/g/ - girl talk

How do I stop humanizing objects? I'm not at hoarder levels because I've never wanted a lot in my life, so I couldn't accumulate much, but I feel like mentally I'm definitely there already lol. I still have my old laptop from fourteen years ago that's been broken for about nine of those fourteen years sitting somewhere in my closet because I feel so sentimental about it being my first for example and I feel sleazy for looking for computer parts on my current nine-year old one because it's like I'm cheating or something lmao. That's the halfway normal part, but the fact that I'm legitimately tearing up at the thought of rejecting literal objects makes me feel kinda unhinged. I try to work with this unhingedness by humanizing even more intensely and telling myself, well, it's good to finally put it to rest after having it worked to the bone for almost a decade, or telling myself that plush toy that I haven't looked at even with my butt for the past fifteen years will be happier cuddling with someone who appreciates it the way it deserves but I still feel so bad. I think that's why I've also always hated getting presents, too. Just more stuff to feel responsible(?) for lol. Should I just binge-read Marie Kondo? For what it's worth, I've never had this problem with food, and also never with digital media like save games I've sat for years on; I can chuck those no problem, even though I would have expected it to be just as bad there because of sunk cost fallacy or whatever. I think I feel this way mostly with things I got from others (first laptop was a birthday present from my parents, same with current computer, all my plushies were gifts from family members or friends, clothes are mostly hand-me-downs etc), I feel way less attached to stuff I bought or made (drew, wrote) myself (though that's not always a guarantee, either). Sorry for drifting off into some kinda jumpy diary entry through the middle of this post, I think this is my attempt to work through this lmao But please, if you feel like you recognize yourself in this rambling, feel free to comment on.

>>588554
how about going through your stuff with a good friend or sibling or whatever and get rid of things you just don't need anymore? The second person would be your voice of reason. Maybe you just need to go through the process of throwing out junk so you can experience that it doesn't negatively affect you in any way and that you feel better and lighter afterwards and that you forget about the stuff you threw out pretty soon.. Exposure therapy basically. You can take pictures of stuff and store them on a hard drive if that helps.

I used to be the same when I was younger, like holding onto stacks and stacks of birthday cards and christmas cards even though I never looked at them. When I first started throwing that kind of sentimental junk out when I was moving for the first time and just couldn't keep a lot of it, I realized how much I just don't care about it now that it's gone.

For some of that stuff it might help if you ask the person you got it from about it, like I'm sure if you told your parents you still have their laptop from 14 years ago they'd be like "huh you still have that old broken thing? get it recycled already" and then you wouldn't feel as bad about getting rid of it. Old clothes too.