Lose the Clutter and Appreciate the Simple Life
Chances are, you are like the rest of us. You’ve got a house full of stuff you don’t even use, let alone need.
Last year, our youngest son went off to college and my husband and I became “empty nesters” as we began a new chapter in our lives in a 2,000 square foot house with 4 bedrooms.It is amazing what you find in closets that were left behind by your children when they realize that they will only have so much space in their dorm room. They want the perks of living at home without all of the other stuff they really don’t need.
Honestly, it is amazing what they amass in a small amount of time and how much of it is left behind.Although our two youngest boys are back home for the summer, I realize that the middle one will be leaving the majority of his things here as he plans on staying over the summer next year to take some classes and get a job as he gets ready to enter his senior year of college.
Although that passive of life is here for our two youngest boys (our oldest is 25 and living on his own) as they set out to find out what “life is all about,” I also now see just how cluttered things are in my life.
When we are young, we seek to have the best of whatever everyone else and whatever was in at the time. (“Trending” wasn’t even a “trend” back then.)As we grew older, “enough” always seemed to be something just out of reach and yet we never really knew when we had it either.
Something was always missing and I couldn’t even tell you what it was either.Maybe my appreciation for my yearning for a more simple life is now a result of this new chapter. Maybe it is just a realization that whatever I was seeking, I already had. Maybe it was the vastness I saw in the empty bedrooms I walked past every day and the dust covered furniture that goes unused.
But the real awakening came when I saw things in my life differently…and not just with things. I saw it with people too.
So I decided to draw a line.A line that cannot be changed.A line that separates the things and people I need to discard and the ones I need to keep.Have you ever done something like this? It is more than just cleaning out your closet and donating what you don’t wear to a local clothing warehouse. It is more than being friendly with people just because your paths cross every once in a while.
It means making a choice.It means sticking to that choice.It means being okay with whatever you choose, without justification to anyone.It means not overthinking your decision.It means letting things go.
Living simply doesn’t mean you have everything…it means you have enough. When you have enough, you see life as always being full and blessed. You start to see what you have and not what you don’t. You begin to understand that space is relative to your needs and if you don’t need more, why do you have more? Or want more?
Take the time to lose the clutter. Repaint the bedroom is you must. Let some people go. Only keep the things and people that bring joy to your life. Live simple.
