I've been fighting with this problem for a while. We have so much stuff!!
Where did all this stuff come from?? When we moved to Michigan we had to pack TWO moving trucks. I begged Tom, my mother and dad to go to storage and help me drag everything we owned out, go through it and donate/trash tons of items, but I think that they just thought this was the request of a crazy 9 months pregnant woman.
I think
most of the problem is that we moved out of our townhouse, into my parent's house, since we were going to be on the road 7 months for out of state rotations. Then with everything, but bare essentials, packed into storage you start needing other items, so you buy them. Then you pack even less and load it into your SUV and travel from Oklahoma, to Texas, to Florida, to Pennsylvania, to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to home(not to mention your husband flies 8 different places during these same months to interview with programs as well) and you find you need more items........so you buy them. Do you see where I'm going with this??
We ended up with duplicates, triplicates, and tons of stuff we only needed once and will never use again. Not to mention we weren't the best judges of NEEDS when we first got married and neither were the people that bought insane items to celebrate our marriage (Did I mention we DIDN'T register for a 9 piece champagne bouquet. For those of you who don't know what this is, including me, this is a glass vase with long stem champagne glasses with NO bases-meaning you can sit the glasses down, they only stand in their vase and are multi-colored glass. For people who don't drink and aren't at the height of the social ladder, these proved to be the chocolate milk and soda cups we've ever had)
Anyway, we've finally realized what our priorities should be and stuff to tote around the country or store, didn't make the top 50. So, we are in the process of scaling back, giving away, and selling all this unneeded stuff. We found that our stuff was making my life harder, in that I had to clean it, organize it, look at it, and live with it. It started to weigh us down and after living in a house with unpacked boxes for 9 months, we realized that if we hadn't used it in months, possibly years, then we really didn't need it and it needed to stop taking up precious room and time.
We live in a country where we are so blessed by the Lord. We take so many things for granted and are so dependent on our stuff, instead of God. We are always looking for new ways to cut back, live simpler, save money and give more. That's why I was so excited when I received this email from Hearts at Home this week. I can't wait to read this book and I hope that it might bless you too!
I am excited to share a fun opportunity with you!
To celebrate the release of
Hearts at Home’s newest book:
Living With Less So Your Family Has More, by Jill and Mark Savage, the
Hearts at Home blog is launching the
Living with Less Contest.
Email
Hearts at Home a story or money-saving tip that gives a peek into your daily experiences representing the humor, richness, or spiritual aspects of what it’s like to live with less.
Better yet,
blog readers will benefit as many of the money-saving entries will be posted on the
Heart’s blog throughout the month of February!
For contest details go
here!
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