BUT.....what I don't want is a big house full of absolutely everything. We have more storage space than we could ever have wanted....which I love.....but that doesn't mean I want all my storage space full of, well, stored things. Because if I'm storing things.....that means I'm not using them.
It's one thing to have a studio full of art supplies. They'll get used by either me in my own artwork or in the classes we teach at the gallery. I'm talking things in boxes I haven't seen since my wedding day 12 years ago.
A couple of months ago, I opened a box that was falling apart and found a wok inside. Wow. I didn't even know we had a wok. Never used one. Don't know how to use one. Then as I kept cleaning out the cabinets, I found another big box. What was inside? You guessed it. Another wok. Still in plastic.
Why in the name of Moses do I have 2 woks that have never seen the sunlight?
Kevin and I have decided that our life of clutter and excess is utterly ridiculous. Especially after we saw our own spending and 'need' of all things new passed on to our kids. Kevin got the girls plastic balls to play with in the backyard a couple of weeks ago, which they played with endlessly for about a day. The other day, Molly complained she was bored and I told her to go outside and kick around her new ball.
'It's not new anymore, Mom', she said. Because it's 2 weeks old. And it's not her fault. She learned it from her parents who, literally, get 2 boxes from Amazon every week of whatever it is we 'need' delivered on our doorstep.
We are done. We are calling it quits before it ruins us.
We've been reading a book called '7, An Experimental Mutiny against Excess' by Jen Hatmaker. Oh boy.....very inspiring and well worth a read. It's pretty much about how she decided to combat our American lives of excess for 7 months. And Kevin and I found a lot of inspiration there. So, riding on Mrs. Hatmakers coat tails, we have decided to combat our own American excess.
Kevin and I are giving away 5 things each every day during the month of May. At the end of the month, that will mean we have given away 300 items. And I'm not talking about a piece of yarn or a broken toaster......that's trash. I'm talking about usable items.
I'm so looking forward to the challenge. And what I'm really looking forward to is when we are halfway through the month when we've given away 150 things between us and have to start being very intentional about what stays and what goes. I think I'll learn a lot about myself and what is actually important to me. Yikes.
It all begins tomorrow....May 1, 2013.
Oh boy.......I can't wait.
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