Seeking To Simplify

“Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. 20 Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. 21 Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

  This verse is just such a great reminder of where our focus needs to be. Not on THINGS here on earth but rather on serving Jesus Christ and loving people. Things are certainly a useful tool but they shouldn't be our treasures and they should help rather than hinder us in our spiritual journey.

  So as we go through things in our homes and try to cut down on the clutter that may be overwhelming us let's think about our stuff with eternity in view.

I wanted to share with you a comment that Cheryl (who blogs at Homespun Devotions) made on my last Seeking to Simplify post. I found it encouraging and helpful and I think you may as well.
"We are a few years in to our minimizing journey. God has brought us a long, long way. We are now down to a storage unit and are going through box by box, item by item, literally, and we are analyzing every, single thing, seeking God's will as to whether or not He wants us to keep it. It is a calling and coincides with our quest to know Christ and to live life eternity-focused and not fixated on the things of this world. It is one of the most liberating things we have ever done, and we feel so much lighter. God is so faithful!"

I also found this idea from Amy (who blogs at Life and Love) pretty neat as well:
 "I have set the first Saturday in February as a "Junk Exchange" Day with family and friends. It will be the 5th time I have hosted one and it always really motivates me to clean-out things as I know one of them might really enjoy or be able to use some of my things."

I have hosted a clothing exchange before but not one that included everything. Whatever you can find that works well for getting unneeded excess out of your house and if possible finding a way to bless others with it is pretty neat. When it works to help us get things that we DO NEED as well that is a blessing.

  I was able to work on my decluttering goals a lot last week as well and I am feeling a little pumped by success. It really does feel good to get areas organized and feel like things have been gone through and handled in such a way that it won't immediately get cluttered once again. This can so easily happen in areas like Megan's room. If we just clean the room and get all the stuff stored away neatly with out reducing the amount of stuff we often just end up with a huge mess again in a very short time. This time we have eliminated a lot of stuff and we have done some problem solving to try to get rid of problem areas like dirty clothes all over, etc. We now have a very easily accessible dirty clothes bag hanging up in her room, a better way to store shoes and we are working on other things.

  I would love to hear your tips and stories on getting rid of stuff in your life!!