I read in a book recently how freely giving things away does, among other things, build community. After one week of putting things out for people to freely take, I'm already seeing some examples of how that can happen. Various people (teens and adults) have made comments to my kids when they've seen them here and there: "What's with the free stuff outside your place?" or "It's so cool that your mum is giving things away - I got a really nice top and a good book!" and so on. I've had a number of people tell me "What a good idea." More people seem to be smiling at me. A few have thanked me. Now, I am not in any way doing this to seek glory or even good will for myself, but it is nice to think that the things I don't need can bring a little joy to other's lives.

As I'm sorting through things, I'm finding and releasing a lot of "good books" that I'm never going to get around to reading. But one I'm definitely keeping - in fact, if I had to pack to abandon my home in a hurry and could only take two books, they would be the Bible and this wee gem - is called "In Celebration of Simplicity: The Joy of Living Lightly" by Pen Wilcock. I can't tell you how many times I've read this book over, and yet every time I am encouraged and struck anew by some truth. In this book, Pen takes the making of bread as an analogy to living a life of deliberate, Biblical simplicity, and using each of the ingredients in a loaf of bread, talks about different aspects of the simple life. I'll come back to this book again in the coming weeks, but let me quote a short passage by way of introduction:

Hmmmm....joy....lifted burdens....spaciousness....a light heart. I could do with more of those, couldn't you?

The more I think about, learn about, and study the concept of "Simplicity" from a Biblical perspective, the more I see it as truly something imperative to living the Christian life. Jesus had essentially no possessions, and while we often excuse our own over-abundance by saying "Yes, but we have families and aren't called to itinerant ministry" I don't think that means we're supposed to get and hold on to so much stuff we're unable to minister right where we are!

Come on, be honest...how often have you avoided inviting someone over for a meal because you're ashamed of your chaos? Are you too "busy" trying to deal with your clutter to go play a game with your kids, make a meal for that new mother from church, or write a letter to an elderly friend or relative?

If Jesus speaks to your heart of a need, are you able to say "Here I am Lord - send me" or would your honest response be "Well, I'd love to help, Lord, but first I need to clean up the living room/unearth the bathroom/catch up on the laundry/find the bills so I can pay them..."??

In the immortal words of Jim Elliott, who gave his life to reach the Aucas: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

All this stuff we surround ourselves with - it's JUST STUFF. None of it has any real lasting value; most of it doesn't even have much present value! It can, however, hold us back from the things of eternal value.

Ready to let go? I am!

On Tuesday, I put out 20 more items -  8 items of clothing, 3 pairs of footwear, 5 mini-glasses, 1 book, 1 decorative bucket, 1 plastic container, and 1 molded wallhanging fountain thing that's been on the outside of our house since we moved in. Together with left overs from last week, they proved very popular - when I went to bring in the remainders at the end of the day, only 2 magazines, half a dozen plant pots and a couple of pairs of footwear remained!

I've identified a few more things for sale, but not advertised them yet, so will include them in tomorrow's total.

On Thursday I cleaned out my office, replacing our somewhat awkward computer desk with a corner unit I spotted outside the thrift store when dropping off a parcel at the couriers. It was a real find - I've been looking for the right desk for 5 years! Funny how when you start releasing stuff, the things you actually need seem to appear. PTL! Some neighbours, however, were sitting outside a nearby café, and when they saw me picking up the desk called out "I thought you were getting rid of stuff - not collecting more!" LOL Can't get away with anything in a small town!

As I cleared out the office, I put aside 32 items for giving away, including 3 various CD/DVD carry cases, 24 computer games, a bag of beads, a pottery mouse, a cross stitch kit, a devotional book, and a jar.

I also created a poster to add to the board outside, of 4 items for sale - a motorbike, a wardrobe, the old computer desk, and a popcorn maker. I added another 3 books to my bag of books to sell as well.

These things would have been put outside on Friday, but it rained all day long. On Saturday morning (today as I write) it was still raining. I checked the forecast - and it shows rain for the next week. On the one hand, I'm so pleased it's raining - we've been suffering a drought for the last three months. But at the same time, I want to get rid of this stuff. So I got my husband to help me move a small, heavy "shed" from the paddock to the top of the drive, so I can put things that would otherwise be rain damaged in it, and I went ahead and put out things on Saturday - something of an experiment, as weekend there are often a lot of kids at the skate park across the road; we didn't want them taking things and being stupid with them. It went well most of the day - until a certain group of teens did just that, so from now on I'll stick to putting things out on weekdays when school is in session.

