STYLE Savvy: Three Little Words?

A tipped-over glass of iced tea led Lisa Hess to ponder her attachments to certain material things.

It’s been a long week.

And, as I write this, it's only Tuesday.

Yesterday morning, I was on it. I got up and worked through the short list of tasks I wanted to accomplish before class, checking off more than I'd expected. Then, as I was about to correct an error on a document, I reached for something.

And promptly spilled half a glass of iced tea onto my laptop.

I was pretty sure it was a goner before I even left for work. The screen was unresponsive and when I restarted the machine, the promising Apple icon was quickly replaced by a circle with a line through it.

It might as well have been a tombstone.

A trip to the Apple Store that evening confirmed my fears—and fanned the fire of the one upside of this whole fiasco.

A new MacBook.

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This was not in the plan, but it's definitely turned into a sorry/not sorry situation. I'm sorry I knocked the iced tea over, sorry I made a mess, sorry I fried my laptop (hard drives apparently don't appreciate being marinated in iced tea).

But I'm not sorry I have a new MacBook.

As someone who only recently traded in the car she drove for 17 years, I'm not easily tempted when it comes to bells and whistles, especially those of the electronic variety. I am, in fact, the poster child for keeping things for as long as they keep running. I may find it hard to let go of sentimental stuff (and my collection of organizers) but, when it comes to the expensive stuff, I get my money's worth.

A key part of de-cluttering is knowing when to let go. Sometimes, it's obvious, as in the case of a laptop that will no longer function because it's drowning in a sticky, caffeinated soup. Other times—often, in fact—the decision is murkier, driven by a combination of complex factors.

Money. Sentiment. Emotion. Attachment.

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It’s because of this that, of all the STYLE steps, “let it go” is arguably the most difficult. An icon on a computer screen or a warning light on a dashboard is hard to argue with, and universally accepted as an indicator that letting go is, indeed, the thing to do.

In reality, our indicators are more ambiguous. Wear and tear. Usefulness. Function. Prior glory compared to present value. All of these are more subjective, so that an object that’s obviously past its prime in one person’s eyes still holds value in the eye of another. Not only are we at odds with our ourselves when it comes to letting go, but we may also be at odds with others who share our space, yet hold different opinions.

It’s a process, and a balancing act. Balancing what comes in with what goes out, what we’d like with what we can afford, what we value with what we don’t.

What works with what doesn’t.

Let it go. Those three little words hold so much weight. Is it any wonder it’s such a struggle?

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