Could I borrow a shovel?

It amazes me how things seem to accumulate in my house.

I really believe someone comes in while I am gone and messes everything up, I know I would not allow things to pile to the point of an avalanche.

I am exaggerating, but with each passing day, I seem to find more things that have just accumulated into piles around my home and office.

I think it must be a side effect of the passing of time. I know that there was a time in my life that folks considered me to be fastidious about organization and cleanliness as the character “Monk” from television.

I seem to be less concerned with those things more and more. I do like things to be clean but it seems like I am finding it more of a chore to keep it that way.
My late mother use to take spells where she would just begin throwing everything away.

I use to make sure to stay out of the way on days like that, afraid to find myself residing for pick up at street side.

When darkness came my dad and I would take a close look at the disposed to make sure none of it was something we wanted to keep. Usually some of it would find its way to our workshop behind the house until we could once again fold it into the house.
I have reached the point that I am doing the same thing. Throwing things away that is. While I once looked at some bric-a-brac as great treasures, now I see items that have to be dusted forever as needless endeavor in decor.

I now see the concepts of minimalism and simplicity in decorating with greater understanding.

Many of the piles around my office seem to just be papers of all sorts and kinds. Every time I go to the post office, mixed among the valued correspondence from folks, friends and family is all this stuff trying to sell me something.

Papers that once seemed to need to be set aside for future reference, now are things I am never gonna take the time to read, so why keep them.

I have so much I want to accomplish, prioritizing the time is the advantage and all the extraneous materials just divert my attention. So now, I spend a little time disposing of those things as they come but it seems sometimes I still stay behind on the task as other priorities draw my attention.

For many years, I have told folks when asked what I was up to today,  “I am using a shovel to clean my house.”

That is a stretching of the truth a bit unless that old red dustpan qualifies.

I have known my whole life something that I find truer with each passing day – the less clutter there is, the cleaner and the more organized things are, the easier life is.

I think sometimes we tend to not only let our houses and surroundings go, sometimes we do the same things with our minds. We allow unimportant things to fill our lives and our time when we should be concentrating on the positive points of faith, family, love and service.

I have decided the best approach to keeping a house clean is not to use it. Maybe I should just clean it real well and move out. If I am not there to mess it up, it should stay clean, right?

On second thought though, it probably wouldn’t work. Those folks that mess the house up when I’m gone will probably come back.