Help
With Your Rule
On The Way to Simplicity of Life and Heart
"Ask yourself if your stuff makes you feel good, if you really need it, if it's outdated, if it inspires you, if your life will change if you let it go. "
Katherine Gibson, author of "Unclutter Your Life", quoted in "You Can Be A Clutter Cutter" in Reader's Digest, Montreal, QC, January 2008, p98
posted by Holly at 3:25 PM
3 Comments:
I walked through my home today, and remarked to my husband: "Do we just have too much stuff, or what?"
I love the bare look and minimalistic decorating, to a point. But this Christmas, despite what I considered a simplified and limited shopping spree, the house still looks jammed full. No counter or table or bureau has any room left on it - piled high with stuff! "It's because you moved everything to make room for Christmas decorations," says my daughter Anna.
But I have a sneaky suspicion that the clutter I see points more to that mysterious pile up of stuff which just seems to occur in our affluent and materialistic society. I say mysterious, because it truly is a mystery where it all comes from.
Katherine Gibson's quote was just the thing, I felt, for helping all us moms clear the clutter after Christmas - do we need it? do we even like it? will my life end if I give it away? is it worth holding on to?
These can be the questions we use as we walk through our home to clean up after the holidays. And the clearing away of too much stuff - the reduction of clutter and busyness - all begin to draw our hearts back to simplicity of life and affections - so we can attend more to God once again... even after having been innocently side- tracked by stuff.
perfect post, holly. I am just beginning this week to put away the Christmas decorations and there are certainly things I could do without. Not to mention the barrage of toys that walked through our door via the grandparents! o h m y!
Isn't that the reality of January!
I read something once that I try to stick by:
When deciding on keeping an article- ask :
Do I know it to be useful, or believe it to be beautiful?
The only problem with that is my idea of useful & beautiful does not always jive with that of my children:)
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