Does It Bring Joy?

Maybe it’s the tiny house movement. Maybe it’s having seen "Minimalism: A Documentary about the Important Things." Maybe it’s being privy to friends’ decisions about what to do with their recently departed parents' things. Maybe it’s having read articles about how millennials don’t want their baby boomer parents’ stuff. Maybe it’s seeing the hurricanes carry away people’s belongings and believing someone else can benefit from things I don’t want. Whatever the reason, I have been engaged in an exercise of moving out without moving out. Going through everything and making decisions about whether they stay or whether they go.

And in the final analysis, as with a lot in life, whether the object stays or goes comes down to: Does it bring me joy?

There are a number of items that bring joy due to their purely utilitarian nature: wool socks, a coffee maker, pens, paper, dishes, pots and pans, etc.

Interestingly, in virtually every room of my house, an item belonging to either my grandfather or my great aunt greets me. In my living room, my cowboy-esque six-year-old brother fiercely rides the mission style rocking chair backwards, disregarding my grandfather’s half-hearted admonition “Johnny, you oughtin' be doin' that.” In the mornings, I walk by my great aunt’s first husband’s army chest. Mac--he was the love of her life, until he died at a young age from a heart attack. The same vanity that has kept me company since I was ten watches now as I apply my makeup - as it watched my grandmother before me. And yes, they bring me joy.

But then there are those items I hardly recognize. Items I hurriedly purchased mid-divorce because lamps were needed. A picture moved from there to there and then here for no reason other than a picture was needed to hang and at one point I liked it and so now there it hangs. But I’ve outgrown it. It no longer brings joy. It no longer has meaning. And so in the “to go” pile it sits.

Clearing out the old, making room for the new - or just making room - has actually been pretty fascinating, weird as that may seem. I’ve learned a lot about who I currently am and it’s placed me on the philosophical path of whether I’m spending my time joyfully. If I make this time commitment will it bring me joy? What needs to stay, what needs to go?

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.