Thoughts on clearing the clutter

I'm having a pretty easy time getting rid of some sorts of things:

- food that no one in this house is going to eat. My husband's daughter, who no longer lives with us, bought things like sprinkles for cakes, and Kraft Mac and Cheese. My husband and I don't eat that crap, and my stepson, who does, isn't going to cook it. So the quarter bottle of sprinkles are going into the compost pile, and the box of mac and cheese is going to a food pantry. It's almost Christmas season, and there will soon be a barrel at the library. It will feel good to feed it -- and perhaps a family. (Yes, it's crap by my standards, but lots of other people like it and eat it, and who am I to judge?)

- Clothes I don't like and don't wear.

But I'm finding some other things are hard to let go of, mostly books and magazines. I seem to think that information is precious, and that the Internet won't be around forever. I mean, why clip recipes from magazines if the internet is going to be around? It's silly -- I can just get on BH&G.com or sunset.com and the recipes will be there -- but I want to keep them anyway. For now, I'm clipping the recipes and the decorating and gardening photos I like, with the idea that I'm going to file them. Maybe I can figure out how to deal with that. At least I'm getting rid of 90% of each magazine, recycling it.

I also see that hanging onto things really reflects a belief in scarcity. Why hold on to something you're not using if you can always get another? Especially if someone else could use it today?