Hello, tender friends!
While I’ve posted about decluttering before, I’m going much deeper now and starting to feel a spiritual shift.
I know, I know, I was skeptical about Marie Kondo’s idea that tidying up could be “life-changing.” But after a few rounds of decluttering, my mood was elevated. Now I’m taking it farther than I ever have.
His sad face was just for show.
This little guy is thrilled to be donating books and toys this week. The more stuff that he saw me put in bags, the happier he was to do the same. Teach them the way they should go…
I feel increasingly unfettered as I appoach baseline in the next month. This is the carload I dropped off last week, with another one on the way.
These are the lessons I’ve learned the past two weeks of intense (5 hrs a day) decluttering:
1) God really will keep you motivated if you pray consistently about it. While I’ve loved decluttering over the course of the past year and written about it before, I tend to lose steam and get distracted after a few weeks. This time, I’m praying for motivation to continue every night, and it’s making a difference.
2) There’s really no point in holding on to things that you’re not going to immediately use unless you have saved them for a specific purpose (like baby clothes for your next child).
3) I’m holding on to things that could bless others without meaning to. This has been my greatest motivator for continuing.
I discovered two coats in storage, carefully dry cleaned and wrapped up in plastic just prior to moving. In my postpartum haze, I completely forgot that I owned them. When I pulled them out of storage and tried them on, Anthony said, “Those are really nice coats. Why don’t you keep those and just wear them?”
“Because if I forgot that I owned them and haven’t used them for the past 4 years, I obviously don’t need them.”
It slays me because I have seen so many coat drives where we live, and I know from doing nonprofit work that a winter coat can be a big expense for a family in need. I’m ashamed to realize that I had two perfectly good coats sitting unused in storage. Off to Salvation Army they go!
One of my blog friends on here (shout out to you Marla, if you end up reading this!) said that she feels closer to God as she declutters her own house. I have to say that I’m starting to feel that too. And I repent of the blessings that I inadvertently hoarded.
Okay, that’s all for today! I know that wasn’t the promised post, but I will share my speech on Thursday. It’s on my Google drive and I don’t have time to sit at a desktop today because I’m getting back to decluttering now!
Thank you for stopping by, and have a great day!
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