Making Progress

We came back from our vacation with a re-newed sense of needing to simplify our lives.  We had managed to live for a week in a much smaller house with much less stuff and it had been good.  Really good.

It turns out that purging accumulated clutter, clothing and just...well... stuff, takes time.  It is a process and not something that just happens in a quick pass.  The biggest challenge for Steve & I is that we don't want to just throw away things that are perfectly good and useful to someone.  So we (read me), are searching for places to donate things, trying to sell some things, and finding people who can use what we are trying to reduce in our lives.  We have been very blessed - to the excess in some cases - and I don't want to waste those blessings.

My new rule for things to be kept in the house is that they must be useful, loved, bring us joy and have a permanent home - and by that I mean have a place they belong as 'put away'.  I have cleared off the top of the piano and the mantle in the living room and have 2 boxes of 'stuff' to find new homes for soon.  I have purged 2 bookcases or school curriculum that I am trying to sell.  And have begun working on the two younger kids bedrooms.

We've lived in our home for more than 14 years now.  That is a LOT of accumulated stuff to wade through.  But we are making progress and it feels good.  I am thankful for all our blessings and even more thankful that God is nudging us to a more mindful and purposeful way of living so that we can focus on what is truly important for His glory through our lives.

Blessings on the journey~