Feature: Simple Saturdays

Simplify.

It's a word that keeps coming to my mind as we try to settle into our house. There's stuff everywhere, we have no system, and we spend so much time trying to catch up with the big stuff (or pondering how to get the big stuff done) that we have no time to enjoy the little stuff. At this point, it feels like we're spinning around in a circle and getting nowhere fast.

Solution:

This feature will be my motivation to make progress, to share that progress with you, and hopefully give you insight on how to simplify your lifestyle as well.

Lets start with the mountains of possessions I own.

I am prone to become sentimentally attached to, well, everything, but I recently read that having a cluttered house causes more stress with being crowded and uses more energy because you have to find everything amongst the mess. That piece of paper that I need? Oh, it's in that stack with ALL of the other pieces of paper that I need...eventually. So I have to dig through, make a bigger mess, and start stressing even more because I can't find it and I need it at that very moment. Comes to find out, it's in the other stack of papers that I need.

True story.

My current battle is clothes because, you see, I'm 4'9" and the only way I have grown in the past 10 years was when I was pregnant and my belly grew out. So between not having to get rid of any clothes since I didn't grow out of them, getting hand-me-downs from people who did grow, and then finding the random clothes that I had to have...I've accumulated a enough clothes to equate to Mt Kilimanjaro.

Well, not quite. But almost.

Here's a glimpse into my clutter:

Here's Gage's nursery...Needless to say, he doesn't sleep in here yet.
Most of the clothes left in there now are his and they clothes that had been given to him! (So thankful)

Part of our living room, which has become our laundry room and storage room.

It takes a lot for me to tell myself "I don't need this" because everything I have has a story. A significant event happened while I was wearing the outfit. Like the day Matthew came to pick me up to hang out for the first time in a very long time I was
wearing my jeans with a hole in the knee, my long sleeved turquoise sweater, and my mom's silver scarf. That was the day that mine and Matthew's story really started because he realized then that he liked me as more than a friend. I, on the other hand, did NOT like him like that! And look at us now: married and just had our first little boy. Yeah, I didn't like him at all. ;)

Though there will be some clothes that I will not ever get rid of, I can't be so attached to every article of clothing that I have. Or so attached to anything in this world, for that matter.

In a devotional I read it said, "First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence."* Those words stopped me cold and a whole new perspective of life was brought to my attention. I am still working on wearing those the eyes to see through all of the time, but I have grasped the concept well when it comes to worldly materials.

I need to simplify my possessions so that I can put more focus on Christ and what I need to do for Him. This life is for Him, not me.

As we were moving in and unpacking things I went ahead and filtered out everything I absolutely knew I didn't want; like the stuff that I hadn't used or worn in 6 months...or 5 years.

  For daily life and simple sorting:

 

 Create a "get rid of" stash for when you spot that picture frame that you'll never use or try on those jeans that aren't even comfortable. I plan to always keep a yard sale or Goodwill container so that as soon as we know that we don't need something, we toss it! Not let build up like it has now!

What are some ways that you stopped clutter from getting the best of you?

*The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren