Decluttering

This again!  Everyone is talking about decluttering.  The show Hoarders woke up even my husband to the value of not keeping EVERYTHING he owns.  So, how do you do it? The New Year is a good time to think about this, so we'll talk about that today.

Scripture to apply: "Let all things be done decently and in order." I Corinthians 14:40.  So, let's get in order.

All my ideas have come from other people, so here are my suggestions.

Don Aslett recommends picking up a room by putting each item into a paper bag labeled either, "Put away," "Give away," or "Throw away."

Sandra Felton, with Messies Anonymous said years ago on Focus on the Family that you should start with one drawer and basically do what Don Aslett recommends above.  It's a lot less intimidating than a whole room.

The most effective technique for me came from a Mother's Day article in a local paper in St. Paul, Minnesota when we were showing at a fiber show.  A mom with two little kids decided to declutter her house by 250 pounds.  I thought, "I've been married a lot longer than she has and I have eight kids.  I can probably declutter 750 pounds.  No, how about a 1000.  I know: I'll make it an even ton!" 

So, I started weighing everything that I was planning to get out of my house.  It included old papers, old computers, clothes, toys, 3 1/2 inch computer disks, books, video tapes, kitchen gadgets and 50 pound tubs of soybeans that were purchased when Carter was president.  Some things were burned (like the papers,) some were given to friends, some taken to the metal salvage or used book store for money, some sent to Goodwill and some simply trashed.  I admit, I had a barn scale for weighing animals that made it easier.  My dad was wondering why I kept pushing the wheelbarrow filled with boxes and bags out to the barn.  You can also weigh yourself and then carry the item you are pitching.

I stopped weighing things when I got to 2700 pounds!  But, I haven't stopped decluttering.  It has become a way of life to hold things loosely, to choose tools, books, movies and clothes wisely, to give away easily.  I am not a naturally generous person.  It probably started when I was a child and the one thing we were allowed to pick at the grocery store was our cereal.  My cereal!  Plus, Rule #1 at our house was, "Don't touch things that don't belong to you" and we didn't have a Rule #2!   Anyway, I find it so much easier to give now than I ever did before and I have more grace over my belongs than I ever had before.  I teach my kids to be good steward of our things and that is what they are disciplined for when they destroy them, it is not me having my right to not have my stuff destroyed that is being violated. 

When everything is God's, I have a lot more joy in life.