Today I wanted to talk about why I want and have been working getting rid of clutter and simplifying my/our life. I decided that I would keep it personal - not go into reasons that you might want to do it but rather stick with why I am doing it and perhaps it will resonate with you as well.
1. My top reason for doing ANYTHING: I want to glorify God. If I can do nothing else in life at all but I can give glory to God then that is worth it. Whatever I do I want it to be so that He can have first place in my life and I can use my time for Him. So that is where having less comes in - I want to free myself from as many unnecessary distractions as possible so that I can focus on following Jesus. I don't want unnecessary things to take up my time that could have been better spent in some other way. I feel like that has been an issue in my life at times. That I have had to worry to much about things (finding a home for them, trying to keep my home clean and tidy around them, just being distracted by them) and I really want to get away from that.
2. To have less stress and bad attitudes. Our family for the most part (I haven't noticed this as much in the girls as I have in Ken, myself and the boys) tend to be more stressed and struggle with bad attitudes when our house is messy and full of clutter. This provides a temptation to have ungodly attitudes. I would prefer to prevent that as much as possible. By having less stuff it is easier to keep it in it's place.
3. To save us time. We have a lot of things we like to do in life. We don't want to spend more time than necessary trying to getting things to fit in the spots we have for them. I don't want to spend a lot of time sorting through my clothes trying to find something that I think that I will look nice in. I want to narrow my choices so that I don't need to make so many of them and can be more efficient in these non-important areas.
4. So we are not wasteful. I have found when we have a lot of stuff we tend to lose track of it. Sometimes we even cannot find or don't even realize we have something we need and we go out and buy something like it. We try not to do that but it can happen. So that is a goal of mine too - that we would truly be able to use the things we have and not needlessly consume more.
5. To promote contentedness. I have found that when we are not so heavily into consuming, when we take time to enjoy what we have then we don't feel the need for more so often and are more contented.
6. So we can be a blessing to others. In our decluttering and simplifying I hope to be able to share what we don't need with others. I also hope to free up time to be able to give of my time more generously to others.
So, those are the reasons that I can think of right now for decluttering and simplifying. I may think of more and share them later but that will do for now.
If you are decluttering and simplifying in your life I would love to hear your "why".
8 comments:
I have a LOT of decluttering to do. I want to work on one room at a time. I really want to get it done because I'm expecting due in January. I'm so tired though its hard to get it done with everything else I need to do. I'm not sure how to find the time or energy.
Thank you for this post!! :) I agree with all your reasons and want to declutter and downsize on everything !!
Nola,
I will be praying for you! That is exciting that you are expecting again! How many will that make for you now? That is super hard when you are tired all the time. I know Mara and I have been talking about that as she is still struggling with that too. I think you just have to realize that you can't do everything that you would like and really give it over to God and realize that He will give the strength for what truly needs to be done. I have been feeling very convicted of the need to overflow with gratitude to Him no matter how we are feeling. So if all that we can accomplish is washing 5 dishes right now, or putting 2 items away we say "thank you, God for helping me do that thing." I hope that didn't sound to preachy it is just what we have been thinking and visiting about as we deal with Mara's health situation and as I have thought back on times of extended illness. So I thought I would share our thoughts. Do you have someone that can help out? I know that even though I stay very busy with my own home I am very happy to go and help young mothers/older mothers/ whoever that might need some help in going through things and organizing. In my opinion it can be even more fun to go through someone else's stuff because I have no emotional attachment to it. :-) Working together can be very motivating.
Cindy, May God bless you in your decluttering journey as well! Have fun and feel free to share any tips or tricks that you have! :-)
I am SO excited for this series! Your posts are always such an encouragement to me and this series is always a blessing. -- We are two months deep into really letting go of things. As our children are now seven and three we are out of the "baby" years and as it seems the Lord has closed the door to more children it has become time to pass on/sell many of the baby related items that I have been hanging on to. This process has been slow, and admittedly painful, as most of our large items (like our crib) was used by both children and all those who visited and needed to lay a baby down for a nap. That being said, we've found good homes for many of our items and it's really helping move through the process of cleaning out our garage. Our goal is only to store our cars, tools, and lawn supplies in our garage - nothing else!
Thanks Abbi! This will be our 4th but my 7th pregnancy I have had 3 first trimester losses. I've had 7 years since I had a healthy baby. We are thrilled.
I'm sorry Mara is still struggling. For some reason my health seems to have ups and downs but in the last while its been good (other than typical normal pregnancy stuff).
That's a good idea to think about someone who could help. I know my oldest (similar age as your youngest) said she could help and I offered to pay her a small amount to do so as its really hard work decluttering this much. I did a bunch today going through papers for hours.
Amy, May God bless and help you through this time of letting go. I do pray that my posts may be able to encourage in some way. It is really nice to have a clean garage. That is something that Ken is a stickler about and so our garage does basically just hold tools and our cars. The other garage has camping equipment, other outdoor equipment, Jonathan's car, bikes and canoes. It is a little messier but still fairly organized and the stuff in there makes sense.
Nola, That is exciting that you have been able to carry a baby again. Praying that all goes well! I know that my 12 year old enjoys a paying job when we offer them. This summer I had a very busy wedding flower weekend and I hired her to be my fulltime help. She helps for free other times but I really needed her and needed her to put in some long hours so that worked out well to pay her. I hope that works for you all too.
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