Homeschool Australia Teach Your Children at Home

Letting Go of Possessions - Part of the Decluttering Process

I wish I had the guts to let go of the need to keep everything so pristine perfect when I was younger and began enjoying a lot of my precious stored stuff so much earlier...

I remember one set of special glasses etched with roses that I kept for 20 years under wraps and finally decided to use when I figured the kids were old enough not to break them. It wasn't the kids I should have worried about but the stupidity of making glasses so thin in the first place! I think all six were broken while being dried... too much pressure with the tea towel!

The day I began to feel liberated from the need to be over-protective towards objects was when I broke a lovely piece of jewellery I had bought a year before. A cut quartz crystal with golden rutile crystals crisscrossing the prism, it reminded me of my daughter's hair and of my childhood excursions looking for similar rocks with my family. I dropped it on the bathroom tiles and smashed a corner of the prism. "Oh well" I said, totally suprised that I didn't feel unbelievably guilty and ashamed at my clumsiness, as I was accustomed to feeling... I picked it up, had a little dance around the room as I didn't feel wretched and realised I'd turned a corner in life - at last!

It's taken me another dozen years to feel comfortable with damaging, breaking, scratching, using, wearing and tearing the rest of my possessions!

Life is too short not to celebrate by having those things that bring us joy, if even for a moment, every day.

A friend recently commented on the joy of bringing out of storage much loved items - like photographs or gifts - and how all too often when left in constant view the magic of these items disappears into the background and eventually we fail to notice them. Storing can bring back that special feeling we first experienced with the item. This is true, too. From a homeschooling perspective I found it extremely useful to 'rotate' toys, books and learning materials, even art and craft materials. When the stored items are brought out on display they usually sparked a great deal of creativity and imaginative play. There is something powerful about 'novelty'; that awakening of the senses to experience with freshness old treasures!

Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network. Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home. In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications. If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Homeschool AustraliaFacebook page.