burntcopper | Why do we keep these?

Was doing one of my occasional paper sweeps. Random bits of paper-based lifemasses have a habit of silting up in odd corners, or on desks and so on. In doing so, you tend to come across notes, articles, letters and so on that you kept for a reason and can't remember for the life of you what they're about. Or why they were so important that they had to be kept. Just pulled a magazine pile out of a bookshelf, copies of Empire and Face respectively, and had a quick flick through them to see why I kept them. One of them I could remember why, an interview with Ed Norton on Fight Club, but... a few years down the line, I simply go 'eh'. Fucking mounds of glossy print, kept because at teh time you were interested in that article or that star or that picture. That you were convinced you'd re-read and wanted to keep but it got shoved into a pile and then gathered dust after you forgot about it. I had a crate of these at uni at the end of my bed. One day I sorted through them and went 'pretty, but why the hell did I keep this?'. The whole crate went and got used for other things. Mounds of paper that go into the recycling.

Similar to when I did a set of clothes chuck outs recently. I buy clothes. I love clothes and clothes shopping, and the only thing that stops my wardrobe from overflowing to disgusting levels is me shuddering at the occasional fashion disaster that hits this season and lack of money. Mostly it's lack of money. This was stuff that'd silted up at bottoms of draws and at the far ends of wardrobes and I was convinced I'd wear someday, or had a nostalgia thing going for it. I still can't believe how much I threw out. Some due to change in size, some due to taste change - I no longer wear baggy t-shirts under most circumstances - though there's a lot I keep under the label of 'possible costuming'. What went out has been replaced by other things. Clothes pretty and seductive.

Wonder how much else I could throw out...