Lenten Project Downsize

STUFF!!!

Stuff Management (and avoiding stuff management) is taking up too much of my time and my life.  My life is about DOING, not OWNING.

A little history.... I used to be a packrat.... and still have a lot of trouble deciding how to dispose of things.  NOT letting go of things.... I have gotten to a point in my life where I give easily....  but I own a lot of things that need proper disposition.  Things that I need to learn how to deal with.

I have passed through stages in my life...  as a young adult... acquiring as we all do, the trappings of an adult in her own home (and trying to decide what to do with the stuff of youth).  Of course, I hung onto some 'dream things' that I wanted to DO later when there was time.

I moved into a young married.... a young mom... a newly divorced.... a single parent...  all stages that required acquisition of stuff.... and several moves.... and lots of unopened boxes that moved from place to place.  MOSTLY because I am fortunate enough to own some nicer things that, of course, mixed in with everything else I didn't use at the time.  But also because we all move through stages.... and sometimes there just isn't enough time or mental space to actually DO the DREAM stuff.

Then, remarriage.... two more children.... and my mother's death.   I had to deal with her stuff then - on top of my own.  Bless her, she made a list of everything anyone had ever asked her for (including me) - so I got rid of a lot.  I gave away almost anything anyone asked for.... God taught me then to give :-)  It was hard - but it was good.

We bought her house and moved in..... boxed up as much of her stuff as I could and moved in mine with my children.   More years went by and I diligently went through boxes of her things and mine...carefully RE-boxing things I didn't quite know what to do with.

But I'm through.  My kids are all but grown.... and it's way past time.  In the next few years as we head toward retirement, this house will either be a vacation home for my family (or perhaps rented sometimes)... [this is the dream scenario]... or we will have to sell because we can't afford (for lots of reasons including location) to keep it as we grow older.  In any case, we will move.  The STUFF must be dealt with once and for all.  It is my responsibility and shouldn't be left to others in case of my death either.

I have never really sold things on Ebay or gone to yard sales.... I have little experience with the value of items that I didn't pay for.... and it is time that I become a better steward - of things, of my time, of my gifts.  I am embarking on a journey to divest myself of as many items as I can - many of them one by one because of the various types of things I somehow have responsibility for.
SO, it's time to learn... it's time to clean out the corners and make way for DOING.

And this - however unusual - is my Lenten project.  Managing things, worrying about things, caring for things.... takes up too much of the precious life God gave me.... so, there you go.

Time to remove a layer that lies between me and God.