Sorting

The more of our possessions go into boxes, the more I realize we can do without things. More than half of all we own is packed away and we still are doing quite well.

That has me thinking.

We my husband’s family came across the country in a covered wagon, all their household goods fit into a single wooden chest which now sits in his grandmother’s garage. The rest of the wagon was filled with farm tools and foodstuffs.

How is it that in 3 generations we have gone from one wooden chest to piles of boxes, and how much is enough? Do I really need all of the serving platter that I have? Wouldn’t extra dinner plates do the job just as well? I only use them once or twice a year anyway, so maybe the extended family should pool resources and share what they have on holidays instead of trying to impress each other by having the prettiest table. Wouldn’t that make more sense?

I can’t help but feel as though these giant piles of stuff are just getting in the way of my relationships with my husband, my children, and most importantly my God. I spend so much time taking care of these things that I have less time to spend with those who should have the majority of my attention.

Instead of having to do 8 loads of laundry all at once, wouldn’t it be better to have fewer clothes and have to do one load of laundry daily or people would be naked? The one load would take less of my time to do and wouldn’t be nearly as exhausting. So what if we wear the same clothes over and over. My grandmother had a church dress and 2 school dresses. Guess what? She lived. She grew up to be pretty well adjusted. While that ‘s a bit more spartan of an existence than I advocate, there has to be a place between my grandmother’s wardrobe and my eldest daughter’s which over flows 2 large closets that makes sense.

I am hoping that all of the packing and purging of moving to the new house will lead us to a place where we can live with fewer of the material things of this world and more of the things that really matter