‘Tis the Season for Giving but Please Don’t Give it to Me

Let’s see. So far we’ve had Black Friday that started on Thursday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and today is Giving Tuesday. The stores are playing Christmas music, the aisles are packed with way more stuff than during the rest of the year, and retailers want our money. On Black Friday my husband and I bought a can of stain for our dining room table that we’re restoring. On Saturday we bought a new mattress and box spring, our Christmas gift to ourselves from last year. It’ll go on a bed that came from my great grandparents’ home and replaces a mattress approximately 20 years old. On Sunday we bought a Christmas tree and poinsettia. Our shopping’s pretty much done.

We’re “unshopping” this year. I took some things to the auction house yesterday and have a load ready for the thrift store tomorrow. I’ve taken calendars and magazines to the church so they can make beads from them, sell the jewelry and raise money for mission work in Haiti. I’m looking at fabric and old clothes stored in the attic, deciding whether to quilt them myself or take them to the church for the quilters there. This is not fabric purchased specifically for quilts, but is scraps saved from back when I sewed most of my own clothes, and from perfectly good clothes that I’ve for some reason stored for 15+ years. Face it: I’m not going to wear those things again! Most likely no one else would wear them either. Vintage? No, they’re not nice enough to be described that way. They’ll make perfectly good quilts in the world of reduce, reuse, recycle. These actions make fewer things for my kids to go through one day, and they free up space in my home. That frees up space in my life.

Look at the photo here. Do you really think I need another thing? Do you have rooms that look like this? Why not make some decisions about your things? Relive the memories, make the adjustments you need, and clear what you neither need nor want. Will it sell? Aging is expensive and you might be glad to have the money. Can someone else use it? I always feel better when I’m doing good for others, and you might too. Don’t worry. Your kids will still have to go through your things and make decisions. You won’t let them completely off the hook. By all means, keep the things you use and enjoy! Don’t have any? I have extra…