Guilt Free Decluttering

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

² A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
³ A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
⁵ A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
⁷ A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.

I absolutely gain confidence to declutter from this passage of scripture!! There is just a point at which you say, "It's TIME!"

There are so many things I hold onto for when I have time to do them--a desk I might fix up, a ladder I might decorate, a kit of cross-stitch I used to be really into and haven't touched it in years, and the books I still haven't read. Even though there's a time to save those things and wait until you have a little free time to work on them, there's also a time where you give it up.

Moving triggers one of those times! There may be a couple of things that aren't quite "dead" yet. I have a brand new sewing machine that I never use, but my daughter is very interested in learing to sew and she's almost old enough. Same with my guitar. I would love to learn it someday, but I really don't have it at the top of my priority list--but Abby is very interested. So, these will carry on to my next home. But there are many many things that I need to move on from. So, out goes the set of plates that sit collecting dust. Out goes that study bible that still looks brand new because I found one I really love. Out goes that nice big board that we intended to put a shelf up with. Out goes most of the clothes that I'm 5 sizes from fitting in. It's TIME!

Guilt Free! That's the key.

Seriously, I gave myself a guilt free pass. Most of the junk I've been keeping is kept because of guilt. I spent $30 here and $20 there and never made anything concrete out of it. Like that cross-stitch stuff; I probably spent about $40 collectively on books and materials. My plan--make cheap Christmas presents out of them. Reality: I spent $40 and made half a bookmark. Guilt free pass. I'm forgiven.

But, you might say, what if Abby's interested in cross-stitch someday? Well, $40 isn't a pocket full of change, but it's also not a semester in college either. We've spent that much taking the kids to the movies before. Plus, I've already kept a guitar and a sewing machine for that purpose. So, guilt free, we're passing on the cross-stitch collection. If in a few years, after sewing has been sampled and guitar lessons are no longer fun (or maybe one does catch on!), if she begs for cross-stitch stuff...well, we might just buy the same exact thing again. But the price of storing multiple projects in bins and feeling guilty because it's there and we're not using it, and feeling the push to steer her toward that rather than paint that we don't already have...well, you get the picture. So, out it goes! Guilt Free.

Here's what I dumped this past week:

This pile and one more about half the size that I failed to take a picture of, went to the side of the road right after garbage pick up. That gives the pickers a chance to drive by and grab it. The dishwasher was taken first within about the first 10 minutes!

The bagged stuff went in the van for the thrift store. This is more than it looks considering that one with the pink is only half showing and these are enormous bags.

All of this and a ton of just plain trash left my house this week!

Now, on to this week!

Linked Up to:
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Get Outta My Head Please