The number of things in your house is not infinite

You may be surprised to learn that some of the ideas in religion can help you control your home and your possessions.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit” is part of the Sermon on the Mount but also Jesus said to the rich young man to give away all his physical  possessions
I don’t think we can give away all our possessions if we live here in 2017 but we can certainly give some of them. It will help the poor , as I said when I  gave away my winter coat that someone else will be glad of it.The  fewer possessions  we have the less storage space we need and also it will save time  in  caring for these  possessions and give us time for creativity, meditation and fun

Before we start on creating more storage space or tidying up what we have it is sensible to look at our possessions and see if we have duplicates or just too many things.  I have got too much cutlery now. Before you give away possessions that you once needed for entertaining, show yourself some mercy because you may be sad over the fact that you can no longer entertain people in the way that you used to do.
You may find that you have a lot of maps and guidebooks about places where you used to holiday and it may be just as well to give these away. and likewise, if you are retired you may be able to give away books or other possessions relating to your job [if you are fortunate enough to have had that kind of job.]
Little by little wander through your rooms thinking the unthinkable. Have you got broken lamps or broken electrical goods that you intended to have repaired but you never did?
I decided to make some images with my camera which of these broken objects as a project of images which symbolise that we will never be other than broken as people ; that we will never be perfect .When I have finished this project I will give away these objects or put them into recycling
If it’s possible to get rid of a lot of your thingsyou may not need as much extra storage space  as you think
Do think you why you might need more storage space? I was a teacher and an ardent learner of new ideas I would tend to buy books without thinking if I had space for them. now I need to reconsider getting more bookshelves  or getting rid of books.

If  you have acquired a lot of clothing because your size has changed then you may want to rationalise your wardrobe. See you what you wear over a period of a month and then look what you haven’t worn and consider it.You can donate to a charity shop where other people will be very glad  to get it.
At one time people never wore second-hand shoes unless they were very poor but now that many of us have  got a lots of  shoes some may not be worn  and can be given away if you for no longer wear heels or fashion shoes .  the remainder you will have to take to the recycling centre
These activities are going to take time and if you have visitors to your home while you are in the middle of this rationalisation, do not be surprised  if they pass rude remarks about your entire house because  doing this kind of work will initially create more and  chaos as you stack the clothes and books  and put them into suitable heavy duty bags

It’s a bit like having psychotherapy. I imagine at the beginning you reveal  many painful feelings and you may feel worse than you did but hopefully  with the aid and support of the therapist you will learn how to deal with these feelings better than you did before so in the end, we hope that we will feel better  but  in the middle of such things or when we are in the middle of grieving and mourning  we do not believe things will get better in time
Fortunately getting rid of some possessions is not as painful as grieving  for the death of your mother.
I believe it is better not to criticise oneself for having been too extravagant or wasteful. We must be kind to ourselves because it is painful enough getting rid of possessions without beratinging ourself at the same time. We are only human and then in a consumer society,  it is sometimes hard to  resist buying things that we do not really need. If you decided when you were 21 never to buy anything that you didn’t really need then of course you  wouldn’t have this problem of  giving things away

After you have given away as much as you can from  the  first room that you are tidying then you may need to consider whether you need to need an extra storage for what remains. It may be that you can put some of them into storage that already exists in another room. I have a lot of storage in my dining room but I don’t turn to working there so much now partly because it’s facing East and the sun is too bright in the morning but I can still use the shelves to store my books which are now in the sitting room .I t would make sense to make one room always ready for having a friend round or simply to go into in the evening to listen to music and relax no longer irritateded by the books  in heaps

Photo by Mike Flemming

What do you plan to use your house for?

It is sensible to think about what activities you may want to use your home for. If you want to have people to stay with you then consider if you have a spare bedroom is it   suitable  for  having a someone sleeping in there? This may sound silly but I have got a lot of things on my spare bed which I have not yet had time to sort out. but if it’s a priority to have relatives to stay then sorting that out might be very important. but probably what is more important for most of those is having people round for a meal in which case you will need to clear all the things that you leave on the table and make sure you have the  dining chairs available. I sometimes take them into the other room.

Then, of course, you need somewhere for people to sit down in the sitting room that seems obvious. If you’re like me you may use one of the arm chairs for keeping things on that you need while you are working like your diary your phone, your camera , your sketch pad and so on. In this case, it might be wise to have a bag which does not look like a garbage bag into which you can put these things if someone comes to call but at the very minimum, you should have one  chair  clear all the time and ideally a sofa.;my poor husband used to throw his coat and his possession  onto  the Sofa  when he came home ;that  needs  thinking about :where you do put the things like your coat, briefcase, handbag  andso  when you come into the house from a trip or from work  throwing things  onto the sofa puts a sofa out of use and will need somebody to move the things elsewhere. Wouldn’t it be better not to put them on the sofa in the first  place?

