Cutting The Clutter

Cutting the Clutter

ARE YOU SOMETIMES so overwhelmed with family, life, home, and work that you feel as if you’re drowning in “stuff”? I once felt that way too. My list of responsibilities, both at home and away from home, was all-consuming. I realized I wasn’t picking my priorities—they were picking me!

One of the first places my obligations began to burden me was in our home. This was strange to me at the time because we lived in a lovely abode. But that lovely abode was filled to the gills with lots of stuff.

Steve and I determined that the obligations that came along with a nice home and a large lot in the suburbs (in Texas, both homes and parcels of land are sometimes ridiculously large) were creating a mental and physical burden for us. We decided less was more at our life stage and sold our home—furnished. Yes, someone loved our stuff so much that they bought our house intact. It was pretty scary leaving all our furniture behind, but it was totally liberating!

We moved to a modern-style home where simplistic design rules. Yes, less is so much more.

We have fewer plants to water; less special occasion decorations to put up, take down, and store; and no knickknacks to dust. The result is a fuss-less, worry-free environment that allows me to breathe at home. Because there’s less competing for my time and attention, I can finally do the one thing I had never really been able to do at home: sit. Because I’m no longer accumulating and arranging, I can do what you’re supposed to do at home: relax.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

After four years in our modern, downsized home, we have decided to do it again. High-rise condo, here we come!

Is it possible that your physical and mental “stuff” is the source of your energy drain too? If so, it might be time for you to discover that less is more and learn to identify those things that clutter your world. But then you have to do something about it—like throw things out!