Downsizing

During a time of sharing this week I was amazed for a moment how many of us were feeling challenged or at least considering issues surrounding the quantity of stuff we have accumulated. Somehow confronted by the realities of our own mortality, the members of our group were considering what we really need in life. I remain challenged especially because my great cleanup is stalled again. Put another way, at the moment I'm wondering would I want my friends and family have to expend huge amounts of energy and resource dealing with all this stuff.

Somehow over the years I've had to help 3 elderly ladies move and all were traumatic because of the quantity of stuff. One woman had a single room 20 feet by 12 feet (6m x 4m) however there was a mountain of bundled newspapers and magazines and boxes about 5 feet tall (1.7m) in the centre of the room and it occupied close to 75 percent of the floor space. She was moving to a small room in sheltered housing and in the end I was throwing bundles out of the window rather than carrying them down out into the street.

I know I need to clear but the will to keep going is finding it difficult at the moment. I know how difficult it was for many of my relatives to let go of stuff and I struggle. But it has to happen if I am to move forwards in life.