clutter

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My Stuff Has A Diabolical Plan To Take Over My Life

It’s not hard to grasp how easily stuff can pile up and become a problem.

my stuff has a diabolical plan to take over my life

We’ve probably all seen those shows about hoarders. People who only have paths through their homes because their stuff is piled up in every room.

It certainly hasn’t come to that in our home, but I’m seeing how stuff can begin to take over. I’d like to say it’s just at home, but honestly stuff is spilling over at my office as well. 

Some people are naturally neat. They just put things away after they use them. They have a place for everything and it always goes back there. It’s possible that these people have attained to a higher state of being than the rest of us, but it’s more likely that they have other issues that compel them to do what they do. 

For me it happens slowly, one thing at a time. The clutter begins when one thing doesn’t have a place or I don’t have time to put something away. 

I’m not making excuses here, just observations. 

Once one thing doesn’t get back to where it belongs, it kind of opens the door for more things to hang out where they don’t belong. 

In my office, it starts when I don’t know where to put a piece of paper. I realize I’ll need it later so I leave it out as a visible reminder. 

Sometimes I don’t have a file for it or know what I would file it under. The end result is it stays on my desk … and the pile or piles begin. 

On my computer, I’m sometimes in a hurry and don’t put documents I’m working on in a folder … which means they sit on my desktop. Before too long my desktop is filled with un-filed documents, pictures, pdfs and more.

Because one piece of paper or one document doesn’t look messy, you don’t see the disaster that is coming. 

Right now I’m looking at my family room and there is an amplifier for my son’s guitar sitting in a corner. … My son hasn’t lived here for six years, plus he now has an apartment-sized amp for his guitar. 

I originally thought that I might plug my acoustic guitar into it, but that has only happened a few times in those six years. So there it sits and, on top of it, a mic and a few cords. 

That’s just one thing. 

As I scan the room, there are several things – my stuff – that need to be put away, disposed of in some way, or I need to find a place to store them. 

And then there is my roll top desk. That is where I secretly hoard old computer stuff. In this secret place I have hidden away hard drives, cords, cables, disks, CD’s and many things that can’t even plug into a computer anymore. 

If my roll top desk is ever opened up, I am concerned that it would take over the whole basement and I would be left walking on paths to get around my stuff.

Here’s the thing: Not only can we keep physical things hanging around so that they pile up in our homes, we can also keep hurts, sin, unforgiveness and anger piled up in our lives. Just like you have to take action to clear the clutter from your computer, you must take action with the stuff that builds up in your life. The best way to deal with all that is to take it to God and allow Him to help you get your life uncluttered. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you most need to un-clutter right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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My Night Stand Is A Disaster Right Now

This morning I took a look at my night stand and saw it for what it truly has become.

my night stand is a disaster

The bottom line is that my night stand has become a place to put things, like an open drawer where nothing is hidden away.

I don’t even really know how it got this way. 

I remember clearing my night stand at Christmas time. It seems that I accumulate things around Christmas – things like receipts from purchases and small stocking stuffer trinkets that have no other home. 

I get to the place where I just want to wipe everything off the stand and start over. 

On the stand I have a lamp and a clock – they belong there – but then there’s all the clutter. 

I think it gets that way because the night stand is viewed as a temporary place to put things, like my wallet, keys or glasses that only stay there for the night – not forever, just for right now. 

The only problem with that kind of thinking is that “for right now” becomes forever … well, until you get sick and tired of the clutter and wipe it clean and start over. 

Part of the problem is that the things on my night stand don’t have a permanent place. They get there because I don’t know where to put them and I might need them again. 

Right now I have several receipts lying on it. I put them there because I didn’t want to throw them out yet. Some of them have been there a long time. I don’t need them any longer; it’s just that I haven’t got around to trashing them. 

I do have an envelope there for gas receipts. I need to collect them for income tax purposes. The envelope is on my night stand to remind me to put the receipts in it. 

I can be one of those out-of-sight-out-of-mind kind of guys so the visual is a reminder. But it sure adds to the clutter. 

I also have a few masks piled on the corner of the night stand. That’s a new thing. When they get washed I put them there because I have easy access to them. I don’t know where to put them either.

And that is probably my biggest problem with the things that are cluttering and taking over my night stand. I don’t know what to do with them. They have no other place to go so they become like a layer of dust on the stand. The dust could be wiped away but it just lays there for a while. 

Well, it’s been long enough. Today I’m going to throw out, put away or find a home for the myriad of things that have cluttered my night stand.

Ha, then I will actually see the layer of dust and be able to wipe it off. 

Here’s the thing: Just like a night stand can become cluttered with things that shouldn’t be there, that we should get rid of or place somewhere else, our lives can get cluttered with things that shouldn’t be there, that we need to deal with and settle. Every once in a while, it’s good to think through the things that are cluttering your life and do something about it. Ask God what needs to go and what needs to be dealt with. Usually the clutter in your life will get in the way of developing your relationship with God. Take some time to clear off the clutter. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s cluttering up your life right now? Leave your comments and questions below. 

