There's an interesting article in The New Yorker, called The Truth Wears Off, that talks about how scientists are finding that, "Many results that are rigorously proved and accepted start shrinking in later studies."
The article says that, "All sorts of well-established, multiply confirmed findings have started to look increasingly uncertain. It’s as if our facts were losing their truth: claims that have been enshrined in textbooks are suddenly unprovable."
This intrigues me because it supports the idea that what's important to us one day loses its importance later on. Nothing stays the same. Regardless, we hold onto things past the time they are valuable to us. It's as if we want to protect the old feelings we have about our things, even though these feelings are no longer true for us. That's the inner conflict that we feel about our stuff.
Holding onto clutter is like trying to trap time. We think it will give us a feeling of stability. "If I can make this remain true, I have some control over things." Instead of giving us stability, living that way makes us feel imbalanced because it's not true. We change from second to second. When we take an honest look and see, "These things no longer fit my life," we allow something better and truer to come in.
Because our lives aren't science, we don't have to remain consistent throughout our lives to understand ourselves. We gain a greater understanding of ourselves and enjoy our lives more by grasping and letting go as those impulses arise within us.
The Truth Wears Off