Stuff

I often think about simplification. How will simplifying my life make it easier to fulfill my mission? What can I do to clear the way to doing what God wants me to do?

I am someone who relaxes when the house is clean and tidy. I stress when the kitchen is a mess and the house is cluttered. The status of my home really does affect my ability to maintain a calm outlook. Every so often, I try to reduce the clutter as it seems to pile up while I'm sleeping!

This article was really interesting. This paragraph in particular caught my attention:

Consider these statistics cited by professional organizer Regina Lark: The average U.S. household has 300,000 things, from paper clips to ironing boards. U.S. children make up 3.7% of children on the planet but have 47% of all toys and children's books.

300,000 things? Really? Do we need so much stuff? Do we buy bigger houses just to store the stuff? Why is it that I still have stuff in my spare bedroom, just sitting in a pile, that I brought with me from Arizona? If it's been sitting there for a year and a half, do I really need it? What am I going to do with the stuff when we decorate my daughter's room? It either needs to find a place in my home or it needs to go.

Here's a rather blunt way of looking at it. When I die, someone is going to have to sort through my stuff. Do I really want to leave my husband or my children such a big burden? And if Jesus returns before I die and cleanses the earth with fire, it's all going to burn. So I should loosen my hold on my stuff. I won't be taking it with me to heaven before or after I die.

Blunt, yes. But necessary. There's no point in cleaning around a bunch of stuff if I don't really use it. I need to just let it go!