Sentimentalist vs. Hoarder

      In light of the fact that we are closing on our house in a week and a half, much of my free time has been spent in  packing.  I was recently asked how I felt about all this moving, and I really feel like it is a good opportunity to look at why we have certain things.  My husband and I have been married for almost 15 years; and although we moved 5 times in the first 5 years, we haven't move at all since we've had kids.  That means that we've had ten years to accumulate everything that our house will readily hold.  Before that, we always lived in an apartment.  What does that mean:  we have lots of stuff!  We moved in as a family of two, and we are moving out a family of six.  That alone means we will have more things just by necessity of somewhere to sleep.

     I'm naturally a sentimentalist ( I prefer this to the term hoarder), but I also think that I've grown a lot in that area over the past couple of years.    When I was a little girl, I saved everything...including the Kleenex that I used for crying over the cats that died.  (I can hear a collective "Ewww!")  I've gotten rid of more stuff in the past year than I've probably parted with in the previous ten years.  That's because my perspective has changed a lot of what I value.  Some things I was just holding on to because I thought I'd use it someday.  I've learned that's not a good reason to keep something.  I think part of that comes from maturity, but part of it comes from a desire to enjoy where we are.  For a long time, I was only looking at things from a point of what we'd need "once we moved".  We didn't have enough room for the things we were keeping, but it'd be" just right once we moved."  We had only planned on actually staying in this house for five years, not ten.  It's funny how plans change.

       My husband has also played a big role in this.  He really has a desire for simplicity (which is sometimes battled by a delight in technology--I think that's part of him being an engineer).  He has really challenged me to look at the why behind things.  In light of our move, we actually talked about selling our piano to avoid the headache of moving something so heavy.  The more we talked about it, the more I realized how much it actually meant to me.  It was given to me by my late dad, so I have a sentimental attachment to it.  However, I really, really love to have music in our house.  I love playing my music CD's or the radio.  I love hearing my girls playing the piano, especially the little one who doesn't really know how to.  It even makes me happy to sit down and play.  After some discussion, we decided to keep it, and that makes me really happy.  It really makes me feel loved that he is willing to move it for me.

      There are other things that are a no-brainer for me now.   I have learned to take pictures of much of the artwork of my kids, and only save the masterpieces.  I've learned that after seeing the same outfit go through four kids, there is sometimes a reason it has survived.   Ugly outfits are still ugly outfits.  I have greatly reduced what I have saved by each child.
      At the beginning of last fall when my hubby's new position required a move, I prayed a lot about it.  Honestly, I didn't really want to move there, but that seemed foolish since he had a good job there. I began to ask God to help me let go of our current home if He had something better out there for us.  I believe that He does have something amazing out there for us, so I'm letting go with a big smile on my face, and taking the piano along.