Mischief Managed

This week I found myself wondering how many hours I will spend over my lifetime cleaning, decluttering, and reorganizing different areas in my home. How many minutes of this precious gift of a life will be shrouded in stress and anxiety because my domestic surroundings have a hand-holding relationship with my mental health. Our family, much like many others, routinely complete the cycle of purchase, place, purge. My husband and I are constantly trying to figure out how to tetris our closets or cabinets and come up with storage solutions to house all of our belongings. Belongings that once seemed like a blessing now the sepulcher for the illness called overconsumption.

In a country that peddles this disease as the norm, each commercial, influencer, and department store will find ways to spend your money. That’s why cognizant, intentional spending is so important.

Intentional spending.

Stewardship.

This has really been tumbling around in the dryer of my mind since God got my attention with the aforementioned word. Two weeks ago, I was granted the opportunity to put the wisdom I wrote from my last blog post to the test.

One of the things I enjoy doing in Georgia each summer is spending an afternoon in Mayberry-esque downtown Clayton, walking and browsing through items in each of the stores. Most of the stores are one of a kind with unique clothing pieces, unusual home décor, and interesting gift items. One place I spend money every year is Wander. Mostly geared toward lovers of the outdoors, I always find something, whether it’s a piece of clothing, hand crafted soap, or small batch coffee. They even place your purchased items in a cute reusable bag to cut down on plastic waste.

However, this year just felt different. I went downtown and browsed through the store for thirty minutes and found so many things I’d love to buy, I knew I needed to narrow the items down before I spent a small fortune. But ultimately, I reminded myself that I hadn’t spent the hours purging what I already had at home and organizing my house in such a way that I actually truly knew what I owned. To be honest, I don’t even know what all I have in my house, and I consider our home to be more on the clutter free side than the average American home. We can, after all, pull our car in the garage in comparison to the millions of Americans who use this space as additional storage.

By the time thirty minutes was up, it felt frivolous to purchase anything, bring it home, and let it cross over my threshold, adding to the overwhelming number of items that our house currently contains.

But that’s the American way. We see something we like, and we consume. And we accumulate and accumulate. Heck! We even go stores when we don’t need anything just to “browse” to see if we are missing out on something!

In that moment, I took the time to ask myself why I wanted the handful of things that I wanted, and I couldn’t come up with any better answer than I liked them and I knew it would feel good to get that dopamine hit when I walked out the door with those items in my possession.

But that dopamine hit is temporary. Eventually our petty, feel-good-in-the-moment purchases turn into a graveyard of belongings that suck the life out of our souls when we are drowning in “things” in our homes.

The truth is, all the items I was interested in were just variations of things I already had. I essentially wanted to spend my money on duplicates.

So I walked away and swore that I was not going to purchase one more thing until I’ve done the hard work of getting my house in order. Performing a census on every last belonging, letting go of what doesn’t serve me well, what doesn’t spark joy. Creating space to breathe.

I told Brent I’m tired of spending so much of my life managing things. Imagine a life in which the items I owned were fewer, but of higher quality and brought me joy. With fewer items, I would spend so much less time decluttering and organizing my house. Time I could have back to invest in the things I actually love doing and the people I enjoy walking this road of life with. Not to mention reducing the anxiety I feel when there are hidden messes lurking behind each closet door!

I’ve always loved beautiful, inspiring spaces, and I have a dream to make my home a sanctuary of calm, peace, beauty, filled with the people and items I love. It’s hard to make a sacred retreat when you look around and your soul feels jarred by the visual cacophony of stuff.

So now I’m on a journey. My first step is to simplify.

Imagine how much easier it is for our spirits to fly when not weighed down by the tonnage of things.