In his book, How Big Is Your God?, Fr. Paul Coutinho, formerly of the Society of Jesus, recounts a lesson he learned in detachment:

When I joined the Jesuits, I brought with me a blazer that I had received on Prize Distribution Day in high school… The blazer was a prize for excellence in sports… I brought it with me so that, if I had the chance, I could show it to people.

Early in the novitiate... the novice director… said, “What are you attached to?”  When I said, “My blazer,” he told me to go get it.  So I went… and brought it to my novice director . . . and I was happy that my attachment was gone.  Wrong!  [Later], I went to my novice director and said, “May I have that blazer back?”   Unfortunately, he said… it was my attachment, so he gave it away.

For many years, I fretted about that blazer… Why? Probably because, like those poor sheep whose wool went into my blazer, I did not have any fun experiences with it.  Bombay is so hot that you don’t really need a woolen blazer, so I really never used it… I never enjoyed it, and so when it was taken away, I missed it.  I really missed it.

If you give away something that you’re attached to but you haven’t enjoyed it, it will haunt you for the rest of your life.

We are enslaved by people, places and things that we do not fully enjoy.  How do we free ourselves?  By enjoying them… The way to get rid of material things is by enjoying them, being grateful for them, and then giving them away: good-bye, gone.