Stuff

Have you noticed that this is a generation of stuff? It has not been too many decades ago, that a family would have been delighted to have a two-car garage for parking and for storage. After all, the average family in the 1950’s might store the family Christmas tree, some of Dad’s hand tools, perhaps a lawnmower, and maybe one automobile in their garage. Have you looked in your garage lately?

Stuff has invaded and robbed the lives and more importantly, the time of our generation. Two car garages have grown into three and four car garages (mainly filled with stuff and not cars). Storage units have sprung up all across America to hold what stuff doesn’t fit in the four car garages. Americans are spending hard earned income to store junk! Closet size is increasing in new construction and these new super-sized closets now require organizational racks and fixtures to hold even more stuff inside the closets. Entire stores are based on selling organizational supplies. Storage totes in all sizes, shoe organizers, tie organizers, gift wrapping organizers – see what I mean? We are a nation of wasters, hoarders, and spenders.

And what bothers me more than the physical space that all of this stuff demands is the mental space that it invades and causes the mind to be preoccupied with sorting, storing, cleaning, organizing stuff. After I developed leukemia, I began a quick, clean sweep of our home. Stuff robbed time from me and since I didn’t know how much time was at hand for me, the stuff had to go! Clutter will clutter one’s mind as well as one’s living quarters. Clutter requires time. If I purchase an item, then an item of the same type must go (to someone in need or to a thrift store to support the homeless, for example). By following the “item in, item out” rule, stuff doesn’t accumulate. I also tried to go through our home and purge items that we had not used in the past year or so. Freedom comes with purging one’s closets, garage, and home. Try it!

Lastly, one of the reasons I detest our country’s focus on material increase and stashing stuff to the ceiling in every room, is the time that is taken from our relationship with God when we become a society of "stuffers". Stuff requires attention and maintenance. Just think of the blessings that would come if we purged items we don’t need, give them away, and experience not only the joy of giving, but also the freedom from stuff. Time is a precious commodity in our all-too-busy world. If we will just take a few moments and assess our homes, closets, garages, trunks, and attics, we will see that our loads could be lightened in many aspects of having the yard sale of all yard sales.

Start purging today! Give away! Sell! Toss it to the curb! Do whatever it takes to free up some of your time for God and your family. Stuff will never thank you but God and your family will reward you when you toss the stuff.