Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Great Purge

There is great loss and fantastic relief all wrapped up in one push into the donation bin. It's the purge of clutter and stuff and piles of things so unnecessary to the well-being of my family. I suppose that makes it not such a great loss. My sister and I are holding each other accountable this month in a 21 bags in 21 days purge of our homes. Why 21 days? The number simply derived from the fast I do every January to begin my year. I told my sister that along with food this month, I desired to fast "stuff" too. It's like a cleansing on the inside and out. So far, the Lord has taught me a few lessons concerning entitlement and hoarding any material items. They might seem like big bad words but He and I know exactly where those issues lie. Just as He is moving in me and through me, my home is going to reflect the cleansing. So far, about 16 bags have left my house and my school shelves are de-cluttered and organized. This is a monumental task, my friends. Ah, January is so good for getting rid of the old and on with the new. So thankful God's grace covers all the junk... but then reveals it for a good clean-up in His timing--and, when I'm most receptive.  
The kids' schoolwork bins (bottom right) are back in regular use. You can see clearly that "chucking" books into their bins is so much easier than lining things up nicely. Neat doesn't always last but I'm learning that "less" makes it simpler to deal with! This may look like a lot of books but I did remove about half of them. Yep, took me nearly nine years of homeschooling to get the concept :)
 
While my sister and I both entered into the Great Purge, I was met each morning by an encouraging email reminder to stick with it... along with a little update on how her removal of junk was coming along. Below is one of my favourites. Is it any wonder why I chose her as my accountability partner? :)
 


 

2 comments:

Anna said...

Your sister's hilarious! Great idea. Right now I have 3 garbage bags ready to go to C.P. I have a million more to do. Thanks for the inspiration!

Camille said...

Ah...yes! Purging is something I need to do around here as well...how good it feels when it is done!! And...where does all this stuff come from??! :)