Stuff is everywhere.  We have kid stuff, paper stuff, emotional stuff- you get my point.  STUFF!

Below is my reflection, my way of dealing with the magnitude of stuff I currently have at ,one of my parents apartments, my sisters house, the condo that we have been living at for about 10 days so far, my parents house and a moving container. That is A LOT of personal items to keep track of.  Its all waiting for 2 more days until we finally get to move into our new house.  It is my prayer that you find encouragement and/or some value in this.  At the very least I hope you see that you are not alone in, “Stuff.”

In my reflection I came up with three Categories:

Stuff I don’t like and don’t want!

I can’t seem to get rid of this stuff!

You know what I am talking about.  Like that shirt, the one that is kind of to small or even way to big.  It might have some holes in it, but it’s comfortable, so you keep it.

• Clothes in general.  They reproduce.  I can not tell you how many bags of clothes we donated before we moved.  It is sickening how much we still have.

Sickening!

Yuck!

• Kid stuff.  This too seems to not only reproduce, but multiply as well.
• “Stuff”, the less I want of it the more I seem to attract.  I wish this would work with money and time.
• What about the “stuff” that needs to be returned to the store.
• “Busy work” stuff that we all have on our “To- Do” list.

All of  this, I don’t like and don’t want.  Yet it still remains…

 

Stuff I DO like, need and want!

This stuff I can not seem to find!

It makes me feel crazy!

Like when you have torn up your whole house to find your car key’s or cell phone, because you can’t find it for the millionth time.

• What about important paperwork?

Its there one minute and the next its GONE.

Has this happened to you too?

•   Quality alone time with my husband falls into this list all to often.

As I mentioned briefly above, I never seem to have enough time.

• Rest came to mind.  I am not talking about a “nap” kind of rest- even thought that is always welcomed in my book.  I am talking about a Sabbath kind of rest.  A rest where I can actually recharge my batteries, spend quiet time with God and don’t have to follow a ton of rules to be ME on “Vacation.”( That is a whole other post)

What about you?  What kinds of stuff do you like, need and want?  Stuff that you can’t find or find difficult to make time for?

Stuff I don’t know what to do with. { Huge sigh}

Think of our laundry room for just a minute.

I have yet to figure out why this room is the room where everything that no one knows what to do with ends up.  At least in my house it did.  We will see if this holds true for our next house.  Maybe you have a different room like this at your house.  If so, comment and share with us on which room you find to be the room in your house where these items end up in.

Stuff Like:

• Clothes ends up in this category as well.  You know the seasonal, once in a blue mood outfit or shoes.  The ones that you know if you throw away -a week later you could have used.  Even though the last 16 years it was in a tote that you never looked at since the day you put them in there.
• Books, Kids school projects and emails also made my list.
• LEGOS- they are expensive and I like that they keep kids of all ages busy, but if you have stepped on one or have picked up the same Batman boomerang for the 10th time in an hour.  You WANT to throw them out, but there Legos, you can’t do that, can you?  Oh, don’t get me wrong, some day’s- you know those day’s.  The vacuum cleaner gets to be the bad guy.  I don’t know why this works out in my brain, but if I vacuum up a Lego it is a satisfying victory over kid chaos, but if I am confronted with a pink Lego brick- one that is too big to really vaccum up safely, I can’t bring myself to throw it out.
• DIY Projects/Pinterest- yes they look easy and fun.  Some might even be handy and therapeutic to tinker with, but they usually end up on the bottom of the “To-Do” list in the hopes of the coveted “Free Time!”

What about these “lost socks” of the group?

• Emotional, physical, spiritual, financial, relational, etc you get my point.  This usually = stress.
• Stress 🙂
• The distractions of life.

Which brings me back to the stuff that really has no other definition than “Stuff.”  You know the stuff that when a co-worker asks, “What have you been up to? The answer you might give back is, “Stuff.”  This is the kind of “Stuff”, I don’t know what I want to do about it.

All of that to say,” You are not alone!”  We all feel these things.  No one has it all figured out.  I will be the first one to admit- I don’t.  It is always easier to see all the Stuff in others lives and what to do about them.  It is a lot harder sometimes to see our own.  Me included.  As I reflected I thought about how all this stuff starts to become “normal.” It just becomes apart of the background of our lives.

Kind of like the refrigerator.

We all have one and we know its there, but on a day to day basis we don’t think about the fridge until it stops working.  Then its a big deal.  In those moment we appreciate the fridge a little more than we did the day before.

We appreciated the fridge because something changed and then it went back to normal, once it was fixed.  We all enjoy the comfort of knowing what comes next, our routines- the status quo.  But change is good.  Change can be a very healthy thing.   Change usually brings up things, stuff that we would just rather stay have stayed behind the refrigerator forever.

With all of this moving and packing, I have gotten rid of a lot of old STUFF.  In all forms of the word.  With getting rid of it all-  such as, the stuff that has not served me in some time.  I believe that it creates space for all the new and wonderful stuff God has for me and my future.  It has also given me a whole new perspective on attaining MORE STUFF.  ( Which is that -I don’t need any more stuff. Nope!)

I encourage all of you to prayerfully consider where in your life you could use a new perspective and take inventory of all of your STUFF.  See what shakes out.

If you really want to shake it up and you need more room in your house.  Pack it all up.  Seriouly.  Every 5 or 10 years I am going to do this.  Just to see how much I have and just feel blessed.  Thank God for all He has given me and provided for my family.  Then give A LOT away!

This method, I feel, will help me to find things I didn’t even know I had, or maybe find items that were from an old season and never realized I had moved on from, because they had become apart of my everyday background.  I found a lot of that in the move.

Thanks for listening to my sweet abundant life story.  Join me.  Comment to this post or join us in the Facebook Group.

Blessings

Sandy