We Americans acquire stuff in droves like lollipops acquire lint in pockets. Lint doesn't make the lollipop any sweeter, and in fact, it's practically ruined until some clean-up takes place. My house is like that.
Already being under the discipline of one-income helps: we just can't afford to purchase new belongings at every whim. What we do, instead, is keep stuff. We keep everything. It's my fault mostly. I think we may "need it" someday. I've got piles of "need its" in my garage and closets. How often are you going to need pants that don't fit? Yeah.
Tomorrow we are in Lent. I can use this yearly discipline to tweak this. Lent is all about the exercise of three spiritual practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. In the past several years I've focused on the first two. This year will change that. I'm going to work on my alms!
The plan is to fill a shopping bag a day and donate it to charity. This may get hard. Some things may not fit in a bag. I may have to think outside the piles of boxes as the days move on towards Holy Week. I just know I'll be tempted to sell some of this stuff in a yard sale. I'll let you know how it goes.
You want to try?
Where I got the idea...
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