Let’s talk about cars. To get started, here’s one of the most common definitions for the term ‘car’: “a self-propelled road vehicle designed to carry passengers, more specifically one with four wheels that is powered by an internal-combustion engine”.

While this definition is concise, it does not really convey the emotional side that is part of owning a car. There are indeed a lot of people who would describe their cars as a means to an end, i.e. to get around town, but they are very slow to admit that there is a clear attachment to ‘their’ car. It’s more than just a tool, it is part of how they define themselves. Value of the car does not necessarily come into it, although ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is part of the story. Think back to your first car, the one you saved money for over a long period, the one that looked like a rusty tank, … but still, it was YOURS. Even the choice of the right car is often the subject of heated discussions. I’d say this is pretty remote from the original definition of “car” in the dictionary.

Christmas is a time for reflection. Mid-winter has passed already, the days are getting longer again and we are ready to enjoy the festivities ahead of us. But before we go into full-on ho-ho-ho mode, here’s a topical subject for you all: how about that Christmas clutter?

If your family is celebrating Christmas in a traditional way, that will involve (hopefully) a lot of Christmas cheer and enjoyment, besides a lot of gifts to members of the extended family. Those could be simply greeting cards sent far and wide, or actual packages filled with things intended to spark joy with the receiver. Nothing wrong with that. Or is there?

How emotional are you feeling about some of your possessions? While many people believe they are relatively basic and only own things they NEED, they are often unaware of the fact that they are very emotional about some of their things.

There are areas where you might be confronted with emotions more than others and here are some examples:

Have you ever had this thought?  It is probably the most common excuse to having clutter that I keep hearing. The idea here is that we all feel that we need to find more space to put everything away in order to make things look good and presentable. In fact, this is the least useful way to deal with clutter, ever! Decluttering means ‘removing clutter’, not ‘finding more storage’. Yes: it is part of the job description, but – I personally believe – the least important one. The main issue is not lack of space, but that there is too much stuff in the first place!

Let’s look at the kind of materials arriving at our doorsteps by mail or at our virtual main entrance called our inbox. Most of us read some kind of at least one daily newspaper that is either delivered by mail or store-bought pretty much daily, including an extra-large weekend edition. That already gives us a sizeable pile of paper every week, and that is without taking into account any glossy magazines, tv guides and vaguely interesting brochures we might buy or pick up as we go about our daily lives.

I have met up with a friend recently and after a while we found ourselves talking about some of the choices in life he has made lately: he has realised that his old lifestyle has stopped serving him, because he had started to think about the greater picture and needed changes in his life to pursue a new direction. What greater picture, you might wonder? Well, we both had started a journey of self-discovery about three years ago, which took me into a whirlwind of hard changes very quickly (maybe I felt stronger pressures in my life than he did until now) and it took him a little longer to come to similar conclusions: that sometimes drastic change is needed rather than a gradual adaptation to new perceptions. I made a clear cut in my life about 2 years ago, and he has now reached a similar phase in his life.

Our smart phones have turned into archives of our lives. We keep everything on them: not just phone numbers but complete contact details, whole conversations on different messaging systems, images of where we have been and who with form a visual complete virtual trail of our whereabouts and doings. And we probably have all witnessed the drama that ensues when the battery goes flat or – heavens forbid – the phone dies for good, is lost or stolen.

Modern phones have all the makings of a laptop or tablet computer, and they have a lot of storage space, which means that things you place on them linger on there until the end of eternity – or at the very least until you replace it with another phone. There is a lot of stuff you can keep on those phones, but one of the paramount storage space invaders are … photos taken with the phone. While we are okay with setting limits to how long we will keep conversations (that we rarely go back to because there are always new things to chat about), images tend to stay here forever and ever, breeding like rabbits and increasing their numbers every day. Why is that so?