Since 2020 hasn’t exactly been eventful enough, my fiancé and I have bought our first home and are currently preparing to move.

The week before Christmas. You know, because we don’t have anything better to do.  

It’s stressful, but it’s also oddly indicative of all the vibes this year has brought: We don’t know whether we’re coming or going, and I can assure you my bottle of tequila will be the last thing I pack up.

But in my attempts to not allow the move to consume me as the banal, anxiety-inducing chore that it is, I’ve decided to use it as a much-needed opportunity to organize.

And purge.

I’m sure you’ve had the experience of seeing your life through material objects – clothes worn during distant memories, mementos collected on long-lost trips. But as I’ve made my way through drawers and closets, unearthing items saved for potential practicality, sentimentality, or a combination of both, I’ve found myself assessing many of the things with the same conclusion:

This is not worth carrying on.

This is the beauty of starting a new chapter, and a gift that is presented to all of us even without a pending, physical move. Because as the pandemic leaves us forever changed, it is time to start anew.

So, I’m curious: What are you holding onto that isn’t worth its weight anymore?  

It’s the stuff taking up space in the closets, yes, but moreover, it’s the habits, self-talk, relationships, obligations and expectations that no longer serve you that need to be purged. It doesn’t matter if they once made you feel like a million bucks – like that pair of jeans I’ve been carting around for over a decade but haven’t worn.

The question is, do they now?

There’s a great human tendency to retain what we’ve known under the belief that those things are a prerequisite for embracing our current selves. But doing so writes our future with the pencil of our past, never really opening up the story for anything new.  

I mean, haven’t your needs changed? Your preferences? Your taste in shoes? My hope is that you can say yes, because that, my friends, is indicative of growth. 

So in order to write a new chapter – one that is truly the next step in our story and not just a turn of the page – we must be willing to leave some things behind.

Pack them up.

Give them to someone who can use them.

Or for God’s sake, throw them out without looking back.

The time has come to do an inventory of your life. And to determine what is worth carrying on.