I found a blog post about a family letting go of their clutter this month so they can spend 2011 doing what they actually care about. One of their projects is a "Shed of Doom" in their backyard which they say is a "monument to our garbage."
They wrote, "Clutter is like ice forming on an airplane; it creates drag, reduces engine air intake, and fouls up control surfaces. It makes it harder to move through life and get things done, including my and Wendy’s ambitious year-long-live-our-dreams project. It has to go."
There's a bravery in letting go. I think we get inspired because of the finally unbearable pain of living with our crap. It lights a fire under our ass. When people finally start to let go, there's an urgency in their eyes. It feels like, "I don't like living this way anymore."
We're not encouraged to be self-reliant. It's a loud and demanding world. It's hard to hear the intuitive whispers of what matters to us. It's courageous to take care of ourselves. It turns out it's the only thing that can actually satisfy us.