Needs

We have been here a little over a month now. True to myself, I have already started packing up stuff that I don't need that I brought. My mom is shaking her head up and down as she is reading this (I am sure). Aside from God, my husband and my children, my mom knows me the best and she knows how much joy it brings me to simplify.

I thought my simplicity journey began when I was about seven months pregnant with Hannah. I started to clean out a closet that was packed with stuff I didn't use in order to make room for all the cute little clothes and more stuff I 'needed' for our new baby. I thought I was simplifying, but I only replaced the stuff with more stuff.

Then when Cari was still being formed, I was cleaning out a second closet – to stuff with more stuff.

Getting rid of stuff to buy more stuff is not simplifying.

Looking back, I realize exactly when it began. When we sold the first house we built, we moved into a smaller space. To be a little more descriptive, it was in my cousin’s basement. Now, for all of you who are imagining cement block walls and a cement floor – you are mistaken. The basement was finished with carpet and vinyl flooring, finished walls, a lay in ceiling, laundry room, full kitchen and bathroom. This might be more than you wanted to know, but you are still reading, so I will go ahead. The girls’ bedroom was behind a quilt that we hung up to separate their room from the rest of the house. Our living room consisted of our entertainment center, a couch, a chair and an end table. Our bedroom wasn’t a bedroom. Our bed was in between the living room and the kitchen – yep, you guessed it, right under the dining room chandelier. When I say ‘room’, there weren’t any walls, just an open space leading into the next open space.

Needless to say, the space was smaller than we were used to. So, when we packed up to moved, we only unpacked the things we 'needed' and left the rest in boxes.

When we finished building our second house, I packed up the stuff in our basement/home and moved in. We unpacked just those things and eventually moved all the rest of our stuff into our new basement and it sat there unpacked for months.

I realized just how much stuff I had and how much stuff I didn’t need.

I soon started to clean out that stuff. We had a couple of yard sales and gave a lot of it away.

Little by little, our possessions started to dwindle down to just what we 'needed' – or so I thought.

We moved again and brought into my mom and dad’s house ‘just what we needed’ and still, when we moved here, we left some of those things behind. There are still boxes upon boxes of things in their basement waiting on me to get rid of.

So, we moved here and brought just what we ‘needed’. And if you came by to visit, you would see four boxes in my bedroom already of things packed back up – things we did not need. Michael and I have already been pointing out things to each other. These things will be brought back to my mom and dad’s house – to be stacked with our other boxes of stuff in their basement and await their departure.

Which brings me to my final thought – 1 Timothy 6:8 – oh and maybe a washer and dryer (smiling - it might not be 'needed' but it is very much appreciated!)