The Doctor is in, more good advice from Dr. Linda Edelstein. Read this BEFORE you begin your holiday shopping!

I’ve been invited back to my favorite blog to talk about simplifying your life. The timing for this topic is perfect. We are entering a month long spree that ought to be named, “Adding Excess to My Life, to My Hips and to My Credit Card Balance”. The binge begins this week and continues through the remainder of 2009. You don’t even have to know how to read (you can just look at the pictures) to be swept up in the frenzy of consumption. You are being begged to go on a bender strangely titled “Black Friday” (an inexplicable name for the busiest shopping day of the USA year). Buy, Buy, Buy.

I am here to make the opposing argument. I expect to be contacted by Homeland Security for being unAmerican. My response to exhortations of Buy, Buy, Buy is DECLUTTER (which I write only once to avoid cluttering the page). Instead of getting your pleasure from dragging home bags of must-have items, try finding joy in unloading the stuff you already own.

You have too many things that you don’t need, that no longer fit (either physically or emotionally), and that remain in your possession (in your head or in your home) only because you are afraid to get rid of them. Before you can begin to DECLUTTER let’s take a moment to examine

The 2 Main Reasons That Prevent DECLUTTERING.

1. You believe that you will need these things. You worry that one day you will wake up filled with desire for the Winter, 2004 issue of your Alumni magazine. Or, you will get dressed and realize that life is incomplete without the sweater you bought several bra sizes ago. You will not need these things. You will forget them. You will have a happy, healthy life without them. Your 6th pair of jeans (darker than some, lighter than others) can find a new home. The one sweet letter that your former lover sent you before you found out that he was cheating isn’t really a keeper either. And, there are jean stores and other lovers to explore.

2. You believe that these things have meaning. In psychology, we are big on meaning. It is my business to appreciate, to make and to understand meaning so, if I say, don’t overdo meaning, trust me. Sure, your grandmother’s necklace has meaning but, does the soap that you took from the Marriott? Does the single leopard print sock? Does the tee shirt from college? Do these things have significance? Probably not, and even if they do, isn’t it time to make room for new meanings?

Be brave, get rid of stuff. Declutter. Make room. Create some space. Allow something new to enter your life.

to read more from Dr. Edelstein click here