Often, I’m not motivated to go through boxes and bins of old things. I simply hate the experience of figuring out what I want to throw out and what I want to keep, then how I will organize.
I have recognized the need to do this for quite some time, but I lacked motivation and dreaded the long, drawn out decision making process and experience. I easily get exhausted for health reasons, so making the decision to just DO was not on my radar until very recently.
I naturally am a sentimental person. I moved often growing up so I had to get rid of things. We simply could not bring all that I owned and my heart desired, to our next place of residence. So I learned to depart with many items. I also was the oldest of six kids so our family always had plenty to move.
I tend to value items that are special from my family. I didn’t always get to keep what I was given and often this hurt. Since then, I have gone to the opposite extreme and kept SO much! There are special items that I have kept for close to thirty years, such as letters that my husband and I wrote back and forth to each other, while we were engaged. He was a student still and I had already graduated, but had an opportunity to go to Brazil for six months. We didn’t have cell phones then, or email, or facebook. We simply wrote letters, putting additional postage on them. We had to wait a week or so to receive each others letters. We did have two opportunities to talk on a regular landline phone! It is much easier today to communicate, but we value the letters we wrote, so I have kept them for all of these years and will not throw them away!
My most frustrating item(s) to go through, is paperwork!
My thinking has been” what if I need this sometime?”
Thankfully, in the age of technology, it is not difficult ,if necessary, to look something up or make a call and get a copy of certain pieces of information. This has allowed me to realize that I don’t have to keep what I once did and how much volume as I have before! I seriously kept everything, including old notebooks with no relevant information for today, in them! There are legal items however to keep for at least 7-10 years, so I have done better at recognizing what is important, what is not. Examples of this are tax records, car titles, homeowner records.
It is particularly hard when cleaning and sorting involves what belongs to other people. I have learned to sort and set aside items and ask later so that I don’t throw away something special to them. I have learned however to notice what is used and valued. Some items have been completely damaged and can’t be fixed, so why am I holding on? I have no idea.
I’m working on going from room to room, which is a slow process, but I believe it will be done soon!
I’m ready to make things look new again. I want to come home to our house and enjoy being here! We are in the middle of remodeling also. It is a constant process of improving and growth!
While working hard is important and very necessary in order to achieving the goals we have, I have to set reasonable goals and plans everyday. I won’t be able to do more if I wear myself out in 1-2 days.
While working through these projects and goals, I thought of how I can relate some spiritual principals to these.
1. Do
Jeremiah 1:17 But you—up on. your feet and get dressed for work!
Stand up and say your piece. Say exactly what I tell you to say.
Don’t pull your punches
or I’ll pull you out of the lineup. ( Message)
2 Chronicles 15:7
Isaiah 41:10
Galatians 6:9
2. Evaluate
Luke 14:28 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it”
Proverbs 16:3
Ecclesiastes 3:1
3. Make New
Isaiah 43:19. “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Revelation 21:5
4. Set Reasonable Goals
Luke 14:28-31
“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”
The similarity I see in the principles of evaluating and setting reasonable goals, involve sitting down and counting the cost which comes from the example displayed in Luke 14:28-31.
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