Battling the tendency to hoard

I have this tendency to hang on to things, thinking I might need them some day. I do pretty good with resisting this tendency to hoard in regard to physical things, but other things? Not so much.

By other things, I mean things like bank accounts and domain names. I always think, “Well, but what if I need them some day?” and so I leave them be, even though I'm not using them. When I wrote about finding balance, I vowed to make some changes in this area.

I started by calling up my credit union and closing my checking account there. I hadn't used it in hm, over a year, and didn't see any reason why I would use it in the future. I felt good after making the call, and I told my husband what I'd done.

He wondered why I'd left the savings account there open. I thought about it, and realized that it was the old “but what if I need it?” excuse. “Well,” I thought, “What if I DO need it?” I could open another one, among other things. This is not a permanent choice. So I called them back up and closed my account entirely — an account that I'd had for over twenty years. I felt even better after that.

Coincidentally, I got the quarterly statement from the credit union in the mail that day. I was so happy, knowing that I'd only get one more statement from them and then that would be IT. One less envelope to open. One less account to reconcile. One less paper to file. Five more minutes in my life every quarter. I felt good. Remembering that good feeling will give me the help I need to continue battling the tendency to hoard.