Some folk take to living lightly easily. They may have been downsizing and simplifying for quite a while. Maybe this is you.
Others, however, feel intimidated by the challenge of letting go of stuff – both clothing and beloved mementos. I often suggest that they start small – perhaps just clean out a drawer. Even if you don’t go any further, at least you have one cleaner drawer.
This prompted me to check out whether I could do this myself and thus was born my plan to prune A Drawer A Day for the next six weeks. As a Lenten practice it’s a way to pay attention to the interior. What’s inside me that could use some pruning – perhaps some attitudes that I’ve hung on to that are no longer serving me well, perhaps some selfishness, perhaps some pride. We’ll see.
The State of my drawers – In taking inventory of the furniture in our house I found:
- 120 drawers
- 58 shelves (not counting book shelves)
- 15 of these shelves partially serve the purpose of drawers because they are in closets.
Following are some rules I’ve set for myself:
- Given that I have more than 40 drawers, theoretically I could do more than one drawer a day. I know, however, that some of the drawers in our grown kids’ vacated rooms are empty. I’m starting with just one drawer a day as a base. If I feel motivated some days to do more, fine. We’ll see.
- All the organizing books and gurus I’ve read recommend emptying the drawer, closet, storage space first and then gradually put back only the items one intends to keep. I think this makes sense. It not only will force me to decide if each item is worth keeping, it will help me start with a clean drawer.
- If I find nothing in the day’s drawer that I am willing to part with, I will go on to the next drawer until I find some thing to give away or throw away.
- File cabinets don’t count. (We have eight. These alone could be a project for one full Lent.)
- Drawers in Jim’s office don’t count unless they contain common family items that I use too.
- Although I’m going drawer by drawer, we have nine rooms in our home and two baths. I’m aiming at approximate a room a week. That’s probably overly ambitious.
I invite you to join me and let me know how you’re doing. Hopefully, we can learn from each other.
