What to keep

I have been going through my storage (again) and have been sorting what to keep, what to donate, and what to throw away.  It is really hard at first to let go of some of my years of stored up stuff after all the reason I stored the stuff in the first place was because I might need it one of these days.  As I started to go through the boxes and make the tough decision to really be committed to down size my stuff.  I made a pile to keep a pile to donate and a trash can.  The first day I didn't get rid of much basically I moved my stuff off the shelves went through them and made a big keep pile.  Everything in that pile either represented something I just might need as some future date or had some fond memory.  As I looked at my pile that would need to make its way back to the shelves in the garage I was discouraged.  How was I suppose simplify my life by down sizing if I couldn't live with out all this stuff.  I walked out of the garage left everything right where I had stacked it in the middle of the floor.  I didn't go back into the garage for three day, knowing what I needed to do avoiding it hoping that in some magical way it would take care of itself.

Ivan was coming home on Thursday and I knew I needed to get my mess cleaned up before he came home, I either needed to get it back on the shelves or I needed UNLOAD!  This stuff has been in boxes at the minimum for two years some of the stuff much longer then that.  If I had lived with out it that long why couldn't I just part with it?  Well, I did it two trash cans, and a car load of donated items later most everything was gone.  Very little came into the house or went back on the shelves.  You know what, I survived and I actuality fill liberated.  With a little more work I will actually be able to use my garage for what it was intended for, a place to park my car.

My little (big, for me) project today made me realize something about myself that I don't think I really like to well, I have been very wasteful.  Sad as that makes me, I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to change.  I am a long ways from being done with the d-cluttering process but pray that the Lord will make me willing to let go of the things that are just burdening us down.