Today I found myself cleaning out our garage. This is something I have done probably once every couple of months on average. As I was moving some boxes and sweeping from behind some shelves, I realized that I am constantly moving the same stuff around each time, and my pile is never getting any smaller. It has actually been growing. Instead of saying that I have been cleaning out the garage, it would be more fitting to say that I have been reorganizing our stuff to make room for more stuff. I have really not been cleaning anything out, I have been preparing to accumulate further. Now, there's nothing wrong with having stuff, but much of what I have been moving around is stuff that I really don't need, probably will never use and wouldn't even miss it if it was gone. If you had come through my garage yesterday and threw much of it in the trash, I never would have known it was gone.
As this dawned on me today, I couldn't help but think about how this relates to so many of our lives. Instead of cleaning out and getting rid of stuff we don't need, many times we shuffle things around, buy more storage containers and make room for new stuff, all the while the old stuff is not benefiting us at all and is just collecting dust waiting for us to move it again. We all need to take an inventory from time to time, and then get rid of stuff that has just become a liability. In my garage, it's just stuff I don't need and will never use that is taking up space - no real harm done. However, in our lives, all too often it is habits or relationships that are harmful. As I look around my garage, I need to determine what I can throw in the trash or give to someone who can use it. In our lives, we need to determine what, or who, might need to go. Let's clean up!
