Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Cleaning House

Last night our church Small Group got together to discuss chapter 7 of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you haven't heard of it, its a great and challenging book to read. By challenging I mean, that it's pushing me to do things that aren't quite comfortable.

For example.

Do I really need all the things that I possess? I have a hard time giving up things. I wouldn't say I'm a pack rat, but I do hold onto things from the past for sentimental reasons. Doesn't everyone. I have a sucky memory, and sometimes cards or clothes helps me remember special events or moments of my life.

But then there's the fact that I despise clutter and a messy house. We don't have a huge house to begin with, and hardly any storage and the piles are starting to take over certain rooms. Ick!!! Quite frankly it freaks me out. I can easily go into a full blown panic attack when I see the mess, dust, dog-hair, boxes and crap getting out of control. I feel some simplifying coming on. I need to downsize on "stuff" and start taking it to the thrift store or just simply throwing it away. I'm not kidding y'all - getting rid of things, especially clothes, is soooo hard for me.

Maybe for further motivation, I'll show you some before & after pictures :-) Or maybe not, I get so embarrassed by the mess! We'll see.

7 comments:

Camille said...

Messes are nothing to be embarrassed of! I don't know anyone who DOESN'T have some sort of mess or another. I would LOVE to see your before-and-afters---they make me so happy!

Katrina Hope said...

Kim! I didn't know you are reading that- thats the book I finished while I was in TN this summer. And thats exactly the response I had to it... probably same chapter.. I even blogged about it. I think I've taken 3 bags of clothes out since then. And I need to do it again. Furthermore, its challenging me to not buy all I do to begin with- I want to truly walk it out... all of it, not just the common pieces and pictures. I LOVE that you are reading that... I remember you said Pastor JP had spoken about some bits of it.

LOVE YOU!!

Tina said...

Gut, Gut, Gut!!!! Getting rid of things is good for the soul. Once you start, that is :) It will be great practice for when you have kids. We each have a special box in the garage and the kids have a box for their special school stuff. I remember about 4 yeas ago I kept feeling like the Lord was telling me to "Simplify" I constantly keep that in the back of my mind. Every month we have a few bags of stuff that gets picked up by Services for the Blind. It feels good to know that someone else is getting the use of something I cared for or loved or maybe just had. And guess what, even after doing all this you will still have messes and piles at times... that's normal :) love you, now go get rid of some stuff. {wink, wink}

Tina said...

Oh, and a funny story about thrift stores and getting rid of things.....

Addie had this Hollister sweatshirt that was her favorite. She loved it! Anyway, one day it went missing and about 3 weeks later she noticed {it probably took her that long since I always have weeks worth of laundry to do at any given time, bad me ;)} So we came to the conclusion that 1 of her friends took it. We had it narrowed down to 2 possible girls. She was soooo sad :( a year passed, and another, then one day her and Jay ran into a thrift store down the street from us and wouldn't you know it, there it was! Hanging on the wall! So we bought it back for her for $10. That was about a year ago and guess what... she hasn't worn it once, lol! Stuff is just stuff, right?!

Unknown said...

Camille - just for you, I will take before & after pictures. Though there might be a bit of a time lapse between the two since these messes are going to take me a while!

Kati - I know we've talked about us reading the book before! It is a good book and he has a new one out that I want to look into.

Tina - What a trip! I can't believe she found her sweatshirt at the Thrift Store!? I know I need to do just do it.

Anonymous said...

Kim I have practical solution to the memory stuff. Take a picture of the things and put in a memory book with the story that it has. Then when you are as old as me you will have the picture and the details of the story behind it. You can even put a small piece of it to collage it. Remember the favorite jeans photo cover that you made. Make Jason Book,Vacation Book, Dog Book. Be creative you love to do that stuff. MOM

Unknown said...

You and are on the same wavelength mom! I have started a few of these books online and really need to finish them, so thank you for the reminder! It really does help, having the pictures :-) I get my creativity from yoU!

Love you!