I had an “a-ha” moment the other day, when thinking about this journey I’ve been on for more than three years. We all have a threshold when it comes to our possessions. Thresholds exist for most things…we have a threshold for pain, a patience threshold (one I’m constantly working on), a threshold for the number of shows our DVR will hold. My DVR’s threshold is extremely high and yet I still find myself having to go and pick through which of my kids 100+ shows I can delete to make room for what I want to watch. (More on this in another post). I had just never really thought about there being a tipping point when it comes to my possessions.
The problem is we think our possessions threshold is in direct correlation to the size of the spaces we live in and this is where we go wrong. Terribly, overwhelmingly wrong. See, as your house fills up with belongings you think, ugh, we need a bigger house. And so you go about looking for a bigger house, usually buying the one with the most square footage (or most storage) within your budget. The problem is you move all of your possessions into this new house without getting rid of all the things you don’t really need. This house has a ton of storage, you think you will never fill it up…But you do. Two years later you are overwhelmed (again) with the amount of STUFF you have accumulated, on top of the 15 (or so) boxes sitting in your garage/basement/storage room that you never got around to unpacking when you moved in. Only now, you have also reached your mortgage threshold (see, they’re everywhere) and there is no way you can move to another, even bigger house. And so you feel overwhelmed, and tired and just weighed down by all. this. stuff.
Now, having more space means you CAN have more things, but it doesn’t mean you should. At the end of the day, you are one person. One person with a threshold of what you can accomplish in a day. You can only pick up so much, work so much, clean so much and even think about so much in a day. This is why our homes (and our heads) feel so overwhelmed. We have met and greatly exceeded our thresholds.
So, how do you begin reducing your stuff? Pick a space in your house, a closet, a cabinet or even a drawer (the JUNK drawer is a good place to start). Open it, look at it’s contents. Has this space exceeded it’s threshold? Go through and eliminate what you can from it. Trash the trash, put the things that don’t belong there where they should go. If you have multiples of the same item, keep the one you actually use and donate the rest. You’ll know this space is within it’s threshold when you can look at it and no longer feel the overwhelming weight of too much. Then…move on to the next space!
Light and Love,
Kendra