Making Space
In a very rare turn of events, I spent an entire week at home. Alone.
My wife and our boys went out of state for her property management work, and while I advocated for her to leave the kids so she could focus on her tasks, she thought it better to take them so I could focus on my day job, and tackle a mega home project we have been avoiding for years.
Home organizing.
In the not-so-distant future, we are planning to move, and we know once summer comes, our desire to clean up the place with whither. We know we have to get this off of our never-ending to-do list.
So, while she and the kids did Zoom school and met with contractors a state over, I spent every waking hour doing my virtual corporate work, plus, organizing, packing, cleaning, and moving furniture and objects into and out of garages and rooms.
I’ll spare the details of wifey’s garage and the endless accumulation of kid things, and simply state that we have a LOT OF STUFF.
And that’s all it is. Stuff. Stuff that we placed value on but then put away, stuff that we thought we would need but forgot about, stuff that made us happy for a few moments, but then rejected after a day or so.
So what did I do with all that stuff?
I donated a significant portion of it, with more to go. The rest I sorted, organized, and packed away, and set on shelves in garages and closets, so that one day we might use it again.
Or will we?
Will we simply forget about it all and then acquire more things?
My hope is no. I can’t see myself doing that time consuming task again for more things. We have everything we need.
When the kids feel bored, I’m going to tell them there are three huge bins of games and activities to keep them busy for months. When my wife is compelled to acquire more Command Strips and small baskets, I’ll reminder there literally about 75 variations of each in another storage bin.
And when I think I want another book or that I need to hold onto greeting cards and documents, I’m going to remind myself of my week alone and how, if I ever have a stretch of time like that to myself again, it will not be spent with all that stuff.
Life is too short to acquire and store things that only take up space in our lives. Let go of it, because it will not let go of you.
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Photo by Siniz Kim on Unsplash
