Decluttering without guilt

There is a lot to learn from the act of decluttering. For me it has become almost like stoicism. The indifference to the pain that comes with the territory when I put things into donate or throw away pile feels quite accomplishing. The value that I used to attach to things that I owned was significantly overestimated. For some of those things now I won’t even pay a dime.. Just because I owned them, I overvalued them and departing from them was painful. Same happened with the things that people gave me. The love and respect that came from friendship was touching. However,  the materialistic give and take  involved in this phenomena was overwhelming. Can you imagine someone just barging in and filling up my closet space from the things that I don’t need? And then , in return, I am doing the same to their closet space. A wind chime that doesn’t fit well with Decor, some random candle holder and a painting that doesn’t bring joy- everything just living in my house with no purpose. Basically , all the stuff with no meaning but given by meaningful people. Really giving those possessions away was not easy either. And to top it all, I had immensely struggled to say  “ no”. “ No” used to feel mean and dismissive .
However, this is what decluttering has taught me about life in general:
When I declare my values to myself and then to others , people don’t take offense. Honestly, most people don’t even care.
Now, this is an undeniable fact that some friends and relatives who have different beliefs  may feel bad. But here is a good news. I cannot make everyone happy.  Once I draw a line- once I  explicitly state my values -respectfully- my role is done. It’s not in my hand to change someone else’s feelings. Now this is especially liberating..
 Now a days, I already tell visiting friends not to bring any gifts as I am practicing minimalism. I fly through social situations like a breeze with no burden of others judgements. Living life with my own vision is satisfying. At the age of 40 , I deserve at least that much respect- from myself.
Praj101