Things To Keep Forever

The past week I’ve been MIA over here as well as on Instagram. Reason for this lack of life signs was that I was helping my parents pack their things for a new adventure that’s coming up for them very soon. During this whole process of packing, we also had to do lots of sorting and decluttering – imagine a big house with lots of space and a Mom who’s very passionate about every tiny little drawing I ever made, every tiny little baby shoe of mine and all other things that have sentimental value. You get where I’m going with this… Let’s just say there were many things we had to go through accumulating over the past 28 years, to say the least.

Does it spark joy?

To be honest, of course this whole process of decluttering is very tedious and nerve wrecking at times, but it also brings up so many beautiful memories. I must confess I’m a big hoarder myself and simply can’t throw certain things away. That’s why I have a whole box full of old photos and every post card or love letter I ever received. I know some people might think of these things as relics from the past that have to be thrown out for the sake of clearing your mind and moving on, but somehow, to me those things are much more. They serve as a return ticket to moments I’m afraid I could someday just forget about. So while I was sitting there sorting out all those precious things, I had to think of Marie Kondo and her credo “the ultimate test to whether to keep it or not is to ask yourself, does this object spark joy in my heart?”. The way to find out if things spark joy, you have to touch the object, hold it as close to your heart as possible and see what response elicits inside you. Marie Kondo says, when something sparks joy, you should feel a little thrill running through your body, as if your body is somehow slowly rising up to meet the item, embracing it even. Any such object that gives you this feeling has a place in your life. Once you are convinced of the spark of joy, you should be able to hold on to the item with confidence. You don’t need to make excuses for keeping it any more: you’ve proved to yourself that it’s important to you. She’s certain that most objects in our life will not spark this joy – and these are the ones you should part with, again with confidence because you know they don’t mean enough to hold on to.

Well, that’s all quite easily said, but let me tell you: To me that wasn’t easily done at all. Long story short: There I was, sitting in the midst of memorable things from the past 28 years of my life – my whole past lying on the floor in front of me – and I cried my eyes out because I just didn’t want to part with any of these things. So I ended up neatly packing up my box again (better sorted than ever, mind you) and placed it in the trunk of my car to store it away in our little basement in Salzburg. Perhaps, I’ll be ready to let go of these things once more memorable things will come up. Or perhaps I won’t. However, until then, I’m very thankful for this little box of mine that enables me to re-visit so many wonderful memories in just a heartbeat.

On an outfit-related note:

When it comes to clothes I’m decluttering quite rigorously on a regular basis. However, before just throwing things out because you haven’t been wearing them in a while, it might be smart to think twice. Any tweed blazer, velvet pants, black turtleneck sweater or belt bag is worth stashing away somewhere – trust me. You won’t believe how many vintage treasures of this kind I’ve found in my Mom’s closet last week. It’s all coming back one day… you just have to be patient – and of course you need some space to store things in. Which is, with the current price per square metre for apartments, clearly the biggest problem.

Zara blazer (similar here) // Closed velvet pants // Zara turtleneck (similar here) // Edited lace boots // Aigner belt bag

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