We all have a lot of stuff. It’s the American way. But is our stuff pulling its own weight, or is it weighing us down? When stuff takes more than it gives, it becomes just another distraction.
Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that
they can provide security and freedom from anxiety.
Yet all the time they are the very source of anxiety.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Here are some things to consider if you think your stuff might be out to get you:
You are unable to park in your garage, and/or you have off-site storage. Maybe you are living beyond your square footage.
Things feel untidy even after you clean. Stuff with no permanent home will always feel untidy.
You’re constantly organizing and reorganizing. As Courtney Carver once said, “If you have to buy stuff to store your stuff, you might have too much stuff.”
You don’t use a significant amount of the stuff in your home. Are you keeping it “just because?” Because someone else might use it and be glad of it.
You often lose items and spend valuable time looking for them. Why add more frustration to your life?
***
In a world where consumerism seems unchecked and is even promoted, maybe it’s time to opt out.
Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you,
and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.
Peace Pilgrim
Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be
absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions.
Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them.
For this world as we know it will soon pass away.
1 Corinthians 7:30-31 NLT
You cannot all abandon your possessions,
but at least you can change your attitude about them.
All getting separates you from others; all giving unites to others.
Francis of Assisi