🌻 Spring Cleaning, Digital Detox, Destruction Ritual

The act of “Spring Cleaning” is usually a cliche, but this year I’ve dug in deep and have been throwing out physical and virtual items left and right.

• Spring cleaning for my physical space
• Digital detox for my virtual space
• Destruction ritual for my personal space

Spring Cleaning:

Throwing away physical items is the hardest, but I’ve forced myself to take stock and ask:

• Am I still using this?
• Do I still need this?
• Will I use it in the future?

When the answer is no, it goes into the pile for donation if it has any value, or straight into the trash. I really have to ask, why am I holding onto empty boxes?

I have a hard time with this because physical things cost money. It’s hard to throw cash into the trash. But, if something sits the closest, and doesn’t move for months, or longer, what’s its value? Or maybe it has purpose for someone else, and I’m now the messenger.

I found myself asking:

• Can this go to someone else?
• Did I forget I bought it?
• What was I going to do when this arrived?
• Why wasn’t this box opened?

That last one is a little embarrassing, but it has led to a couple of, “There it is!” moments, which was pretty cool.

Digital Detox:

The digital side is easier, but more convoluted. I’ve done a lot of digital hoarding over the years across a lot of hard drives, so there is a mountain to sift through. But, it has a similar problem. I spent time and energy creating, finding, downloading, collecting my digital bits, I can’t just throw them away. But, if I haven’t touched in months, or years, what benefit do they have?

• Have I watched this?
• Will I listen to this?
• I downloaded this for later, but later never came.
• Am I going to read this?
• When am I going to study this?

With so much information available, it’s easy to collect books, videos, PDFs, and other documents on tons of subjects. It could be as simple as, this graphic is perfect for a Halloween project, or this podcast sounds really interesting, this book would be a great read. But, the time investment never comes around and all those files take up space and never see the light of the screen again.

I keep saying I’ll get around to reading this book, but I’m not making the time. I thought I would listen to a new artist, but I still haven’t heard the playlist. Those tutorial videos interested me at the time, but I still haven’t watched them. Surely it was the excitement of something new.

They might pique my interest again someday, but right now they’re taking up space and not doing much more than nagging at me. If I was going to dive in, I would have already, so it’s best to clear them out and refocus.

Just because I collected something doesn’t make it collectable.

It’s not just books, music, and videos where the thrill of the moment is gone, but online forums too. Even though I don’t subscribe to many YouTube channels, I realize I’m not interested or invested in 99% of them anymore. I subscribed to bookmark the channel, or because there was an engaging video.

Time passes and the new content isn’t what I expected. With videos piling up and my interesting waning, why am I still subscribed? I see there are new videos, but I’m not watching them. I see the click bait headlines and thumbnails, but I’m not clicking.

I had the same issue with Discord. After joining a few channels, I realized I was skipping over conversations and muting several people. When the conversations weren’t going anywhere and the topics weren’t engaging, I had to question why I was investing my time when there was no return.

I was also sitting in a couple of online, virtual gatherings when I found I wasn’t engaged or paying attention. The topics were valid and important, but they didn’t represent me as a person and the areas I want to grow in.

With that, I’ve unsubscribed to all but 3 YouTube channels, which I am actively watching on a daily basis. Not only did I leave all the Discord channels, I deleted the Discord client. I did the same for the all the virtual meetings and no longer attend.

Destruction Ritual:

I wasn’t expecting to go down this path, but as I cleared out my computer files I ran into a lot of material related to my previous jobs. There were documents, spreadsheets, computer code, scripts, database queries, saved emails, and even a couple of employee reviews. Some went back as far as 2008.

They represent thousands of hours worth of work on my part, but considering I’m no longer there, it ultimately didn’t amount to much. You don’t leave companies because you’re having an awesome time and getting everything you want out of the job.

As soon as I ran into them, I was hit with the frustration of why I left, the lack of appreciation I felt, and how it was such a massive time investment on my part to a failed relationship. It was a bad reminder for sure.

I managed to avoid getting triggered because I took great satisfaction in deleting those files, hoping they were the only copies so the company and teams suffered a setback by not having them. I know it’s not true, but it was a great story to tell myself as the items crumpled then disintegrated when emptying the Trash.

At this point I’ve deleted thousands of files, recovered hundreds of gigs worth of hard drive space, and refocused on topics that hold my attention. I’ve thrown away the boxes, I’ve taken things to the curb, and cleaned off the shelves.

I’m done with spring cleaning for this year, and feeling invigorated by it. YouTube interests me again. There is no guilt or remorse over leaving and deleting Discord. I don’t miss the online meetings, which proves I wasn’t getting anything out of them. I’m pretty pleased with myself for deleting all those old files. It was satisfying to trash all that material, and even gave me an emotional severing of ties I didn’t know I needed.

Who knows what the next spring cleaning will bring, but I’ve enjoyed this one. 10 out of 10 for throwing away the past, would do again.