Things That Make Me Happy # 22

Strolling around the Internet one day, I came across a blog post entitled "100 Things That Make Me Happy". What a great idea, I thought as I scanned the list, so Fridays (or Saturdays, like today) are now dedicated to things that make me happy!

Things That Make Me Happy!
# 22  Purging Our Home

This is a picture of all the boxes of toys, books, knick knacks, games, kitchen utensils etc. that left our house today in the yard sale! Wow, who knew that we had so much stuff in our house ... stuff that we don't need!  And even more amazing, is the fact that our house still contains everything that we do need, and more, and we will not miss any of these objects!

When we first started thinking about having a yard sale, I didn't think that we would have enough to make it a decent sale, so we invited some other families to join us -- more families would also be more fun!  I knew that we had a pile here and a box there, but after looking at our goods all piled together, I was shocked!  We had way more than I thought. How does one accumulate so much without realizing it?

Maybe it's because it enters our homes -- yes, OUR homes because you  know it happens to you too --  little bits at a time. What's one more piece of paper, or toy, or book, right?  But it adds up fast and when you see it all together like this ... well, it really put things into perspective for me.

From now on, I'm going to be very mindful about what comes into our house -- we are off to a good start by not buying anything from the other families at the yard sale, yeah us!  I am going to ask myself some simple questions like:  "do we really need that whatever it is?" or "do we have something that would or could do the same job?".  I'm going to do better at saying "no thanks" when people (in kindness, I know) offer us things that we might not need.  And I am going to try harder to re-purpose the things that we have, both to keep them from being thrown out, and to keep new things from entering our home.

I still feel that there is more that we could eliminate from our house, but we have taken a HUGE step forward.  So today, I am celebrating our successful start and our home is feeling lighter and more peaceful already.

Do you have any suggestions for keeping the possessions in your home to a manageable number?