Clutter

I hate clutter! It makes me nuts!

That does not, however, mean that my home is a clutter-free zone! There is a very big disconnect between what I consider ideal and what is actual reality. The thing that is making me craziest right now is our basement.......it is rapidly becoming a disaster area. Part of the problem is that because most of the area is unheated, it is really cold down there in the winter, particularly when winter is as cold as this one was. Then there is the fact that when we took down Christmas decorations, we didn't exactly put them back where they belong but just got them in the general area.....again, partly at least due to the cold. Last fall we repainted the office, so everything was moved out into the "storage space" and much of it still remains there to this day. In the office, clutter abounds, in part due to my husband's tendency to pile rather than file, as well as to my own procrastination. And not least in the list of reasons for all that clutter is the "stuff" we have accumulated over almost 37 years of marriage. Why we keep most of that stuff is a mystery yet to be solved! Probably the biggest of all reasons for the mess is my Scarlett O'Hara mentality about it all........I'll think about that tomorrow!

When I began this blogging adventure, one of my goals was to see spiritual lessons in the everyday things of life. And I think I have been confronted with a really big lesson here. How often in life we carry burdens/hold on to "stuff" that has no real purpose or value for us. It only weighs us down. Yet we don't stop to deal with it, to clean out the cobwebs and clutter of our lives, of our thinking. We continue to drag it all around with us. I think the mess in my basement is a real life picture of what the Scripture is talking about in Hebrews 12:1 when we are told to lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that entangles us so we can run the race with endurance. Who can run a race while carrying all this stuff around?! It's a picture of what Peter tells us about casting all our burdens on the Lord. We don't have to carry all this stuff through life! As I write that, I can't help but be aware of how much stuff, how many boxes are down in that basement that we have moved more times than I can count, that are full of stuff we never use, books we never read, things we very obviously don't have a need for. Yet, there they are. Why is it so hard to let go of stuff?

So, here's the deal. I'm ready to de-clutter. I'm ready to get rid of that unnecessary stuff. I just can't do it right now. No, I'm trying to procrastinate again. The reality is that the schedule won't allow that this week. Tomorrow morning I'm heading out of town for a day with my dad, then on to Columbia for my niece's wedding on Friday and will not return home until Sunday afternoon. And today is committed to finishing the laundry, doing final piano practice for the wedding, packing, and - I admit it - some pampering time for me with a hair and nail appointment this afternoon.

But I commit right now to begin the decluttering process on Monday. It won't be done in a day.....maybe not even in a week. But the process begins Monday.