Moving Mountains

Less than a month ago I had a garage sale. I thought I'd "combed" through everything throughly and at the end of the day my husband stuffed every inch of his pick up truck and drove to the donation center. Phew...I thought, my house should feel lighter, like it went on a diet. The truth is my house was still fat.

I was feeling a mix of frustration and inspiration as I would tidy up my house each day. I was grasping for a feeling and not quite landing on it. Everything was "organized". I love to sort, file and label. I know all about grouping like items together and using matching containers to achieve a uniform look. Why after all of this organizing was my house still feeling like it was fighting me when I went to straighten up. The root cause...too much stuff.

I put on new goggles and really looked at the stuff that had become familiar, comfortable in my environment. I got really honest and kicked a lot of stuff to the curb. I've made trips to the donation center several times a week and sold so much on my neighborhood Facebook site that neighbors are starting to ask if we are moving.

An amazing thing is starting to happen. It is contagious! My husband cleaned off his desk declaring that he has caught my decluttering fever. My son sorted through his clothes and we no longer argue about what he wears because everything that is left in his closet are things that he chose. My youngest daughter who is a treasure keeper and inherits more clothes than there are days in a year asked if I could help her in her room. I never thought I'd see the day that she would get rid of anything. She has a happy spirit and likes everything so she tends to hold on to things, lots of things. As we went through her stuff a switch flipped and she started to catch the vision. For the first time she had a sense of her OWN style. She loves everything that sparkles. Her favorite shirt says, "glitter is my favorite color." Her big sister likes classic style and is drawn to simple gray shirts. As we sorted Alexa, my youngest daughter started to say, "plain, plain, plain," and tossed several items into the "No" pile. In the end everything she kept had sequins and kitty cats and things that make her light up.

I'm not sure if I should be proud or embarrassed of the mountain that came out of Alexa's closet. In the end she decided that she wanted to be done with having dressers in her room and decided to store hanging clothes in her closet and folded clothes in the hall closet (which was empty due to out efforts over the past couple of weeks.) We sold her dressers and night stand and now she can cartwheel in her room which in her world is one of life's greatest pleasures. I called a dear friend who came this morning and sorted through our mountain of clothes and left with arms full for her girls. I will be so happy when I see them at church or school giving life to some of our stuff. Most of it was given to us and it felt so good to pay it forward. After all, it's all God's stuff, sometimes it is just our job to clear it out and pass it out.