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How To Clean Up A Messy Life

I’ve been noticing that things have been getting a little messy in my life. I haven’t been careful at keeping the little things tidy.

messy-desktop

What I’ve observed is, my night table is . . . well, you can’t see much of it because of all the little things that are covering it. You know, you empty your pockets at night, and where do you put all that stuff? Right! You put it on your night table.

Then there are things like cards. I recently had a birthday – what do you do with birthday cards after you’ve read them? … night table.

It seems that once you’ve let a few things stay on your night table, it’s free game for anything else that you or anyone else sees fit to place there.

I look at the mess on that night table and think I should do something about it, but I’m not sure where to put all those things. So they just stay there.

Then there is the desk top of my computer. It is littered with files and folders. They say that your computer doesn’t run as fast when the home screen is filled with the things you haven’t filed somewhere.

It usually starts with me thinking that I will soon need that file so I better keep it on the desktop for easy access. Since that’s convenient, it’s not long until I do that with another file. Soon I’m not taking the time to file anything; it’s easier to just leave it on the desktop.

It looks horrible. I’ve chosen a few pictures that I like to look at for my desktop, but now I can hardly see them for all the icons and file names that litter the screen.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. It happens regularly at work. Filing is an issue with me. I just don’t keep up with it and the result is that my desk at work gets some not-so-nice-looking piles of paper on it.

I find that I live this way for a while; it can even be a long while. But at some point – and I’ve reached that point right now – I need to do something about it. I need to do some cleaning up.

I started last night with my laptop. I trashed some files, filed others. I didn’t finish the job but I made great headway towards having a file-free screen.

My night table is next – the cards have to go, and all those other little things that should be put in their places … not just out of sight, but in the right spot.

Here’s the thing: One of the problems with clutter is that we don’t know where to put things. We don’t have a spot for them. Because of that, we tend to leave things lying around, hoping they will find a spot for themselves. But that never happens. Our life can also get messy with stuff we haven’t dealt with that’s just lying around – things like unforgiveness, jealousy, bitterness, lust, anger (this could be a long list). We don’t trip on those things every day, but they sure make our lives cluttered and difficult to relate to God, even find Him sometimes. Maybe it’s time to clean up the mess. Where should you put all that stuff? Take it to God, lay it all before Him and ask Him to deal with it. You’ll be amazed at how He can clean up your life!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What part of your home or life gets the most messy? Leave your comment below.

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Santa Is Dead

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I don’t think Santa is coming back next year.

I am fully aware that it is March and we are far, far from that time of year when the jolly old fella usually shows up. However, I just happened to be driving by a house in a nearby subdivision and there was Santa lying on the ground. Pictures don’t lie … and the spears that have pinned him and his trusty helpers to the ground, don’t bode well for his return next December.

Dead Santa

No, I don’t believe in Santa Claus, but I do believe in keeping your decorations applicable to the season. I understand that some people leave their Christmas lights up all year long, but if you don’t look up too high you don’t even notice them.

Lawn ornaments, though? Come on! How hard is it to pack Santa up and put him a box? He’s already been deflated; there’s no HO, HO, HO left in him. I think the kids on the street would become a little suspect that Santa isn’t real when he is laying dead on your doorstep for three months.

As I have looked around the neighbourhood, I’ve seen lots of Christmas ornaments still on display. There was a plastic snowman on a lawn the other night with a light still shining brightly inside him. This weekend was St. Patrick’s Day – at least put a shamrock or a green scarf around his neck!

I’ll admit I’m not the first guy to take down his lights after Christmas. I usually miss the first warm day and end up taking them down when it’s freezing outside. But I get the job done by the middle of January at the latest!

Last year as I was walking around our neighbourhood, I noticed there were lots of people who still had their Christmas lights up in April and May. By looking at the condition of some of the lights, it was apparent they had been there for several years.

Maybe those people lost their ladder. Maybe their garage is so packed that the ladder is buried in there somewhere. Maybe they figure they don’t have room for lights in the basement or garage so they just leave them up.

I think that if you leave your Christmas decoration up all year you have to use them in some way, like maybe change the lightbulbs to pink and blue and white for Easter. Have your blow up Santa hold a big old Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg).

On Canada Day, change your lights to red and white and have your blow up reindeer sport Canadian flag saddles. On Labour Day, place them all working in the garden.

Maybe we should have a law that you get a $25 fine for having Christmas decorations up past February 1st. Here’s an idea: JUST TAKE DOWN YOUR CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes we don’t deal with the sin in our lives right away. It becomes clutter in our relationship with God. We need to pay attention to the clutter or we get used to having it in our lives. The best way to take down the clutter or sin is through regular confession to God.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What tends to clutter you home, yard, life? Leave your comment below.