You can buy attractive looking over the door hooks wish you could put on the back  of the dining room door or the kitchen door if you don’t have enough room  for hall storage and it’s also somewhere you can hang visitors coats as well  temporarily. There are also useful for temporarily hanging clothes that you have just ironed if you still do  iron  your clothesI hear that if you dry your clothes in a electric clothes dryer or tumble dryer you may not need to iron them but I do not possess these. if you slightly disabled it is quite possible to iron while sitting down and if you are not too tired if it’s quite soothing why I might almost call it meditation. knitting can also be a   soothing  activity  as long as you don’t mind  undoing it from time to time when you notice that you have made a mistake

I remember someone , possibly Edison saying, I have not failed 150  times I have experimented in 150 different ways  and I believe that trying and failing is simply the way we get to know the problem better ; if we do everything right the first time we do not learn as much.  Vision and perception  are  crucial in solving problems or in  creation. True  perception takes time. it is not instant.And we make mistakes which we learn from

I read a book that said that you only need one sheet and one duvet cover for your bed because you can take them off in the morning put them into the washer dryer and then put them back on  in the evening  and so you will not need a cupboard full of sheets etc.  Well that might be alright but I think I’m  like one  spare set. if you have children or if you have an older person he may suffer the odd leakage then you certainly more than one  set of bedding. but remember to check it every year because it is easy to forget what we have in the airing cupboard or the wardrobe  and then to buy more without realising it is unnecessary.

What is the minimum amount of spare  bedding that you can live with? one of my friends sleeps in a sleeping bag and the bag can go into the washing machine and the dryer or you can use a sleeping bag liner made of fleece which dries very quickly

if you collect a lot of knick knacks  then   charity shops  do like that sort of thing so put it into a bag and I bring joy to someone else’s heart
We never had many knick knacks in my home as a child but my husband’s family did and  do so my house is similar to  theirs. I have a lot of seashells and other interesting objects which I used to use when I was going to  art classes

I suppose that if you ever do any dusting  or wiping surfaces down that is a good time to look at your little objects and ask yourself if you could live without them. I plan to do that starting today. if you find it difficult to stand up for very long because of arthritis put a chair near the table or  surface you want to clear and then you can concentrate on what you are doing without being overwhelmed by pain. I have got a shopping trolley which can also be used as a seat and I keep it in the kitchen or you can buy cheap folding chairs that you can carry around  easily and put it  next to the place you want to sort out.

if you don’t have a car, ask to your friends to take your bags to the charity shop or find it a charity shop which does collection this I have found one a few miles away which is raising money for children’s cancer research and I tend to call them to come and collect things which are in good condition so that they can sell them in their shop. the British Heart Foundation even collect furniture and I think the Salvation Army also will take things like blankets on larger objects and if  you tell yourself while you are giving the things away to think about the people who are going to receive them it will help you not to be sad but you can’t keep  everything because if you keep it all you may have to build more storage or live in a very untidy  house>
The Bible says is good for our spiritual health not to love possessions which of course is quite right . The question is can you use your home for the purposes that you want to use it for   sitting down, sleeping ,eating, entertaining ,writing, hobbies ,watching TV etc and if you can’t then you must start to do something about it even if it’s only half an hour every day. it may seem onerous but remember the number of things in your house is not infinite and therefore in time you will be able to reduce the number and it maybe that you would even have some spare space instead of being overwhelmed by your possessions

So what  the Bible says is good for our spiritual development namely poverty of spirit is also  connected to actual poverty in the sense of  not being greedy and not owning too many things.

When I see a story of a wealthy person being mugged as they walk down the street wearing diamond necklaces and rings I do not believe the mugger was right to attack them but on the other hand they are flaunting their wealth and flaunting your wealth and flaunting your body may make other people feel envious  or angry. I know we are supposed to be free to wear and do what we want but I think we should consider how it will affect other people around us.I only had one ring which had any value whatsoever  which my husband bought me but it was stolen by someone who offered to help me to clean the house I am pretty sure .I did not do anything about it because I had no proof. if you do you have anything of value then put it somewhere safe and only use it in safe places well it will not be a temptation to others. That’s my point of view as  long as society is so unequal.That causes a lot of suffering.