9 Trashbags!

9 Trash-bags!

9 trash-bags full of stuff!

That is what I did this morning.  I filled bags full of stuff.

Trash. Clothes.  Toys. Shoes.  You name it it was probably somewhere in a bag.

That isn't how my morning started though.  My morning started with a little on-line shopping.  I checked amazon.com for its early black Friday deals to see if there was anything of interest.  Then I went to mylitter.com for her daily update of holiday deals.  Was there anything on my Christmas list?  (or not on my Christmas list?)

Yes! 

 Kohls started their black Friday sale on-line today!  With an extra 15% off, and free shipping, and $15 Kohls cash for every $50 spent!  Whoo hoo!

So I spent the next hour filling my cart full of exciting Christmas presents.

Actually it was over an hour.  It was more like an hour and a half.

1.5 hours to buy 7 presents that I will probably spend another hour wrapping.  Then those 7 presents will be opened most likely in less than 10 min.  

Did I stop shopping there? 

No.  

JcPenny also started their black Friday sales today.  With free shipping and an extra 20% off.  

All I bought at JcPenny was a much needed winter coat for myself.  It was a great deal and it was something I really needed because my winter coat bit the dust last year.  

But at the end of all that shopping I had this sudden urge to start cleaning and purging.

Now usually when I purge I head straight to the kids bedrooms-that is where all the clutter comes from right?

Well not today.  I headed to my closet and started pulling clothing off the hangers.  I started emptying drawers.  How many outfits does a person really need anyway?

Seriously how many do you need?  7? 14? 21?  

I pondered this as I pulled clothes from the closet.  7 I thought.  I only really need 7 winter outfits.  I don't work outside the home so I don't really have a need for multiple types of outfits.  But then I kept thinking of different scenarios where I would "need" different types of clothes-church, dates, everyday, painting/cleaning, camp, gym(well I might go back someday!)  And then all of a sudden it seemed impossible to narrow down my closet to 7 outfits.

I wish I could say I bit the bullet and purged all but 7 outfits.  I did not.  But I did clear out 2 trash-bags full of my own clothes. and 4 pairs of shoes!  

4 pairs of shoes!

Seriously it is hard for me to get rid of shoes so I am super proud of myself!  However I should mention that 2 of those pairs I have owned since high school!  Just to put that into perspective for you my 10 year reunion is this Saturday!  Yikes!  That means those shoes have lasted over 10 years-which also means that I must never wear them!

After my closet I cleaned out Jon's and then some other random stuff sitting in our attic.  After that I filled another bag entirely from items in my kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  That last few bags were made up of toys that I had bagged up 2 months ago but never actually got rid of them.  Two bags were full of trash that I found along the way.

9 bags in all.  9 bags of stuff we have no need for.  9 bags that at some point had cost us hundreds of dollars to fill.

Hundreds of dollars.

Now some of that was necessary.  We need clothes. We need shoes.  But did I really need all of those clothes?  No.

Did we need 3 trash-bags full of toys? No.

Hundreds of dollars.  Hundreds of dollars of trash.

Now of course it isn't really trash.  It is being donated and someone else will use it.

But was it really worth all that money?  Was it worth my husband's time and effort to earn?  Was it worth my time and effort to buy?  Was it worth my time an effort to store and clean?

I spent 1.5 hours today buying future "trash".  Then I spent another hour cleaning up our old "trash".

Is that what my life boils down to buying future trash, and cleaning up old trash?

Sometimes I think it is.

But I think I was meant for something so much more.

What if instead of spending money on "trash" I fed the homeless?

What if I clothed a widow?

What if I made it possible for a child to have clean water?

What if I made a memory playing at the park with my kids?

What if I worried less about my kids Christmas list and more about my kids hearts?

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

I want to trust in the Lord.  I want to be a bird.  I don't want to live among the trash anymore. 

And I am going to start by bringing less in my home this Christmas.   

I was meant to live for something more.

If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

-C.S. Lewis