The Chronicles of Ambivalence: How Decluttering is Allowing Me to Redefine Who I Am
As I stare into my wardrobe, I wonder where all the time has gone. I’m faced with Christmas Dance dresses, Duke of Edinburgh waterproofs, extinct editions of my work uniform, among an array of flowery tops and costumes and old hats. Almost every chapter of my life is chronicled in clothing, stored safely behind the protection of the heavy, wooden sliding doors. And I realise, standing there surrounded by boxes and bags, that there is simply no space for who I am now. I have willingly, and successfully, suppressed the need for a clear out for the last four or five years. I feel suffocated just by the thought of how much of my life is waiting in drawers and on hangers for its fate to be decided. But now, the anxiety is met with a quiet readiness simmering just beneath the surface. A welcomed, subtle, loosening of the grip. At first it's like being reintroduced to old friends. Ones who we were close to for a time, but have long since drifted away. Out of no fault of their own, of cou
