Decluttering « Fruitful Words

Posts filed under 'Decluttering'

4 Secrets to Contentment

How content are you? Always? Never? Sometimes?

Pastor Mike is doing a series on Generosity in a World of Greed. Sunday’s message was titled, “The Lost Art of Doing Without.” One of the gems from the sermon was how to be content.

The most important step to contentment is . . .

. . . Seek the Lord above all else and you will have what you need

How do you fare in this area on a scale of 1-10?
Do you seek God before seeking goods?
How will you seek the Lord today…Prayer…Read Scripture…Obey Scripture…Other?
Make a list of your needs. Share this list with a friend. Would s/he agree these are needs? Share this list with God in prayer. Compare it to Scripture (I.e. Matthew 6:33). Are they truly needs or are wants mixed in there too?

“At one time or another, we’re all guilty of allowing wants to live in our hearts as needs.” Jim Fay & Charles Fay

Pastor shared 3 more secrets to being content. Read the 3 following statements. Pick the correct answer.

Fight the impulse to . . .

(a) “have it now!” (b) shop. Shopping is evil. (c) share.

Don’t buy things . . .

(a) you can’t afford. (b) ever. (c) that are cheaply made.

Remember your most important needs are . . .

(a) food, clothing and shelter. (b) good quality chocolate. (c) to be put on hold until you tithe.

The correct answer for each statement of truth is letter (a). Delayed gratification and correctly identifying/buying needs versus wants are actions that lead to contentment.

How are you doing with the above secrets? Is there a change you will make today? What is that change?

Pastor based his sermon on 1 Timothy 6: 3-19. Read and ponder these Scriptures. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you from these verses? Share what you learned/heard with at least one person today.

My Plate’s Full. How’s Yours?

I’m still being mindful of the 30 Days of Nothing & the Friday Decluttering Challenge. Sorry that I haven’t made it to the keyboard to post about my progress and thoughts. This next week will prove to be just as busy – some deadlines coming up for school.

To see what happened on the Friday Declutter Challenge, go to this post on Marcia Francois’ Organising Queen.

Click here to see who’s participating with Mary of Owlhaven in her 30 Days of Nothing.

So what are you up to this week?

1 comment .

Friday Declutter Challange A Miscellaneous Mixture

When I am crazy busy with a project and need to take a break or procrastinate, I’ll tackle another project for a bit. Luckily for me, it was decluttering.

September 6: Pile of papers from my desk.

September 7: One empty box (wahoo – all those papers are now in the trash), one magic set filled with broken and missing pieces, & paper trash (from the box).

September 8: More discarded papers.

September 9: Went through a box of clothes and books. Both yielded items that no longer fit who I am.

September 9: One Basket . . .Two Clear Ornaments . . .Three bottles of glass paint.

Read this post to see why I gave them up. The pertinent part starts with these sentences: “I have some ornament kits that I thought I would make with my children. My children are now 24 and 25.”

September 10: Pile of socks. Mates are MIA and have been for several months.

September 11: Decluttered my inbox: Down to 83.

Go to Marcia’s place, Organising Queen to sign up for this week’s challenge or to see what others have accomplished. If accountability, camaraderie, and encouragement would help you with decluttering, consider joining the decluttering challenge and then share your results next Friday.

5 comments .

A Fellow Declutter Needs Some Encouragement

The following is from the comment section of this post. Ladies, would you please encourage this dear soul?

Hi All,

I didn’t do the challenge officially because I was relocating to a new province all through August and literally barely touched my computer. I have quite the e-mail backlog going on here!

Because I was packing and moving, I did get rid of a lot of stuff, though, and now that I’m pulling stuff out of boxes, am realizing that I need to get rid of even more! But, I’ve started my new job and only got my stuff a couple of days before I went back to work (was supposed to be sooner), so it’s still quite a disaster in here. I did all the essentials over the weekend (stuff came on Friday and I started work on Monday), and am now at a halt.

Would someone give me some motivational words to help me get going? I’m exhausted and actually got very sick because of how crazy hard I was pushing myself, but just need to keep going a bit longer to get this house together before I crash completely. I think I probably expect too much of myself, but who can stand to look at boxes and junk everywhere? Any and all advice/wisdom/good thoughts would be received with gratitude!!!

Love,
Zaniah

9 comments .

Identifying Not Just Goals, But Legacy Goals Makes Junk Tossing Easier

Artist and blog author Luann Udell thinks the “How-to” articles in magazines are not all that helpful. They don’t live up to there titles. So, when cleaning out her attic a pile of ArtCalendar magazines was an easy toss.

But it was time for a 10 minute break and a cup of coffee so, Luann grabbed a magazine that declared, Summer Project: Declutter Your Studio/Three Easy Steps. This article, written by Jo Israelson, a master stone carver, installation artist, AND personal organizer, actually proved helpful. It taught Luann how to make some hard choices.

The help came in the form of identifying the goals for this project: “Understanding why we are doing this will help us stay centered and focused when the process gets hard.”

The following suggested goals are for artists, but they can be readily adapted for those of us non-artists.

Downsizing
Retiring
Trying to be more organized
Make room for larger pieces
Getting ready for a studio sale or tour
Overcoming a block

There are more that Luann didn’t list. I NEED to find a copy of this issue to see what I’m missing.

Luann goes on to share, “But the part that is absolutely brilliant to me is when she [Jo Israelson] asks us to define our legacy goals. This will help us move through the inevitable emotional wall we hit when the initial euphoria of de-junking ebbs, and the sadness, confusion and frustration of the process overwhelm us.”

