I am so happy that spring is finally here! The longer days, the birds singing, new life budding their heads in the garden, the fresh air----oh, what is there NOT to love about spring?
I have been getting around to spring cleaning, running around the house like a mad woman with trash bags and asking myself one key question:
"Do I want to take care of this for the next 10 years?"
Ha! That got things going pretty quickly! Let me just say I threw away bags and bags of things that I no longer had interest in or wanted to take care of. I remember as a young wife I was busy trying to do the opposite-- to collect items for our home and to fill it.... or even being sentimental about certain items that I though I could not part with,--but now I am more than willing to give/throw them away today! Why? Because in order to live a more simpler life that is rich with true living I can't confine myself to caring for a lot of material possessions which actually take away from the real living that I desire to do!
I think having alot of things can imprison a person to some degree. American's have so much, we really need to teach our children the value of having little and getting with much less. I remember hearing of a missionary family that would feed their children on occasion a meal of plain potatoes to teach them how to survive on a simple meal if they ever became missionaries and eating on leaves instead of plates. They knew if they became missionaries they would have to survive on much less, they did not want to raise discontented consumers but instead desired to raise children that could be content and live on the simple things in life if they would share Jesus with a lost world.
Simpler living can be achieved without the responsibility to the many unneeded items here on earth. We must protect that precious commodity that we can never get back: TIME! Precious time to do the things we really want to do and share with those we love because we only live once. Let's not spend it tirelessly taking care of the endless unneeded earthly possessions we own so that we can spend time on the ever important eternal.
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Need help decluttering or some motivation?
Here is my all time favorite book that gets right to the point and had me throwing things out
our home like you would not believe!
12 comments:
Thanks for the reminder to simplify...and to require less.
I agree that we all have way too much "stuff" in our lives.
I am hoping to have a garage sale this Spring and clear out some of mine. (I just need to find some energy to get busy with sorting through stuff.)
We are in the process of major declutter-i-zation! We have a blended family and are moving in a couple of months...oh my! It is amazing how much can be accumulated in a short time. I would also recommend anyone that has children to take the unwanted children's items to Once Upon A Child and see if they will buy any of it...especially for those on a tight budget!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST!!!
My husband and I were actually talking about this last night - we even made a list of the BIG things that have TO GO!! I, like you, collected TOO much recently married and now I have all this stuff with no where to put it!! Thank you for reminding us of what is important - and I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE CARE OF 99% of the stuf I have for the next 10 years!!
God bless you - I hope you and your family are well!
Monica
I love spring cleaning. Something about getting organized makes me really happy.
Kerry
http://milestonesoffaith.blogspot.com/
We just moved and have been decluttering as we unpack.. It is so nice!
Blessings, Debra
Raw Vegan Diet
Thank you for the reminder! I started out thinking I needed to gather 'stuff' as a newly-wed. Now I prefer having less because it's easier to keep clean! I'm currently in spring cleaning mode & trying to get rid of all the extras.
~The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann
http://www.heatherscustomsewing.blogspot.com
I too, as a newly wed, tried hanging on to everything and letting myself be cluttered and frustrated. This really the first year in which I feel I can finally let go and get rid of all these material possessions that just don't mean anything but clutter. Thank you for this post.
Blessing our loved ones with a clean home environment has its place for sure!
Happy Spring cleaning,
d from homehaven nestled in the Flint Hills on the Kansas Prairie
What a motivational post! :o) I have a question maybe you, Mrs. Fuentes, or your readers could help me with: my little girls (9 months old and 2.5 years old) have tons and tons of toys and books. They are almost all gifts from their grandparents, and we have SO many of them! I currently have the toys on a rotation schedule, switching out toys once every month or two, with five 20 gallon buckets filled with them (one bucket comes out at a time). Please, please motivate me to do something! I don't want to throw all away, but if I hear the right encouragement :o) I might just donate a LOT of these! Any suggestions you have are welcome :o) including how to choose what to give away, etc. It's hard to tell what might be the "favorite" next toy at this young age. And thank you for this post, Mrs. Fuentes!
Thank You for this reminder of simplifying our life. we do need to live with less! We also ordered the Homestead blessing video for our daughter,and the book. Thank you so much for theses wonderful deals. God bless!
I regularly de-clutter, I did my clothes only this last weekend. I hate clutter and very happy to give what I don't want anymore to the charity bin. If done often, the job is easy and quick. Like any house work, if you keep on top of it, the work takes far less time to complete.
Very timely post! I am going to use that question very often: "Do I want to tale care of this for the next ten years?"
One thing I have noticed about clutter is that it prevents clarity of thought and drags me down even if I'm not working on anything really big. It's so distracting and it wastes my energy.
I'm motivated!
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