Saturday Catch-Up - 23rd February 2019

Does it bring you joy?

I'm regularly encouraged to live.. simply. The world outside is increasingly complex, and I simply don't need that in my life any more. I have told that I have everything I need (Psalm 23).

As you may know, we're re-evaluating a number of different things at home, and this year that includes a regular decluttering regime. My son told me about the adage, the simple question noted at the top of this blog entry. It's a simple question, and comes from a book entitled The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up  by a Japanese author, Marie Kondo.

Do I need to keep it, bin it, sell it on, regift it, or recycle it? Far too difficult. Too many options. Too much emotion! So, let's simplify the question. And Marie's initial question in her book is far simpler... popularly known as the KonMari method, there's only one question:

Does it bring you joy?

If you answer yes, you keep it. If you hesitate or say no, you donate it or throw it out.

It's working!

Romans 15:13 (NIV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Saturday Catch-Up - 26th January 2019

January has seen the family get to grips with a heck of a lot of baggage. Physical and emotional!

Spring might well be the season of cleaning, but we've started early, well into Winter. Every week this year our family has tackled a different room in the house, and ruthlessly culled things. Recycling, re-evaluating, re-ordering or binning. It's making a difference.

I've blogged before about the emotional baggage that we unearth as we go. I think I'm actually in a better place than I used to be, as this time around I've found 'letting go' to be a much easier exercise than previous sessions. Far less painful. Mementos trigger memories which trigger emotions. But the memories this time around seem to be predominantly happier ones. I've smiled and laughed more. And thanks to my family, kept on going.

Still a whole bunch of rooms to go.

Decluttering : part two

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 : The Message

I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple — in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

I've been collecting tips and hints about decluttering for a while, and want to share some of these with you now. Some of these I've been using for a while; others I'm trying out at the moment:

A good starting point is a realisation that clutter enters your house pretty much every day (e.g., free papers, junk mail, flyers, gifts). So you need to remove it at least once every day. Even if it's only 15 minutes a day. Start by keeping a bin by the door so that the junk mail goes straight into it. It may have got its way into the porch; a little determination will stop it getting any further!

Stop bringing new stuff in now. That may mean buying nothing new, but if you are serious about decluttering this is a step you have to take, at least for a while. If there is a good pressing reason why you have to buy it, then use the 'one in, two out' rule. When you bring one item in, you have to throw two out!

If you haven't used in in a while, throw it away. Chances are, you won't miss it... If it's too good to throw away, sell it or give it away. Support your local church or charity and donate it to them. I've found that Freegle and Freecycle are very useful groups for giving away items that are otherwise difficult to donate. Your unwanted yet valuable items are doing nothing in your house; set them free to do their work. Hoarding them is a selfish act!

Free or Costly?

Do we really appreciate things that are free? This has been the subject of debate for a while in my family. You see, I have both friends and family who regularly use EBay to pass on unwanted goods or buy presents and who sometimes find out to their cost that things aren't always what they appear to be (caveat emptor). As for me, I much prefer to donate things to charities or to use facilities like Freecycle and Freegle, local web-based groups designed to keep useful items out of landfill, making these available to people if they are still useful. But does the value on the price tag make all the difference? 

On a similar tack, a recent chat with someone about voluntary work gave me pause for thought. 'You mean to say - you actually do this for nothing?' He could not understand why I could possibly give up my time for no financial reward... 

I think people get suspicious of our motives. The concept of 'free' in the 21st Century is often nothing more than a marketing tool, with a hidden agenda just around the corner... are we going to set signed up for something expensive on the back of the 'freebie'? A sprat to catch a mackerel', as they used to say...  is it going to turn into a costly venture, with a hard-sell pitch soon to follow...

Or perhaps there's those who don't see the freebie as being worth anything. A poor copy of the 'real thing'. One example could be the free newspaper that spills through our letterbox. Filled with ads that pay for the paper, some actually have very little actual news contained in its pages! My son and I have been looking at free apps for his iPod.  Most of the apps on offer are samples or cut-down trial versions. They aren't the real deal. 

Why is it surprising then that the free gift of God's love is often dismissed or rejected? Are folk wary of a forthcoming hard-sell sales pitch? Is the offer a poor substitute for what they perceive as 'real life'? Is it the real deal?

I think we need to start emphasising the costly things we do for Him. It is worthwhile, but it is costly ...

‘Doth that man love his Lord who would be willing to see Jesus wearing a crown of thorns, while for himself he craves a chaplet of laurel? Shall Jesus ascend to his throne by the cross, and do we expect to be carried there on the shoulders of applauding crowds? Be not so vain in your imagination. Count you the cost, and if you’re not willing to bear Christ’s cross, go away to your farm and to your merchandise, and make the most of them. Only let me whisper this in your ear, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” '  - Charles Spurgeon