Meanwhile on Friday I had sorted out another 266 items to give away - 236 plant pots plus 1 piece of fabric, 9 items of clothes, a rag rug, a bike helmet, 10 books, a picnic bag, 1 flexi tub, a potter's wheel, a chest of drawers, and a lidded wooden box. Later I added to it another 8 items - 5 pairs of shoes, another helmet, a tennis racket, and a decorative wooden wheelbarrow.

So totals from the first week: 488 items set out to give away, 78 items for sale. Considerably ahead of the initial goal for the week - even if one discounts the 236 plant pots. Hmmmm.....we really do have a lot of extra stuff we don't need!

I love books! I am a voracious reader, and so, for the most part, are my kids. There are so many good books out there - and homeschooling is the perfect excuse to collect a good share of them! But I've come to realise a few things over the years about books:

1. Unless you own a mansion with a huge library space (and two maids to dust it!), at some point, one has to set a limit as to how many books one will keep! And reasonably, the number of books should be limited to what sensibly fits in the space available to safely keep them. That means on shelves, not stacked all over furniture surfaces and the floor! I own 6, six foot tall bookcases (about 2 feet wide each), and decided some years ago to limit our book collection to what fits on those shelves.

2. But more than that, if one is going to allow room for new additions to the collection (inevitable in a book loving family), then one needs to regularly pare down the collection to LESS than comfortably fits in the space available, and have a rule that when new ones come and exceed the available space, some old ones have to go.

3. There are some really good books out there - and an incredible amount of junk! Be very selective!

4. Just because it's a "classic" doesn't mean you and your family will actually like it. And what good is a book you dislike so much you never finish reading it?? It's not that important. Let it go!

5. Reading tastes change over time, and with the ages of the kids. And that's healthy. Just because it used to be a family favourite, doesn't mean you need to keep it forever. Thinking you'll want to read them to your grandchildren one day? Set a limit and keep only a few really, truly enduring favourites. Say 12, or 20. No more! 

6. If you've read it, and it's not one of those books you're really excited about reading again, let it go! Let's be real - only very special (to us) fiction usually gets re-read. Non fiction needs even more selectivity - something that is a very useful reference to a favourite topic is worthwhile, if you use it. Something you think "might come in handy one day" isn't.

7. No matter how much you want to think otherwise, I promise you, you are NEVER going to read ALL those books to your kids you think you will, nor are the kids going to be interested in ALL the great books you've collected for them. And even if you do and they are, you can NEVER collect enough books to keep ahead of the reading appetite of a 10-20 yo! So stop trying. Get them a library card. Or maybe 3 (to different libraries).

8. In the end, I think the 80/20 rule applies very well to books - 20% (that's 2 out of every 10) books you own will provide 80% of the total value and enjoyment. The rest will provide very little. Or none at all. Now if you can identify that 20% and cut out most of the rest, you'll have a lot less clutter!

On Wednesday I worked on emptying some more boxes of books and stuff. I found 125 items to put in the give away box - including 9 folders, 1 scrapbook, 8 books, 1 birthday card, 7 magazines, 4 coasters, 1 bowl, 1 basket, 1 decorative tin, 1 heart-shaped container, 35 postcards, 30 holiday greeting cards, 25 plastic animals, and an armchair. Yes, I could count the postcards, greeting cards and plastic animals and just 3 items, but it's kind of fun to count them up and see just how many items I've giving away, don't you think?

Here's what today's road-side set up looked like.

Didn't take long for nearly everything to be snapped up.

I found and advertised another 55 books for sale too. It can get a little overwhelming with lots of book sales happening, so I won't list any more after these this week, so I can get them all sold and mailed off first.

On Tuesday, I started clearing out some stuff that's been waiting in my living room for me to deal with. I also emptied a couple of boxes that have been stacked in the hall. It didn't take long to find a bunch of stuff to give away. Tuesday's items total 37, including 1 bag of quilt batting, 1 small whiteboard, 1 devotional book, 1 camera case, 1 bookmark, 1 cutlery stand, 2 pieces of fabric, 1 lace mat, 1 scarf, 2 folders, 1 twin pack of new CFL bulbs (I accidentally bought screw in ones instead of bayonet), 1 pack of recipe cards and 23 books.

I also identified 21 books to sell, and by the time of writing this have sold 19 of the 24 books so far advertised for sale.

I've half-filled another box with recycling, and added more things to the trash bag.

Also removed from my house on Tuesday - 34 books returned to the library, and two items returned to a friend.

Things are starting to look less cluttered already!

So far, due to the first real rain we've had in 3 months, I haven't been able to put boxes out by the road, but if it clears up this morning, I will do so. I wonder how long it will take for things to go?

I filled a box with recycling, and half filled a trash bag with trash.

And I made signs to put up by the road when I put the first items out to give away. All in all, a good day's work.

And I love how my bathroom/toilet/laundry look! Clean, uncluttered. Nice!