Well, it’s official. Every drawer, cabinet, dresser, closet has been opened in my house. When I started this week, I told myself that nothing was off-limits. I was going to evaluate everything. I will admit that this has taken a lot of brain power. It would be easier not to evaluate it all, but this fast experience isn’t about easy. As result of putting everything under the microscope, I am happy to say that I had more to purge than I thought. I am blown away by what God has done this week. He has given me eyes to see my excess and the ability to let go out. Don’t worry! Jeremy’s biggest fear didn’t come true. We still have furniture. We’re not sleeping on the floor with one blanket. We will still live very comfortable lives. It’s shocking to think I can give away so much and still HAVE so much.
My unusual jewelry tin!
Yesterday, I went through my crafts supplies and stationary. I was able to remove 35 items from my guest room closet. Yay! This moved my total up to 277. Less than 30 items away from 300, I prayed that God would give me the ability to see more. I thought for sure I was done. But I like even numbers and 300 stood out in my mind as the goal I should set. Last night, I had the thought – I should go through my jewelry. Now I’m not a big jewelry person… I keep my jewelry in a Curious George tin in my night stand. It’s so untraditional and small. Most women would be flabbergasted by its size. I was delighted to find that I was able to get rid of 15 items from that tin.
Not quite to the 300 items I felt God had laid on my heart, I tried to brainstorm another area of my house to look through. In a lot of ways the kitchen was off limits in my mind (I had already given away dishes, so that counted as kitchen in my mind). I haven’t reached the “cooking” stage of my life yet. I microwave a lot of things and I eat a lot of cereal. Some items I received from my wedding have yet to be used… Terrible, I know! I have a dream that some day when I’m a parent, that I’ll be the kind of mom/wife that makes dinner and has it on the table for the family. This might just be a dream, but I don’t want to get rid of something that I might see in the future for cooking that ideal family meal. However, once I started to open my drawers and cabinets, I realized that were was a lot of miscellaneous stuff I could part with. I’m so glad that I pushed myself to keep going!
Now before I give the total, let me share just a few more things with you. When you go through everything in your house, you have a great chance to organize things. This was a very good opportunity to spring clean… or I guess it would be more accurate to say spring sort. I love the feeling that things have been pared down and are now all neatly organized in my home.
14 bags and one ball!
A lot of people have asked me what I am going to do with all my stuff now that it is in bags in my computer room. I plan to give it away to three different sources. The first is a garage sale to benefit a community member who has been diagnosed with cancer. The second is to the MOPS group who meets at our church. They also have a big garage sale as a fundraiser at the end of the month. The last is families who have requested certain things. I’m really looking forward to this phase of the fast just as much as the purging phase!
Okay, the moment you’ve all been waiting for and probably read ahead to see!!! We have 14 bags full of stuff in our computer room and one exercise ball (it’s still inflated so it doesn’t fit in a bag). The final total after going through my entire house is 310 items! Not only did God help me reach my goal, but he gave me extra! It’s only because he opened my eyes that these items are now in that pile. I thought I had nothing to give. I was wrong.
Amy Scott's Thoughts 