Cleaning Out My Closet
I think it's only human nature when living the railroad life to accept that you are never in your forever home. Thus there's a lot of "in our next house..." talk that goes on. This house that we are in has been a wonderful house for us. We've made countless memories and when the time comes to move into "the next house" we will be leaving behind a chapter of our lives that will never be duplicated. However, that still doesn't stop the "in our next house...." discussions from time to time. Something occurred to me though as I was sitting in church today. When it comes to anything in our lives, whether it's house, situation, relationships, etc. we have a choice when it comes to growing or scrapping these parts of life. We can either scrap it or make the best of the space we are given.
When we lived in West Virginia, our house was the closest thing to perfect we've ever lived in. The people who built the house made great use of space. I will be forever thankful to have found the blue prints because we fully intend to have the house re-built when we retire. Until that time though we will be hopping from house to house, sometimes unintentionally finding the faults in parts of the houses we don't like and making mental notes to look for something different next time.
One of our biggest sources of contention with this house is the use of space. Square footage wise this house is bigger than our house in West Virginia. You would never know that walking through this house though. There is no hall closet to store coats. My husband is the handy man to yardstick all other handy men to and built us an awesome mud rack for shoe and coat storage so our stairs and banister would no longer be home to these items. Our closet is also a major frustration. We came from having two walk in closets to one closet that is only considered walk in by definition. You can walk in, it has a door, it has a light. It's literally the smallest closet in the house. I envy Savannah's room size and closet space. She has the biggest room in the house. (Builders why is the master bedroom and closet not the biggest in the house? I thought that was a given!?!)
Saturday's are our cleaning days. Yesterday I decided we needed to clean out our closet. To say I am over this closet is an understatement. So Jonathon and I took everything out, threw things away, re-arranged, Marie Kondo'd some bags and voila, it's not so bad. I don't get anxiety when I walk into the closet. I don't mind putting clothes away. The space has been re-arranged and organized to function as it should. I thought for sure we were going to have to utilize some totes we've bought but that wasn't the case. We were able to make the space work for us, instead of us working for space.
This morning in Church I had an epiphany during the sermon. We are always so quick to give up on what's in front of us and look ahead to something that isn't even on the horizon yet. Why are we constantly looking for the next best thing instead of savoring the chapter of life we are in when things get hard or something no longer suits our wants or needs? I see the same thing in relationships. We are so quick to cut people off because they don't see politics in the same light we do. They believe in something we don't believe in. Why are we so focused on finding others who are like us, instead of loving people where they are at, regardless of what's in it for us? Relationships are about being a blessing to others. As long as you are focused on being a blessing to others, you will always be blessed.
Back on track to the closet/house, I am challenging myself and I even challenge you to focus on what's in front of you. If you don't like what you see, I challenge you (and myself) to try to fix it/change it/make it conducive to what you're trying to accomplish in your life. Focus on being a blessing to others and those area's might just fix themselves or heal themselves if you're in a moment of pain. We focus too much on ourselves and not enough on those around us. Self care is important, but self obsession is poison. I say all of this as a reminder to myself as well as a reminder to anyone who is reading this.
When we lived in West Virginia, our house was the closest thing to perfect we've ever lived in. The people who built the house made great use of space. I will be forever thankful to have found the blue prints because we fully intend to have the house re-built when we retire. Until that time though we will be hopping from house to house, sometimes unintentionally finding the faults in parts of the houses we don't like and making mental notes to look for something different next time.
One of our biggest sources of contention with this house is the use of space. Square footage wise this house is bigger than our house in West Virginia. You would never know that walking through this house though. There is no hall closet to store coats. My husband is the handy man to yardstick all other handy men to and built us an awesome mud rack for shoe and coat storage so our stairs and banister would no longer be home to these items. Our closet is also a major frustration. We came from having two walk in closets to one closet that is only considered walk in by definition. You can walk in, it has a door, it has a light. It's literally the smallest closet in the house. I envy Savannah's room size and closet space. She has the biggest room in the house. (Builders why is the master bedroom and closet not the biggest in the house? I thought that was a given!?!)
Saturday's are our cleaning days. Yesterday I decided we needed to clean out our closet. To say I am over this closet is an understatement. So Jonathon and I took everything out, threw things away, re-arranged, Marie Kondo'd some bags and voila, it's not so bad. I don't get anxiety when I walk into the closet. I don't mind putting clothes away. The space has been re-arranged and organized to function as it should. I thought for sure we were going to have to utilize some totes we've bought but that wasn't the case. We were able to make the space work for us, instead of us working for space.
This morning in Church I had an epiphany during the sermon. We are always so quick to give up on what's in front of us and look ahead to something that isn't even on the horizon yet. Why are we constantly looking for the next best thing instead of savoring the chapter of life we are in when things get hard or something no longer suits our wants or needs? I see the same thing in relationships. We are so quick to cut people off because they don't see politics in the same light we do. They believe in something we don't believe in. Why are we so focused on finding others who are like us, instead of loving people where they are at, regardless of what's in it for us? Relationships are about being a blessing to others. As long as you are focused on being a blessing to others, you will always be blessed.
Back on track to the closet/house, I am challenging myself and I even challenge you to focus on what's in front of you. If you don't like what you see, I challenge you (and myself) to try to fix it/change it/make it conducive to what you're trying to accomplish in your life. Focus on being a blessing to others and those area's might just fix themselves or heal themselves if you're in a moment of pain. We focus too much on ourselves and not enough on those around us. Self care is important, but self obsession is poison. I say all of this as a reminder to myself as well as a reminder to anyone who is reading this.
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