If you ever want to really clean/pack your room I recommend getting some trusted friends to help. Not only does it get done much much faster, but having people who aren’t emotionally invested in your stuff means that you will finally chuck out that really scrappy toy you’ve had lying around in your room for 13 years.

For me the experience was quite surreal. I basically stood in the middle of the room with Sophie, James and Glenda going through all my stuff, catching anything they tried to throw out that I thought I should keep, or that could be sold in a garage sale.

During the whole thing there were two strong emotions I felt. Firstly I was worried that in their enthusiasm to get my stuff sorted they’d chuck something that I wanted to keep.

The second emotion is a little harder to describe. It was the same emotion I felt when my entire CD collection got stolen from a car in Canberra. Now I think about it, it was probably shock - which I think is a strange feeling to have about stuff. For some reason there seems to be a small emotional attachment to a lot of the stuff I have - usually because each item reminds me of an experience I had. So throwing it out feels like you’re throwing out that memory.

In the end I think its probably an unhealthy way to view material possessions. Getting rid of junk is a good way of letting go of the past and making more room for the future - especially considering that after death our future will contain none of our earthly possessions.