Reduce, Recycle, Relief
Feb 12, 2010
The past two weeks have involved quite a bit of de-cluttering at Chez Knighton. We figure about 500 pounds (or so) of stuff was removed from our home. And there is a certain lightness-of-being that we have experienced every day since the last batch was carried away by our wonderful (and strong) garbage men.
The sad truth is that we are pack-rats and clutter-bugs by nature and habit. I hold onto junky bits of flotsam secure in the knowledge, that it might be useful at some indeterminate time in the future. "What if I throw it out and need it someday?" I ask myself. Well, I'll probably have forgotten where I put the darn thing and have to go out and buy a new one anyway. It's just clutter; trash filling up my home and weighing down my soul.
And it's fear. Fear that I need to hold onto these useless things; that somehow, they give my life some kind of meaning and importance. A fear that fills my home and heart with detritus, refuse, garbage. In a thousand years, some archeologist is going to stumble upon the contents of my kitchen drawer and wonder why I needed two hundred bits of broken plastic. What does it say about the people who lived here?
But today, a few pounds lighter with a few shelves better organized and some drawers cleaned out, our life is a little brighter and less confusing. We can breathe easier; we are more hopeful. We rest easier at night, knowing that our lives are more than the sum of all that wasted junk.
