But I Spent Money on That

Thought Shift Thursday -  Episode 49

Hello, and welcome to Thought Shift Thursday, episode 49.

All week we've been talking about decluttering, and today I want to talk about one thought that can make letting go of our things a little bit harder than it should be.

And I know I've definitely had that thought before.

But I spent money on that.

Maybe you bought something and spent $20 on it. Maybe it was 100. Maybe it was a lot more than that.

And now you really don't use it anymore, or maybe it's taking up too much space.

But every time you think about getting rid of it, there's that thought again.

"I spent all that money on this. If I get rid of it now, I wasted my money."

But what if we looked at that a little bit differently?

The Money Has Already Been Spent

Because the first thing I've had to remind myself is that the money has already been spent.

Keeping the item isn't going to make that money magically come back, and that doesn't necessarily mean the money was wasted either.

Maybe you used that item for years.

Maybe it worked really well for the season of life you were in.

Maybe you enjoyed it.

Maybe it helped you do something you needed to do.

It served its purpose, and maybe now it doesn't serve the same purpose anymore.

That doesn't take away the value it had when you needed it.

Our lives change.

What we need changes.

Something can have been valuable to you then and no longer be valuable to you now.

When You Bought It but Never Used It

But then there's another situation that I think a lot of us can probably relate to.

Sometimes we buy something because we're really excited about it.

And then we never actually use it.

Maybe you saw something and thought, "Oh my goodness, I'm definitely going to use this."

Maybe you were excited about a new hobby.

Maybe you had this whole idea of what you were going to do with it, and then life happened.

The interest changed, you forgot about it, or maybe you realized it just didn't work for you the way you thought it would, and that's okay too.

Maybe buying it gave you joy in that moment.

You learned something about yourself.

Maybe now you know a little bit more about what actually works for you and what doesn't.

Keeping the items isn't going to make the money magically come back.

But that doesn't mean the item has to sit in your home forever either.

The Value Can Continue Somewhere Else

Maybe somebody else can use it now.

You could sell it.

You're most likely not going to get back everything that you paid for it originally.

But maybe you can get some of your money back.

And if you did use it, you already gotten some value from it to begin with.

Or maybe you donate it and help somebody else out with it.

Something that's just been sitting in your house could be exactly what somebody else needs.

And if it's no longer usable, maybe it's simply time to let it go.

So there are different ways to think about the value of something besides, "I paid for it, so I need to keep it," because keeping something doesn't make the original purchase more valuable, and letting something go doesn't erase whatever value or joy it gave you before.

What Does It Cost to Keep It?

But that's only one part of this thought shift, because there's another side that I don't think we always consider.

We think about what something cost us when we bought it.

But how often do we think about what it might cost us to keep it?

In yesterday's episode, I talked about how everything we own requires something from us.

It needs a home, it might need to be cleaned, moved, organized, maintained, or simply remembered.

So there's already a certain amount of time and energy that comes with keeping our things.

But sometimes the cost is actual money.

Think about storage units.

Now, there are plenty of reasons somebody might need a storage unit, but there are also people paying every single month to store things they don't actually use because they don't have enough room for those things in their home, month after month, and sometimes year after year.

So think about that for a second.

We might look at something and say, "I can't get rid of it. I spent too much money on it."

But then we may actually spend more money just to keep it.

That's a completely different way of looking at it.

Keeping Something Still Has a Cost

And you don't have to pay for a storage unit for keeping something to have a cost.

Maybe it's taking up space in your home.

Maybe you have to clean it.

Maybe you keep moving it around.

Maybe you're constantly trying to organize it.

Maybe you have to remember where you put it.

Or maybe you have to move it out of the way every time you need to get to something you actually use.

Maybe you even organize the same thing over and over and over again because it still doesn't really have a home.

All of that asks something from us, your time, your space, your energy, your attention.

So yes, you might have spent money on it, but keeping something doesn't mean it doesn't cost you anything just because you've already paid for it.

And I think that's the part we can easily miss.

We remember the price tag for when we bought it, but we don't always notice the price we're still paying to keep it.

And that's where the thought started to change for me.

Instead of only thinking, "How much did I spend on this?"

I can also think, "What is this costing me to keep?"

It Can Still Be Worth Keeping

And I want to be really clear about something.

That doesn't mean the answer is automatically to get rid of it.

Maybe you look at something and think, "Yep, it takes up space, I have to maintain it, and it's absolutely worth it to me."

Great. Keep it.

Because it isn't about trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible.

It's about looking at the whole picture.

What does this item give me?

And what does it ask from me?

Maybe you love it, maybe you use it all the time, maybe it has meaning to you.

Maybe having it in your life is absolutely worth the space and energy it takes to keep it.

And that's really what this thought shift is all about.

Something can have been worth buying then and still be worth letting go now.

Something you never used doesn't have to stay in your home just because you bought it, and something can absolutely still be worth keeping.

You get to decide.

Your Reflection

So here's what I want to leave you with today.

Is there something you've been holding on to because you remember how much money you spent on it?

You don't have to get rid of it.

You don't even have to make a decision about it today.

Just notice what comes up when you shift the question from:

"How much did this cost me?"

to:

"What is this costing me to keep?"

Maybe it's money, maybe it's space, maybe it's time, maybe it's energy.

Or maybe you realize that what the item gives you is absolutely worth what it requires from you.

There isn't one right answer.

You're simply giving yourself another way to think about what deserves space in your life today.

Until Next Time

Thank you for spending a little bit of your day with me.

Until next time. I will see you for Faith Friday.

Until then, I hope today's episode helped you create a little more clarity, feel a little more calm, and have a little more confidence.  💜💚