Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri
Katy is represented by
Greg Johnson at
WordServe Literary
Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net
Recent Posts
- Try
- Becoming Brenda Starr
- Off Beat
- Scattered
- That’s It
- So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What?
- The Spoon
- Sciatica
- Sweetheart
- A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose
- However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time
- After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices.
- As with everything in life, balance is key.
- Slow down, you move too fast…
- Yeah, I know. I have issues.
Syndicate
E me at katy @ ngenius.com
So Much Less To Be Thankful For…
Thanksgiving has come and gone and we’re all stuffed to the gills. But that’s no excuse for our homes to be stuffed, too.
Last fall, I wrote about the book I had to buy because of it’s catchy title, “Lose Two Hundred Pounds This Weekend!” I spent about a month weeding through every inch of this place, or so I thought.
What’s amazing is that I haven’t had five minutes to shop in the entire past year, and yet here I am, losing another gazillion pounds. And it feels SO GOOD!
Last night, Doug listed a bunch of stuff on eBay. This morning we had the happy news that we’d been paypaled a cool $60. Motivating, huh?
Today, we’ve made a run to the library with a book donation weighing a hundred pounds or so. I’ve accumulated into one bag the baby clothes I’ve been buying on clearance for a local ministry, and I’ll deliver them tomorrow. And I’ve dragged the trash bags of clothes down from the attic for the annual donation to the local thrift store.
We’ll make a run to the toxic waste drop-off site with scores of old paint cans and other household chemicals, and on the way take a bunch of new gifty items (with the tags still on) to the Salvation Army for their Christmas gift store.
In the process of weeding, we’ve uncovered more unadulterated trash than any household has a right to be hoarding, and hauled it to the street.
In one day, we’ve probably processed several hundred pounds of stuff that will soon cease to be a part of our lives. Think how much money slipped through my fingers to purchase it to begin with, and then how many times I’ve ended up handling each item while I tried to decide how on earth to dispense with it.
There’s a lot of worthless guilt associated with these accumulation/possession/maintenance/dispersal behaviors, and I don’t have time for it anymore. I’m through holding onto stuff just because I “should”—especially when sometimes “should” just means that I feel so bad for buying it to start with that I have to justify myself by holding onto it!
Who needs that kind of long-term punishment? Not me!
I keep imagining that one day God might speak to us in our heart of hearts, and say something like “Go.”
And that instead of answering, “Yes, Lord. Just name the place!” we’d have to say, “Do you have a few years, God? Because that’s how long it’s going to take us to get rid of all this junk.”
Man, I’d hate to have to say that to someone like Him.
- Katy, cleaning out and ridding myself of the prison of "stuff" is one of my goals over the coming weeks and months, one drawer, one closet at a time. Your post inspired me to persevere!
Posted by Robin on 11/26/05 at 09:49 PM
- Hang in there, Robin! It's an ongoing battle to be sure. But every time I chisel through another bar on the prison door, I'm more convinced than ever that the last thing I'll ever need is more stuff.
The older I get, the more passionate I become about "being" and "doing," rather than "getting" and "having."
It's a welcome change!Posted by Katy on 11/26/05 at 10:14 PM - Katy, you're reading my mind!! Does this have anything to do with moving aging parents? I know after we cleared out Mom's apartment, I looked at my accumulations in a whole new way.
Posted by violet on 11/27/05 at 09:26 AM
- Oh, yeah, baby! We closed down my mother's home, with its 45-year accumulation three 1/2 years ago. We moved her into assisted living, and divided the rest of the possessions. Then we moved her to an independent apartment last February. Then a few things into a nursing home in August. Then all her stuff back into assisted living a few weeks ago. And she manages to keep gathering somehow!
We closed down my MIL's house, with its 35 year accumulation, nearly two years ago. Divided the rest of her possessions and moved her into assisted living. She, too, was (and is) an incorrigible pack-rat.
I don't want to do the same thing to my kids! Granted, our moms were both young widows, and that makes it harder to keep up with a big home. So Doug and I are doing it NOW and on an ongoing basis. Our kids may not know enough to thank us for this later, but I'm truly thinking of them as I weed through the nonsense.
Happy sorting!!! :)Posted by Katy on 11/27/05 at 12:56 PM - I love it, Katy :) I sooo want to weed out MUCH of the stuff accumulated, especially the kid's stuff they've outgrown. However, I will wait for a long time so they don't associate any of that with the divorce. But, the day IS coming, and I cannot wait!!!
Posted by Ame on 11/27/05 at 11:16 PM
- Healthy, meaningful purging. The perfect apres-Turkey Day activity. :-)
Posted by Jennifer on 11/29/05 at 11:39 AM
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