Out with the old and in with the... nothing, please!

I've been "nesting" lately. I've gone through a number of closets and cupboards sorting through what we don't really use or need any longer and reorganizing our house. With adding another person to the family and home we need to stay on top of these type of things much more often.

Can you believe how quickly you store things?? We've only lived here for 2 years and it's still unbelievable. In the last two days, Jake and I have tackled the huge task of catching back up on laundry (it is not a pretty site when a family of 6 gets behind on laundry) and finally made ourselves come face to face with our own wardrobes. We really have far more than we need and there are so many that have much less. I don't want to be hording things that could be a blessing to someone else.

So anything we haven't worn in a long time is going OUT the door. It seems silly for me to hang on to so many favorites that I haven't been able to wear in years with my chronic state of pregnancy :-) And really, I found it not to be as difficult as I thought to part with a number of things. I saved a handful of special things, but it's a far less than the bags we have sitting waiting to go out to donate to a local charity.

If I ever am that thin again I deserve to go on a shopping spree anyway ;-)

I give Jake a lot of credit too. When we were first married he couldn't bear to part with 2 dozen t-shirts he never wore any longer. For those of you who have been to our house you know they supplied the material for the "Jeans and t-shirt" quilt we have on the back of our couch for curling up with. So he didn't have to technically part with them. But in our quest for better order and less "stuff" in the house, he's been doing awesome at really sorting and getting rid of things that just aren't being used.

We've both really had a revelation recently of how much we have; access to clean water without thought to that blessing, a warm house, always plenty to eat, and so many clothes for our entire family that we can get behind on laundry while still having things to wear. We go to bed at night without any sorts of fears, knowing when we wake up all our blessings will still be here. We will still have our water, still have access to good medical care, still be able to run to the grocery store a few miles away for anything we could imagine needing or wanting.

That's enough of a wake up to be sure we are being resourceful with what we have and that if we have something we could bless others with we want to be sure we do.

Thank you, God!!!