Inheritance Clutter

At last week's clutter busting talk, a woman in the audience shared her clutter situation. She said some of her family members had died recently and she was feeling stuck amidst all the stuff she inherited. She felt that there was something wrong with her for not being able to let go of the inheritance items she didn't care for.

I said that it wasn't her fault. When someone close to us dies, we go into grief. It's naturally overwhelming. A big part of us shuts down. I said I had a friend whose sister died, who told me she regularly fell to the floor in tears. I've felt it myself. The sadness overtakes you for a while.

I said to the woman at the talk that the first thing for her to do was to accept what was happening to her, and forgive herself. As far as the inherited stuff goes, I recommended asking for help from her friends. I told her to ask her friends to be kind and gentle while going through the stuff.

I told her to keep in mind that when she lets something go that she doesn't care for, she's not letting go of the person who died. The association with the stuff and the person who previously owned it has caused a lot of people to hold on to things they don't like, and won't use.

I encourage you to look at what's in your life, and pare down to the things you like and use. It's important to do this so that when you pass on, you are not putting your loved ones in a similarly painful situation as this woman. I've worked with many people who have been put in this miserable experience. Often times they confess they are angry at the person who died and left them in this predicament. It's terrible to feel sad about someone's death, and at the same time angry.

By clutter busting now, you are giving out gifts. One, for the people who you love, who will have a smaller amount of things to deal with when you pass on. And the second gift is to yourself for removing the clutter from your life so you can enjoy the things you love.

This topic has been inspiring to me lately because one of my clients told me a story of how she recently ended up in the emergency room and almost died, and all she could think about at the time was, "I have too much shit! I'm going to die and people are going to be forced to go through my crap. That would be an act of cruelty." It bothered her greatly that those could have been her last thoughts. 
 
My client clutter busted through her stuff with great enthusiasm, and ruthlessly tossed anything that was insignificant and an un-enjoyable part of her life.