These past few weeks we have been moving my mom-in-law out of her rented house and into her mom's house, in order to care for her own mother.
Glenn and his brother worked relentlessly, packing her up, and moving. It took well over 10 days.
Needless to say, the guys are now both cranky and physically unwell from over exhaustion on this project.
His mom has a lot of stuff. I mean a LOT. Years and years of accumulation. She has an attachment to most of it, so it was very difficult for her to let any of it go. She is a widow, and so many of her things are a reflection of her once perfect marriage, and her beloved. She simply couldn't bear to part with any of it. The problem was that she was moving her already full house into an already full smaller house, without putting ANY of it into storage.
This has caused me to reflect on my own life. What about the stuff that I have? Could I part with it? What is important to me? How do we live simply, and yet fully with the treasures that bring function to our lives, or memories, or special gifts from people that mean so much to us?
In the last 4 years I have moved twice. I moved out of my home, and marriage and into a tiny apartment with my 3 kids. I couldn't take it all with me, so I got rid of so many things. It felt good to purge, but I will be honest, there was a moment for a while, where I physically felt the emptiness, and felt loss.
My second move was from my apartment to my new home 2500 miles away, and again I purged. I got rid of so many things that were special to me, keeping only a few treasures. I didn't purge as much as I could have, but I didn't know what to do with the memories. So I packed them away and stored them in my basement. They are still there, in a few boxes. They have been sitting there for 2 years.
In the meantime, the treasures I unpacked were immediately destroyed by our cats. It was like a message from Spirit saying, "Look, see? You didn't really need that, now, did you? Its just a material thing. " It was hard for me, but I was resigned.
In the last 2 years, my hubby and I have filled out house up with stuff together. Granted they are things we need, but now I feel a closing in of too much stuff.
When Glenn's mom moved we decided to help her out by storing a few things for her at our house. We filled up 2/3rds of our basement with her boxes (And the sad thing is, its less than a quarter of her things).
I literally feel the stuff below my feet. It's like an energy within the clutter. I can't even bring myself to go into our basement to get a decent look at what we have.
This morning I was reading one of my favorite blogs :"No Impact Man". Today's blog was a reflection about consumerism, and whether it buys us happiness. It really gave me pause to think. Go over and read it, and come back and tell me what you think.
I have made a decision in my own life, based on the nightmare that Glenn and his brother had to go through with own mother and all her "Stuff". Starting this weekend, I am going to go room by room, and clear out all the doesn't make me happy. That doesn't have function in our life, that doesn't get used, that just collects dust. It might take me months. I plan on throwing the biggest garage sale, and encouraging all those that live around me to participate as well. Its time to purge, to clear out, to live simply.
Its a start.
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