Honor my stuff!

In cleaning out my closet, I found a set of Russian nesting dolls. They had an aquatic/environmetal spin. The set was a puffin inside a penguin inside a otter inside a walrus inside an orca.

The next day a manatee loving friend of mine didn’t know what I meant when I mentioned that I found a set of Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka). So, I gifted it. She was so happy, and now so am I.

I loved it dearly, but it needed a new home.
I charged nothing for it.
I feel lighter.

This is a difficult goal to measure?
It’s a life long goal, and one that I must keep in mind every day.
As long as I take care of the stuff I have, and use it, I am honoring it. When I no longer use an item, or don’t keep in good working order, then I am not honoring it. Anything I am not honoring, either needs to be honored or given away.

I have a box filled with stuff that needs a new home. I am wrapping some of the items and giving them to friends.

24 or so more boxes need to be gone through with in the next 4 weeks.

As a way to honor my stuff, I will give 50 things that I covet, but don’t use. I will give them to individuals. I won’t count the items that I drop off at the thrift store. I got the idea from reading a post by http://www.43things.com/person/Fatboygotsick">Fatboygotsick.

It’s liberating to get rid of stuff. I donated a pickup load of stuff to a non-profit thrift store. I just upgraded, fixed, and installed software on a computer that is going to a good home. (I love this old indigo iMac, and I had plans for it, but it will get a new life with somebody else.) I gave a set of new dishes that I can use to a friend that has none. I have a small pile of items for various friends, and likely by next week I will have another pile of things to donate. I feel like I am doing better by giving items that I own to people that will put them to better use. It’s a little hard.

I am by no means any near living a Spartan lifestyle, but I am reducing the amount of stuff I own.

While I attended a clutter management group I heard somebody ask one of the participants, “How does that honor your stuff?”. If it is in accessible, unfindable, or being damaged I am not honoring it. There should be nothing in my life that I don’t honor.

Honoring my stuff will involve taking care of it, putting it back in it’s place, and using it.