Nostalgia is bad for health

 



This is my mancave. Believe it or not, this is the one part of the house where I can reliably find my stuff. If I have an important item I don't want misplaced, I will misplace it in this room. Then, at least I know that it is me that misplaced it and I can deduce where I would have put it. I'm slowly trying to turn this into less of a mancave and more of a work space.

The amount of time and effort that has gone into decluttering this room is highly disproportional to the amount of things I managed to throw out. In fact, I overall, I added more things to the room! That table in the middle of the room is new and I bought some new plastic containers. If you see the door to the left, that's the toilet and inside the toilet is a rack. That's new too, kinda. I always had it disassembled and tucked under my workbench but recently decided I needed more storage. It's cheating. I'm moving stuff into the toilet. It's a temporary solution, but at least, I'm not constantly tripping over things now. 

I love buying things. The feeling that I'm improving the quality of my hobby/work/life by getting better gear is comforting. It's me telling myself, "It's okay, there might be a pandemic right now and the future is uncertain, but hey, at least I have a new microphone - things are getting better!" I still want to get more stuff, by the way. I want a new bookshelf, a new camera lens and a drone (maybe two). After that, I'm done, I promise!

Things I promise myself I shall get rid of this year:

  • An electric guitar I hardly use.
  • A few RC cars
  • A green screen I never use
  • A boot sale axe I never use
  • The boot sale sledgehammer I never use
  • A 10" grinder I'll probably never use
  • 3 woodworking hand planes I never use
  • A robot vaccuum that doesn't work anymore
Those are just some of the bigger items off the top of my head, but I also need to throw out A LOT of little useless items before I would consider this room a usable workspace. The truth is, if I got rid of everything in this room and just kept my computers and my video and livestreaming equipment, I'd still be okay.

I watched this Youtube video on decluttering and they claimed that research shows people who live and work in cluttered spaces have higher stress levels (more cortisol, the stress hormone). I totally believe it. A lot of the things I have in this room just stresses me out. Why do I need 2 litres of white vinegar and a dead car battery? I'm never going to use that! Actually, that vinegar might come in handy when I need to de-rust metal items. I better hang on to it. I'll probably use it to de-rust some rusty boot sale item that I'll never use.

There are two main reasons I keep useless things. One is out of the fear that I might regret throwing it out someday and the other is out of nostalgia. On the shelf, out of frame in this picture is a giant horn beetle that I helped my son make for a school project. I feel guilty throwing it out. In a sense, nostalgia is sort of guilt. I think I'm going to take a picture of my son with it and then throw it out. Nostalgia is all good and well, but I'm not going to be held hostage by it anymore. I want mental clarity so that I can be more functional and I'll make new memories with my family and friends.

And if I do need more vinegar later, I'll buy some.

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