Jo Israelson says, “Your legacy goals will serve as the framework for the distribution of the remaining items.”

A legacy is what is passed on to others, whether it be ethereal like advice, values and love or more practical like physical stuff. Usually a legacy is given upon death.

But it can be given while still alive. And that’s how I choose to look at my decluttering. First, look at the meaning or memory behind the item. Then decide who could best benefit from that meaning. Some times it will be Goodwill because there is no good memory or no there is no attachment to the object.

I have some ornament kits that I thought I would make with my children. My children are now 24 and 25. I held onto these because of the potential memories they had in my mind. Mafia Princess would love to create with her children. And these memories will move from potential to actual. I can now release those items.

What I give away can help someone else in their legacy. What I keep helps define mine. I am no longer a homeschool mom, a procrastinating crafter, a mindless collector of miscellaneous stuff.

I am . . . a grad student . . . a mom with adult children . . . . a finisher of projects and books . . . . a purposeful collector of fine art. Thanks to my artist daughter . . . And I’m more.

Although, I am not too sure -yet – of ALL of who I am. I’m sure all of my stuff does NOT accurately express my legacy.

With this legacy-focus on decluttering I have a direction. And I have a permission to release who I was and grow into who I am becoming. . . . without guilt, restraint, or hurry.

Go here to read the whole post by Luann Udell. It is tip #5 in the series on “Cleaning the Attic.”

I hope to see you all sign up for Friday’s Declutter Challanege at Marcia Francois’ Oranising Queen.

2 comments .

2 Decluttering Tips From This Week’s Decluttering Challenge Entries

The month of August was a daily month-long decluttering challenge hosted by Organising Queen and My Simpler Life. It helped push me into thinking about decluttering every day.

Marcia from Oranising Queen is now hosting a weekly Delutter Challenge. Every Friday we post what we did the previous days regarding decluttering.

In a nutshell, this week, I have been working on decluttering piles of papers. I’ve even helped myself by buying some folders and filing away the important ones.

Below are two tips I gleaned from the entries.

Books. Culling the bookshelves to reduce their number is a hard one for me. Domestic Bliss asks these questions (at this post) of fiction and non-fiction books to determine if they stay or they go.
Put away and organize simply & thoughtfully. Mom to 2 Busy Boys shows how that works here. Doing these two things can make a nice difference.

What tips will you be able to use?

6 comments .

Month Long Decluttering Ends with Wahoo, Links & Lessons Learned

Marcia from Organising Queen says I deserve a huge pat on the back since I decluttered every day this past month. You know what? I agree.

There are some others who also did the same.

Wahoo & congrats to ALL of us

This is what I did this past month.

For Week 1 Decluttering go here.
For Week 2 Decluttering go here.
For Week 3 Decluttering go here.
For Week 4 Decluttering go here.
For Week 4.5 Decluttering go here.

If you want to see what others did, go to this link.

I learned 3 things this past month.

(1) Decluttering one item a day is doable and adds up over a month. In order to NOT get discouraged about the huge task, I need to concentrate on the one thing I can do today. Because I was able to keep that focus, I usually decluttered more than one thing. Of course, I celebrated that. But, for the days I decluttered one thing, I celebrated just as much.

(2) I learned that I’ve been decluttering more than physical things. The act of decluttering, for some of us, is an emotional task. Thankfully, I’ve been dealing with some of these emotions. So, I was able to declutter some expectations, memories, and guilt associated with various things.

(3) Boy, do I expect a LOT from myself. You should see my to-do list. I admit, pretty unrealistic. The same is true for what I think I can declutter in a day. My expectations were way off, and still are on some days. I didn’t get all this stuff in one day, one week or even one month. So, it will take me some months to declutter fully. I know that Clean House is NOT coming here to rescue me – to get me all decluttered and organized. I can do this.One item at a time. And with God’s help I can decide upon and follow a doable schedule and to-do list.

Finally, what is the biggest impact on my home? To be truthful, at times, it is still messy. Mainly because I’m not too good about putting things back after I’ve used them. I know that having a clutter free home takes more than just getting rid of the clutter. I’d like to answer this question after another month of decluttering. maybe then, I’ll have an answer.

Thank you to Marcia from Organising Queen and Beth from My Simpler Life for this challenge and for giving me (and us) the opportunity to declutter and grow as individuals and as a group.

9 comments .

August Declutter Challenge – Summary Week 4.5

Here is the summary for the last 3 days of this August Challenge.

Day 29: 17 items were found between the washer and dryer. The 5 socks are now washed and with their mates. The other 12 items are in the recycle bin.

Day 30: 12 items were tossed or given away from the bathroom sweep for clutter.

Day 31: 8 videos/DVD’swere thrifted or returned home.

For Week 1 Decluttering go here.
For Week 2 Decluttering go here.
For Week 3 Decluttering go here.
For Week 4 Decluttering go here.

The month long challenge is now done. I fulfilled the terms of the challenge. But I see that I had higher expectations for myself. Well, challenge or no, I still have tomorrow to declutter one thing a day, Like this blogger who has decided to follow a 365 days of decluttering challenge. How well did you do?

1 comment .

August Declutter Challenge – Day 31 (Media Cabinet)

Today’s decluttering is brought to you by the media cabinet. Besides housing the obvious TV, VHS player and DVD player it also has many videos and a few DVD’s.

I am returning 4 titles to their proper homes and thrifting 4 items. Wahoo to me!

The other movies that I have in the cabinet and in one tub are full of the movies my kiddos watched growing up. I want to go through those titles with my kiddos (24 & 25 years old).