Not a pretty picture is it? But this is the stuff we have hanging around behind closed doors, inside our drawers, under our beds, on our shelves, in our cupboards, on our counters, in our freezers, on top of our fridges, and stuffed into our jam-packed closets–junk.

I’m reminded of those times when I’ve seen doctors holding 20 pounds of body fat in their hands while the audience looks on in disgust. This is the equivalent to ugly fat, the only difference being that it’s “lifestyle fat.” There is so much attention given to eating lean and shedding body fat, but little attention is made to living lean and climbing out that that pit of lifestyle obesity.

A few years back I went to Jamaica with my husband. The trip was a life-changing experience. I had never witnessed miles upon miles of poverty stricken homes before, but that week I did. My heart went out to those people when I saw that they were living in shacks no bigger, and less accommodating than my garage.

But during my stay there I witnessed something else. These people were dressed well. I didn’t notice one person whose clothes weren’t clean and well pressed, nor did I witness a beaten down culture. They were happy and content people who took much care with the little they had.

All I could think of on the way home was how much I wanted to purge my junk.

I was recently inspired by a book called, “Throw out Fifty Things,” by Gail Blanke. Gail encourages us to go into every room of our house and get rid of things that have been hanging around for years. It might be an old tooth paste lid or the wrong shade of nail polish; it might be a jacket from 1997 or a pair of shoes from last summer. All of these unnecessary items are cluttering our closets, our drawers, and our life.

Hold onto things if you must for sentimental reasons, but if you’re not using the clutter, either throw stuff out or give things away. A lighter load will bring a sense of peace to your home.

This is one lesson I need to teach my daughter. We can clean the house daily so things appear tidy, but if we keep shoving more junk into our drawers and our closets, there has to come a time when we say “Enough—it’s time to lessen the load!”

What you see on the table in that photo is just ten minutes spent in my daughter’s room. That’s it—10 minutes. Now times that by six and you’ll see just how much of a difference tossing out 25 things can make to one family.

She definitely has a lot of garbage there, but I also noticed that she was more than ready to part with two Build-a-bears that we brought over to her little cousins last night.

Once the kids started tossing out 25 things it turned into more like 50 for some, which was their choice, not mine. All I asked my family is simply this: “Toss out 25 things.” That’s good for now, we’ll tackle the rest later!

Darlene Schacht
Time-Warp Wife