Hi, my name is Shelby. I live in a sweet 1,100 sq. ft. home with my beloved husband, 2 incredible kiddos, and two funny, little pups. Prayerfully, and also out of necessity, I have been thinking about and working on how I can live a simpler and more meaningful life with my family. One of the areas I have been focusing on is material excess.
A long time ago, I moved to Mongolia with two GIANT duffle bags of clothes and ‘necessities.’ I came home a year later with only the clothes on my back, an empty checked duffle, and a small suitcase of gifts for my family. I felt whole, happy, and free.
I think there is a lot of freedom in not being owned and run by our possessions. There have been times that I have walked in to a room in my home, so messy with clutter, that I can’t even think straight. They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and again and expecting different results. I feel like I have spent the last nine years moving things from one location to another. How is this healthy? Nine years into a thirty year mortgage, without any home improvements, rather, a house that is in serious need of repair before we could even think about selling it to find something that suits our family better, something has got to give. I have to wonder, if we hadn’t spent so much money on stuff we wanted, would we have more of what we truly need?
Did you ever look at your mountains of laundry and dishes and think, “You know, if I only had less, maybe I could keep up with these things, better?” Did you ever have visions of singing show tunes at the top of your lungs as you toss years of accumulated crap into ginormous trash bags that get immediately hauled away by the garbage fairies, so no one can pick back through them and reclutter your house with them? Have you ever gleefully tossed things in the trash that collected dust on a shelf for years? I have, and it’s glorious! My husband looks at me like I am crazy. Maybe I am crazy, but I could be less crazy… I promise.
I need support in this. I need to know I am not the only one. If nothing else, I need to be humored. Give me a chance to show you this is a good thing. Chuck, you married a dreamer, a thinker, a free spirit, and a fighter. You chose to deal with this madness. 😉
VisionOverVisibility 