Disaster to Declutter

Most teenagers aren't thinking about all they can declutter and donate...but this one is an exception.

The following is a guest post from Parker Karrick.

For as long as I can remember, I've always said “man, one of these days I need to deep clean my room.” Each time I would get something that I didn't know what to do with, I would just shove it in the closet and say, “one of these days…” The cycle just kept continuing until one day... when I HAD to clean my room.

One evening, I was sitting downstairs when I noticed there was some water trickling down the wall. I knew that wasn't right so I went upstairs, told my parents, and after looking into it, they broke the news to me that they were going to have to cut a hole in my closet to check out the pipes in the bathroom. (My closet is right up against the bathroom) Good news for the house. Bad news for my room. I began to unload the stuff from my closet and I suddenly realized how much stuff I had. I thought I might have a lot in there, but I had never thought this much. After about thirty minutes, I stared at my now extremely messy room and dreaded the moment that I was going to have to go through all of it.

It took them about a week to fix the bathroom and patch up the 5’ by 2’ hole in my closet and then I had to start going through the 4’ by 5’ pile of stuff that was waiting for me. Now, don't get me wrong, going through all of that was awful, completely awful, but I knew that it needed to be done. It was also very good for me to do this because it helped me realize that it was all just stuff. Yes, I had some treasures and keepsakes, but the rest of it I truly didn't needed. There wasn't going to be a day when I said “you know what I think I need…” Finally I was left with only what truly mattered to me and what I needed.

I had never thought about becoming a minimalist because I thought it was all about getting rid of everything. But I was wrong, it is about giving up some stuff, but it is about discovering what you love and treasuring it. Now, after four bags of trash and 6 bags/boxes of giveaway items, it feels great. I can't wait to see what else I can do to focus on what I love, what I need, and giving stuff away to those who need it.

In the quiet

Stress....we all have it, and for the most part don't want it or need it. I've heard that there is a good kind of stress and then obviously the bad kind. Too much of the bad and your health starts to become affected. Clearly we don't want the bad stress, but more often than not it decides to take up residence in our heart and head and then sticks around long enough to start affecting the soul.

The other morning I sat down at the kitchen table with my coffee and felt like for the first time in awhile I had a quiet moment. Quiet heart, quiet head, and quiet soul. And then it hit me, like a violently shaking wind...I had lost sight of something important. I had let stress and all its ill effects take over and had lost sight of what I needed.

I've journaled off and on since I was a young girl. It brought me peace and gave me a place to scribble feelings and thoughts. With the new year, I decided that I would try to journal and read more and I kept it up, but it soon fell to the wayside when life took over. Yeah, I used the word life. And really I mean stress....but isn't that how we confuse them? We get so caught up in the stress, some people crave it and seek it out, that we actually forget about living life. I get it. Something happens that throws off a regular routine and everything else seems to go to hell. We've lived this way, accepted this way of life for so long, that we don't even bat and eye that it's not how it's supposed to be. We've bought into the idea that if we're not stressed we're not living. Oh, how wrong that thinking is.

So in the moment of quiet, I grabbed my journal and a devotional book. Opened it to that day and there it was. A message I had needed to hear during all of the time of stress. It calmed me and ignited me all in the same. I had allowed the stress to take over and consume me. It took away my quiet. It stole from me time...time to enjoy and embrace what I've been given. The stress was slowly stealing my joy and I was allowing it because "that's life." No. No its not.

It's easy to declutter our houses and simplify our possessions, but decluttering our hearts and minds is its own challenge. We have to prioritize and let go of what is stealing our joy. We have to reset our hearts and minds to no longer accept the lie that stress is feeding us. It's time to put stress in its place and allow joy to take over.