If you are a new friend, welcome! You can jump in today or head backwards to his month's earlier challenges, week 1, week 2, or the way beginnings, here.
Here at gomommyblogger, we have been taking care of business in our homes, families, and selves. This month has been about filling boxes with items which would otherwise clutter, take up room, or grow dull while in our possession.
In other words, we are cleaning house.
Week one was all about a box named Share. Week two, a box named Sell. This week we meet a box named Toss.
This is probably the easiest and most difficult box we have. Easiest because, let's face it, we tend to hold on to...dare I say this?...junk. Maybe some of it is sentimental, maybe some of it belonged to a hobby we once enjoyed wholeheartedly, maybe some of it belongs to a friend who so politely has yet to return for it. Whatever the reason, we have lots of stuff.
Enter Jen Hatmaker and her book, Seven.
American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit
after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s
upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of
prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the
contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born.
7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees)
took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to
fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.
Not yet convinced? How about this site with The Statistics of Clutter.
- The National Association of Professional Organizers reports we spend one year of our lives looking for lost items.
- The U.S. Department of Energy reports that one-quarter of people with two-car garages have so much stuff in there that they can’t park a car.
So here's the catch, this is actually fun. Yeah, I wrote that.
There is a LOT of freedom is piling your recycling bin high with outdated bills, amazing drawings the kiddos doodled 10 years ago which have succumbed to oil splotches and rips, and other odds and ends you have held on to for no reason other than not quite knowing what to do with them when they first graced your grip.
Let's back this train up one moment. Remember when I mentioned the sentimentality with so much of this ready for trash stuff? Well, let's touch base with those items.
I know that it can be very difficult to get rid of something you may have had for a long time, something that may have come from a loved one who is no longer with you, or something you think you may someday be grateful you held onto. To each item, you must decide it's value.
Here are some creative ideas to lessen the bulk and keep the memories:
*Designate a trunk, a box, etc. and commit to keeping that and stuffing that with whatever your heart desires. If it doesn't fit, you have to make room for it (by getting rid of something else), or pass it on.
*A large vase can be a great place to display mementos. You can purchase some really large ones or get creative at the Salvation Army, but either way, put a little effort in it and it is a visual centerpiece of grand memories. Same with a shadowbox.
*Take pictures and make a collage or scrapbook, then pass the actual item onto it's next life.
*Recycle the item back to the giver. Excuse me, what?
I held onto a Pillow Person, given to me by my godfather when I was a child, for decades! (You can see an image of Priscilla, as I had named mine, in much better condition than mine was, here.)
Until about one year ago, she had followed me from PA to VA and CA, IN, and eventually NC. Everywhere I lived, with the exception of my time as an au-pair in Germany, she followed along- even college!
Priscilla was greatly loved- and greatly worn. I held onto her in hopes that I would pass her on to my daughter someday. I have three sons.
Although I wrestled with the idea of sharing her with a niece, granddaughter (someday), or goddaughter, I ultimately ended up trashing her! I know, soo sad!!!
My rationale was this: she is a bit ratty, faded, and a pillow. Not exactly the keepsake I would have hoped to have been given when I was a child.
I have plenty of memories, and pictures and video clips, with Priscilla in it, but I believe she is in a better place now. -Better than my attic, in some dusty box, unloved and unseen.
So going back to my original thought, it could have been cool to wrap her up and ship her to my uncle/godfather's house with a note expression my gratitude for her all these years and maybe some photos of her camping in my backyard and in my college dorm. But I didn't. Maybe if she wasn't a cheerleading pillow. Maybe I would have returned her to my uncle for memories sake, you know, if she was the Philadelphia Phillies baseball he caught and gifted me with when I was a child. What a grand gesture of returning the thanks that would have been!
So this week (and month) can be fun -and exciting! You have permission to be creative and generous and very, very liberal in your sharing, selling, and tossing!
-all the best,
No comments:
Post a Comment