Throwing things away

I’m a very sentimental person. I would keep ANYTHING as long as it reminded me of a good memory with my family and friends. Thus, my study table at home became extremely messy. There were many times where I attempted to clean it up, but couldn’t bear to throw many of the things away. It was just piles and piles of keychains or random items collecting dust because I don’t look at them at all.

I remember this one Japanese story. I forgot if it was a book or just a comic strip, but this woman hired an advisor to help tidy her house. The advisor would ask her questions like “Does this bring you joy?” and “Is it necessary?”, which really helped in organising everything in her home. These are good things to live by. If you don’t feel any joy from an object, why let it keep cluttering your home? Of course, the “Is it necessary” is so that there’s no excuse to throw away important school or work items. 

This idea really helped me declutter my room. That ugly keychain you got for free? Don’t need it. This random sketchbook which you slightly filled up when you thought you had remotely any artistic talent? Just tear out the used pages and use it to study. The empty boxes of random items you bought from shopee? Just take a picture if you need it then throw it away. Every once in a while I would have this mentality and my table would be significantly less messy.

Recently, I travelled overseas. While packing, I was quite lost. What is actually needed for the trip? The holiday was planned last-second so my family didn’t have lots of winter clothes in preparation. We were all packing with the mentality of “anything we need can just be bought there”. Honestly, nothing wrong with that. But on the plane ride there, I noticed many things I thought I would’ve been doing…weren’t  done. I didn’t finish any of my sweets. I didn’t sleep with my bag as a pillow. I didn’t play Good Coffee Great Coffee the entire time. My mother told me to “use this plane ride to see what you don’t use, and leave those things in your carry-on on the way back”. I took that advice. On the ride back, I had a significantly lighter backpack on the plane and enjoyed that ride a lot more.

There’s even packing the luggage to bring back. I went to South Korea, the land of free samples. They were in every other product. Initially, I tried arranging my luggage with the mentality of “what if you still need the box? keep it!” Seriously, what was I going to do with a box of cotton pads? My family just told me to take the cotton pads out. A great idea. I stuffed so many cotton pads in empty areas like a maniac. In retrospect, once I returned back to Singapore, all those cotton pads were thrown away as they got wet somehow. Another lesson learnt, I don’t need all those cotton pads.

Of course, don’t throw away handmade items that others put much thought and effort into. I’m still a sentimental person, after all. Even if I think the capybara bouquet from my friend is really ugly. Small notes will always be appreciated, I really recommend keeping them in a big box for you to look and reminisce about in the future.

The conclusion? Just throw that away. If you don’t see yourself using it anytime soon, why bother? This can also apply to clothes, by the way. Clear that closet right now. I need to do the same with my Kpop album collection.

Clare Lee

3 Faith

2025