Friday, November 20

Owning things or things owning you.

I am never ceased to be amazed at how God has blessed us as a family. We have much love, happy children and the home in the country we always dreamed of. We've been rich and we've been poor but we've never been without love for each other and have always been surrounded by the richness of God's love.

Lately, as I've been homemaking, I've been finding myself a bit discontented with things. The upholstery on our sofa has a big rip, the darkness of our kitchen becomes overwhelming with the shorter days, on and on I could go. Missing the beauty of what God has blessed us with, children to make rips in the furniture and a big kitchen where friends gather and I can bless people with meals and hot bread and cookies and milk.

More and more as I thought on it, I began to see that my life doesn't consist of furniture needing replacement (although some does!) and it doesn't consist of things to be remodeled. I realized I have a lot of "stuff". I am surrounded by things. And so I've been going through things, de-cluttering life, a garbage bag per room.

The guideline I am using is: is this item being used for the service of God or others?

Its been a great screening tool, let me tell you! Does this item bless my family or the people we have in our home? Am I holding on to a useless item for sentimental reasons? Is it something someone else could make use of or be blessed by? Do I have this in my home to impress people or make them comfortable? There is line upon line of thought that can build upon the principle of only having things that are useful for serving God and others.

Well, I'm off to tidy some more! Join me.

(all art is from


~ Shannon said...

What a wonderful and convicting post! Most of the "decluttering" resources I've seen, while encouraging people to cut back, still focus on *self* as the filter for making decisions about their stuff. I can't say I've ever heard someone suggest basing that decision on how it blesses someone else! Thank you for your encouragement!


Sarah said...

This is a great post! I need to walk around and look at what I am holding on to now.

I have subscribed to your blog, it's great!


Anonymous said...

What a terrific rule to go by! I am opposite of those who collect, and actually fear accuiring too much stuff. Probably too much as I gave my wedding dress to the local Thrift place last month. (It was bought the next week for $20, my MIL told me.) So as in all things, balance is required and it sounds like you are finding it. Thanks for sharing!

aspiritofsimplicity said...

this is a good way of looking at all of our things. I have been trying to de-clutter a bit and I think I will try to use that philosophy as I get rid of some of my stuff.

Diane Shiffer said...

I have recently been struck by just how much stuff our family has... and our income is considered poverty level! So much of my housekeeping time has become absorbed by cleaning, organizing and maintaining all of our various belongings. Sets of dishes, various cooking implements, sewing supplies and tools, scrapbooking things, school supplies.. all things we use. But still I am getting the feeling lately that it is all just too much. How much is too much? How much is enough?

Joy said...

Great thoughts, Hannah! I've been doing a bit of this same thing at our house, but this has given me a new perspective to remember as I work.

Anonymous said...

This is off topic, but... I would appreciate your tactics on nipping sibling rivalry in toddlers towards younger infants.
Thanks in advance if you are able to lead me to some gentle solutions.
- Rachel

Patton's With Passion said...

So true. Recently, I went through a ton of items that we didn't use much, and traded them out with other families for things we would use. For example, I traded a food processor blender combo (we bought a vitamix) to my friend who makes some natural remedies. Win-win situation :)