Stuff . . .

One of the good things about getting ready to move is going through all your stuff. We uncluttered quite a bit when we made the move from Holland to Spring Lake. We actually had two garage sales - one before our overseas trip and one after. Ten months overseas living out of one bag made us realize how little we could live with. With the move to Spring Lake we also moved into a new stage of family life, so we could get rid of lots of "kid" stuff that just wasn't necessary anymore.

Dennis and I are the kind of people that go through our clothes once a year to eliminate stuff we didn't wear in the last year, or clothes that just plain wore out. Unfortunately, age, weight and shape, also determine whether certain clothes are keepers or not. For the most part, we like clutter-free living, but getting ready to put the house up for sale causes one to think through what you really want to move next time around.

So, we started in the basement... sorted through storage cupboards to find things we had moved from Holland that simply have stayed in the cupboards for the past 11 years. Unless it's really sentimental, it goes. Eleven years without use already answers the question of whether we should keep it or not. And then there's the stuff you just accumulate over time. This time we move without kids, so we got rid of lots of stuff in the game closet. Only things we save now is if it meets the "grandkids" criteria.

Since we've decided against the time and effort a garage sale takes, we're putting into effect the "Throw Away, Give Away, Put Away" rule. We've already taken two trunk (not truck!) loads of stuff to Goodwill, another load to Love INC, and the garbage man picked up our first bin of throw away stuff yesterday morning. Dennis and I have been walking around the house saying, "Wow, it feels so good to do that!" We've got some stuff that will benefit a college student's first apartment and a few other things we're going to offer to families in our small group.

And all those photos that I've been meaning to get to... well, I threw away the ones that I have no idea where it was, what it was, or when it was. The keepers went into boxes marked "Josh," "Jamie," "Joni," "Julie," and "Dennis & Gwen." That's for whenever I get to those albums. If only we had iphoto 30 years ago!

I found a great website on the "Psychology of Clutter" by a Dr. Ragan. Take the "Clutter Style Quiz" on this post to see if you are a stasher, stacker, or spreader. If you want to know exactly how the "rule" mentioned above works, check out this post. Dr. Ragan says, "The key to all of this is being able to manage the amount of stuff you have and reassess the idea of how much stuff you need. You want to get to the place where everything you have in your life is useful and everything has a place."

Sounds good to me! Now we've got to sell a house!