The word "away" in your actual post changes everything. :-)
There was a moment earlier when the site caught my eye as
What's the point of sex
Throwing things
flashed by, which was a nice way to start the morning.
By way of actually responding to your post, I think it depends on the object. For instance, for me it's difficult to get rid of books now because I know they will mostly be destroyed, and because I really love books -- the way they feel in my hand, fall open to the passage I worried about during my last reading light-years ago. And what's more ten years ago lots of people bought old books, now they don't anymore. But old clothes I can still convince myself other people will wear, if they're in good condition. And ultimately, sentimentally, I care less about clothes.
You might also try to find a way to memorialize what's special to you about the object and see if that separates the meaning from the object itself. I have endless diary entries which begin with some variation of "...sitting in the bay window looking out over the lake, feeling the rough red wool of the sweater and the cool blue ceramic of that mug from Y..."
after which the mug and sweater take their place in the theater of memory and are able to move out of my life if they are broken or torn without loss of nobility, or too many regrets
& in some ways words are much more portable
I was pleased to see an interview in the NYT today with the designer of MoMA's PS1, who is considering throwing out his couch (bought by a friend of his).
'Since it is more story than object, he said, “the story allows you to
throw it out because you are not throwing out an object but ending a
story.” '
