Letting Go of Labels

For the past few days I've been sharing about my #40bagsin40days challenge. Yesterday was Sunday, so I took a rest day. Yes, you can do that. Instead of looking for something to declutter I crocheted an adorable baby blanket with matching hat to donate to a special project and watched some Stargate SG-1. Crocheting and sci-fi, the next best thing to a Sunday afternoon nap!

So pretty!

Today I spent a very long day at work. One might say I was decluttering my to-do list, but that's only exciting to me, so I won't go into detail.  

When I got home I still felt like I needed to tackle a decluttering project. So I decided to work on my purse/tote bag collection. 

Bear with me here, this one has a bit of a backstory... I love bags and purses of all kinds. I am fairly hard on them, and I don't have a whole lot of money to spend so I take whatever is given to me or whatever I stumble upon at a really great price (translation, thrift stores and clearance). About a year and a half ago I started making my own purses because I wasn't happy with the quality or size or look of the purses in the price range I was willing to pay. So in addition to my cute, but sometimes impractical, finds I had all sorts of purses I created, sometimes out of need and sometimes out of boredom.  

I've always thought this one was adorable, but it's way too small for my busy life.

My oldest daughter designed this one.  She's so talented!

As you can imagine, I've amassed quite a collection which was housed in a rather large tote in the bottom of my closet.  The tote was overflowing with bags I didn't use or hadn't used in quite a while.

I recently received a Miche purse and a couple shells from my sister-friend, Kellie. [Sister-friend, noun, a girlfriend who is so much a part of your life that she may as well be your sister.] Since then I have added a shell and hosted a party so I can get an all-purpose laptop/carry-all-my-crud-at-conferences bag. I began to realize that if I am going to own, and continue to buy accessories for, such well-made and versatile pieces, I have no reason to keep my ever-growing pile of purses, tote bags, and such.

As I dug through the rather large, overflowing bin in the bottom of my closet, I came across this beauty.

That's right!  A very expensive Burberry of London purse.  This purse was so perfect.  It was a great size and design for the stuff I carry around.  I felt spoiled and special when I carried it, although I didn't pay a dime for it.  (My neighbor got it and had never used it, so she passed it on to me with a bunch of other stuff she was cleaning out of her basement. Seriously, I don't make this stuff up.) This was my favorite purse of all time, until the strap broke, 5 years ago. 

I've kept it in that bin, in the bottom of the closet all this time.  Every time I'd see it peeking out or come across it when rummaging through, I'd think to myself "I can't get rid of that purse. I love that purse.  One of these days I'll take it to a leather shop and get new handles made for it. Besides, it's a Burberry, I can't just toss a Burberry!"

So for 5 years that treasure has been tucked away, protected from dust by all the other treasures tossed in that bin.  Any other purse would have been yard sale fodder by this time, but this one was different.  This one cost someone a lot of money at one time.  

It was totally unusable, but I couldn't seem to let it go. It was valuable because of it's label.

Oh, the power of labels!  Whether something is worthless or valuable.  Whether something deserves our time and attention or doesn't.  Someone chose to put a label on a item sewn together with thread.  That label automatically attached a price tag to the item.  The price tag made the item valuable, even though it was functionally worthless.

We do that with people.  We judge them by their labels.  We decide whether or not they are worthless or valuable. Whether they deserve our time and attention.  

The Burberry purse had a fancy label, yet was worthless.  The purse my daughter designed had no fancy label, yet means the world to me.  

Today's declutter yielded two bags full of purses, and a very important life lesson.

Today, I am letting go of labels. Value should not be determined by labels, but by the true value of and item, or a person. People are so much more.  What do you think?