Decluttering Day: Pepper, Pain & Personal Growth 😭

Peppers on a wooden board

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I imagined decluttering as a calm, organised process: light music, labelled boxes, emotional clarity. Instead, I discovered that letting go requires honesty, courage… and, apparently, a strong defence strategy for frozen pepper.

The children came home with confidence and bin bags, ready to “help.” For the first few minutes, I was calm — until they reached the freezer and pulled out my red pepper. Suddenly, every Nigerian recipe I’ve ever loved came back to me, and I found myself defending frozen food with the passion of a courtroom lawyer.

They saw something past its best. I saw culture, memory, and comfort — the taste of home.

Decluttering forced me to see that the things we keep often hold meaning beyond their appearance. It’s not the pepper we’re holding onto — it’s the feeling it gives us, the memory it carries, the identity it protects.

That day taught me a kinder truth:

We don’t let go when someone tells us to —we let go when we’re ready to honour what the item once meant.

Now I’m learning decluttering with more compassion — and less shouting. Well… mostly less shouting.

Reflection: What’s one thing you keep for reasons that only make sense to you — and are those reasons still true today?