Own it

Three posts in and I've only begun!

Do you see yourself in my experience?  Do you tend to accumulate in spite of yourself?

I remember a speaker, Bob Proctor, teaching that we have to create space for what we really want.  He talked about a woman who told him she wanted new drapes.  She had visualized new drapes, but she still didn't have new drapes although months had passed.

Bob looked around at her windows which were blocked from view by, you guessed it, drapes.

He asked, "Where are you going to PUT new drapes?"

The woman looked astonished and said, "Right there," waving her hand at the already draped window.

Bob said, "You haven't made room for them.  Take those drapes that you hate down.  Right now."

The woman protested because she would have no privacy without something at the windows.  He shrugged at her remarks and said, "I guess you don't really want new drapes."

He said she took them down that night, and the next time he visited her, she had the drapes she wanted at the window.

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I'm not sure how to make space for a tinier space, but I'm pretty sure I need less stuff to attain it.  I have always believed that renting storage space for more stuff that is hard to get at is pretty much a waste of money, but maybe all those boxes and piles in my attic that make it hard to put new blinds up in the windows are just as stupid of a waste of space and money.

Own it. What the heck is all that stuff?!  I'm pretty sure there are two boxes underneath that window that I want to keep.  And the suitcases are my sons.  But what is everything else?!!!!!!

Stuff weighs us down

I started on one track in my last post and wound up somewhere else.

Somewhere else important.  Somewhere else that is driving my reason why.

Two posts ago, I talked about our attempts to minimize our lifestyle in order to maximize our lives.

Because, really, stuff weighs us down.

I remember many years ago when we went to Miami, Florida, on a job assignment.  We left everything inside our house for a caretaker to watch over while we put everything we could fit inside our Dodge Grand Caravan.  I wish I had a picture!  I put my kitchen appliances and a few toys along with clothing in with our kids.  We removed one of the captains chairs and moved the bench seat from the back to the middle row and the other captain chair into the back in order to maximize the amount of space we had for our stuff.  Our three kids sat on the bench seat, buckled into the three seat belts, while our dog found just enough space on the floor between their backpacks.  She was a big lab but such a wonderful traveler!

Jim's company paid for a 2-story, townhouse-style, furnished apartment so we didn't need furniture at least.  We lived there for about 6 months and had a wonderful time.  When we came home, we rented an Enterprise van to help drag all the stuff back we had accumulated.  Six months=one van of stuff.

When we came home, I looked at all our stuff and started cleaning out.  We gave away a small mountain.  I missed the lightness of just enough.  When we moved, Jim's new company paid for our move so we didn't lighten up again and I was shocked at how much stuff we had when we moved into our new home in Missouri.

Unfortunately I didn't take the initiative and lighten up again.  We were busy homeschooling because we moved in the middle of the year.  Unpacking took too long as it was!

When we moved BACK to Kentucky six years later, we moved ourselves.  I packed us up myself, and I got tired.  I ran out of boxes and plastic.  And I started giving away stuff.

And more stuff.

And we finally walked away with some furniture still sitting in our unsold house for our renter to use.

Seven years later, we have filled the largest home we have ever owned.

It's time to downsize.

Time to get light again because that lightness isn't just in how large of a truck it takes to move us.  It's mental and emotional garbage too.  It's freeing to say, "Shaundra needs new clothes," and go to the store for an outfit.  I didn't spend money frivolously; I bought what she needed--one or two new outfits because my baby was growing.  I didn't have to work my way through dozens of outfits packed into boxes.  I just needed one or two that were on sale.  (In Florida, they sell out-of-season summer clothes in the winter just like everywhere else except those clothes are in season!)  And then I got rid of the clothes she had outgrown.  And those two or three playsets we brought for our kids?  They were supplemented with pads of paper and markers as well as the outside world.  They're artistic natures were enhanced with those few tools.  Richest kids I've ever known!!!