One psychological trick to unblock a blocked brain is getting rid of old stuff you don’t use any more and that has been cluttering your space.
I have now decided to accept the painful truth that I’m never going to fit into the clothes I used to wear 5 years ago and get rid of them. Actually, I will get rid of anything I haven’t worn in a year. I’m having a panic attack just imagining it but I will do it anyway. It feels kind of defeatist to do this (what am I, just accepting that I will never be size 10 again??) but I realize that this is just stupid.
After that, I will recycle all papers I haven’t consulted in over 3 years. I still have my notes from my undergrad courses that I’ve been lugging around since 2001. I always felt that I might use them one day until I finally leafed through them and realized that I now know so much more than what the notes contain that keeping them has become ridiculous.
Then I will clean up my computer.
Clarissa's Blog 
We have a closet full of boxes that we haven’t opened in a year. When we move, I might just pitch them. I figure if I haven’t opened them in a year, then the things inside can’t be all that important, right? (I do have a lot of files/notes from grad school in there, but with the way I teach, I’m guessing I’ll never consult them and just make new notes every time.)
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I have a box that has moved twice with me without ever being unpacked. 🙂 The things inside seem kind of useful but, still, I never use them.
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My way of convincing myself that I can get rid of things I hold onto “just in case” is reminding myself that I live in a place with widespread access to consumer goods (especially online) and have a good salary. So if I ever need them again, they will be available and I will have the means to purchase them. So in your case, if you are size 10 again, you can get all kinds of exciting new clothes! If things have sentimental value but I don’t use them, I just started the technique of taking a picture and then tossing the item. The picture brings back the memories, and so it was easy to get rid of lots of stuff I’d been carting across moves.
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“So in your case, if you are size 10 again, you can get all kinds of exciting new clothes! ”
– Exactly!
” If things have sentimental value but I don’t use them, I just started the technique of taking a picture and then tossing the item.”
– OK, this is absolutely brilliant. I’m SO starting this practice. Thank you!!!
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Gah. I’m in the process of moving. I really, really need to do this.
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I am skeptical about this, to say the least. A week ago, I just found some information I needed in an unpublished Ph. D. dissertation of a friend from the 1960s. If I had thrown it out, it would have been a major headache to find the information, and I would not have known whom to credit it to. I have learned from hard experience never to throw out papers.
(I finally figured out that I should copy and paste an email address from my email page and erase everything but the @ symbol. Another commenter suggested that I use an alt code, but I have never been able to get them to work, for some reason.)
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I do keep a lot of papers and notes. I actually like to get rid of books and clothes, though, so that I can see what I have — if not, it is blocking.
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