you have no space to bring in anything new
  • memories attached to some, or all of these things are not happy ones

As mentioned above, your mindset is at the center of the question of whether you own your stuff or if your stuff owns you. When you own your stuff…

  • you understand that you have complete control over what you do with it whether it was a gift or an inherited item
  • you understand that no matter how much you paid for an item, that money will never be recouped
  • you understand that you have a finite amount of storage space and you choose carefully the things that occupy your spaces
  • you understand that if you let something go and then need it someday, you can acquire another one
  • you understand that memories stay in your heart, not in tangible items