Real life friend cull

I saw this fantastic quote on a friend's Instagram feed today and thought, well said!

I love a good Facebook cull. When I creep over 200 people, I start cutting. Good-bye people I met in hostels or had drunken nights with. Good-bye people from school who we only added each other to spy on each other. Good-bye people I've fallen out with.

Every now and then I'm even surprised when people cull me. Good riddance.

But it's harder to unfriend people in real life. There's no button to click or way to block people that suck all the time and energy out of you, without giving anything back.

I have a running joke with some friends about tiering friends. These friends are clearly Tier 1, the inner sanctum. 

Then there are the friends you catch up with every month or so, but it's like you never had time apart. They are Tier 2.

Then there are the rent-a-crowd, friends of friends, the work friends that haven't made higher tiering, the people you have tentative common ground with, the people you've really tried to be friends with but find it a chore and those that have fallen from grace with their toxic ways. They are Tier 3.

Then there is everyone else.

I realised I spent a lot of time with Tier 2 and 3 people. Not the worthwhile people. 

I couldn't defriend them, because of the guilt mentioned in that quote. So I did a test. I stopped trying. And one by one the peripheral people fell away. They didn't try or seem upset by the lack of contact, and never was I. 

I felt lighter and freer. I actually had free time.  could focus on what was important, the people that tried and gave my life something back.

Now to cull some more aspects from my life. Like that chocolate addiction...

If you could cull someone or something, would you and how?