Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Simple Life

There is something incredibly empowering and therapeutic about organizing and de-junking. It has been my goal of late to rid our house of “extra” things: papers, clothes, magazines, newspapers, basically anything I don’t think we need. Now you see the real issue; it’s based solely on what I deem worthy of our keeping. Poor Andrew.

A wise man once said, “One man’s trash is another’s treasure,” (or something to that effect). Little did I understand that this also applies in marriage…we don’t always see trash as the same thing. :) Granted, I tend to not be very sentimental – perhaps less than the normal person. My poor husband feels nervous every time I mention the words trash, throwing away, getting rid of, donating, or any variation thereof. He sometimes goes through bags after I’m done just to make sure I haven’t gotten carried away.

The problem is, we both have genetics that include pack rattiness. :) I am bound and determined that these genetics will stay with previous generations and leave us in peace. Therefore, it is my philosophy that if you haven’t looked for it in the past year+, you probably don’t need it. Okay, I know this can be a bit extreme, but I’m certain we can live our lives with less “stuff!”

So, here’s to living simpler lives! After all, we can’t take it with us and we don’t need to be so burdened by it that we miss being involved in people’s lives!

7 comments:

Jen said...

*cheers* I totally agree that simpler lives are better. Who needs the stuff that hasn't been touched in a year or more?
I am sorry Andrew if she has taken it to the extreme, but I am sure one day you will look back and think what a brilliant wife you have! Leave the pack rattiness BEHIND!

Jen said...

So can I hire you to come do that with my stuff? :)

Oh and loved the story about the grocery store...the world is full of funny people.

Rebecca said...

I love getting rid of junk, it feels so freeing.

Josh Gillespie said...

I'm going to have to side with Andrew on this one. You can't throw stuff away willy-nilly. There must be the thoughtful approach to dealing with "tidying up".

Anonymous said...

Alaina, I have to say I share your sentiment on "de-cluttering." I seriously cannot be in a room with "junk" laying around. Rebecca knows all too well... :)

Thankfully, I've only thrown away a couple of magazines she wanted to keep so far. (At least, that's all she's discovered I've pitched at this point. j/k)

De-junking is definately therepeutic! I think we just have a few more corners of our house to go before we are clutter-free.

I've always used this little gauge to get a sense of how cluttered we are...can we park both cars in our garage? :) For at least the first year we were in our house, we could not! I'm glad to say that now we can! You should have seen the pile of junk waiting for the garbage men the week after that little de-junking spree!

Alaina said...

Tom, I'm so jealous of your clean garage! That's one of our major projects still to come...de-junking, cleaning, hanging shelving, and putting up peg boards.

Catherine said...

I don't even want to THINK about our garage. We only have one car, and it STILL feels crowded in there!

I think every good marriage needs at least one person who likes to de-clutter. As you might guess from Josh's comment above, in our marriage that task falls to me! But we haven't had too many "Roy Rogers garage sale wagon wheel coffee table" moments. I mostly give away my own stuff. Although I do pitch his socks when they get holes in them, and that makes Josh nervous. :)