Getting Rid of the Extra Weight

Do you have any idea of the weight of a pile of paper is? I do. Yesterday I began cleaning the one corner of my desk. The pile has been sitting there for a long time – like maybe four months. It is my “someday pile just not now”- SPJNN pile – named this way because someday I will deal with it – just not now. The recycling pile bin is now about 4 pounds heavier with most of the pile gone.

I just have three more piles in the office to now tackle, there is “might need”, “important but no place for it”, and “will deal with later”. That is the MN, IBNPFI, and WDWL piles. Now to be honest there is an assemblage of other piles of material and binders that would likely fall under WFS – that is “waiting for space” piles. When the MN, IBNPFI, and WDWL are dealt with the WFS will have some space.

My wife goes crazy and backs out of the room when I begin. You see from SPJNN there were some MN, IBNPFI, and WDWL. Don’t laugh at that – there are JAFT (just a few things) that I kept and placed equally in the MN, IBNPFI, and WDWL.

My wife stated recently in a social setting that all I did was shuffle things around. That isn’t fair! I just threw out four pounds of paper. Admittedly I could likely fill two more bins with another 12 pounds of stuff that will make room the important WFS.

I am just a little bit under conviction after watching a program on TV. It was a Dr. Phil program interviewing a couple that were in trouble. The man was threatening to leave his wife unless she got her act together and got rid of a whole lot of things in their home. One of the ridiculous things that Dr. Phil made her confess on public TV was that she kept newspapers for as long as 7 years – then when the couple went in their car for a long trip she would take the newspapers along to read before throwing them out. And if she found something of interest she might cut it out of the newspaper before throwing it out completely. I started thinking where she would place 7 year’s of newspapers in their car as they traveled… yikes!

No I don’t keep 7 years of newspapers! But I did find some clippings from newspapers in my SPJNN pile yesterday that I can’t remember why I cut it out – and some that I did remember but now wonder why I kept them. Shish!

The odd thing that caught my attention was that about half of Dr. Phil’s audience raised their hands when asked if they felt that they had a problem in hording things at home. My wife and I looked at each other when she said, “I’m not that bad!” I didn’t even think that my wife thought that she personally had a problem too. I thought I was the only bad guy in the house.

At this moment I am only talking about my office – at the church. We will not go into my garage just yet. And if you do happen to stumble into it please watch out for the three boxes that I have ready to go to a friend’s house for burning. They are old scraps of wood from former projects that I have done.

Recently I called my daughter to ask her to look at some things that her kids were to have – from their great grandmother. These were about a dozen small pottery pieces that she had made a few years ago. I had sorted through an old trunk in the garage and was preparing to make more room. Can you imagine… my son-in-law was a little on edge when he thought she might be bringing something from my garage to their house? That is really comical – he doesn’t know that if and when I die – he is going to get most of all that I have in the garage in old pieces of un-carved wood. I mean what else do you give a fellow wood carver? I am grinning as I write this Bruce…Hee Hee… too funny. There is a 40 foot basswood tree, about 100 hundred pounds of good wood to carve like butter nut, and white pine and ….

In our city we have a business called Value Village. It is there to receive items from people that are in need of getting rid of from their homes. It sells clothing and household items such as dishes and a little furniture. It is a wonderful place to shop. They have tons of stuff! Ouch – there is that weight thing again. If I buy it I have to store it – somewhere. I don’t go anymore – at least not so often because I find it depressing – so much stuff and I don’t have room for it. Argghh!

Today I am dealing with the MN, IBNPFI, and WDWL ! Some of it will disappear and some will be filed in the filing cabinet. I am resolved to do it. I maybe exhausted tonight after doing it – BUT IT WILL HAPPEN….

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~