T-Shirt

I can get the best insight and receive gentle reminders in the most random conversations. I was chatting with my bestie the other day. At one point the conversation drifted to uncluttering (Is that a word? If not, pretend it is.) our houses. I am the queen of holding on to things for sentimental reasons. That is the reason that I currently have 3 drawers FULL of T-shirts. Some shirts haven’t been worn in years. To be fair, some of them are too little and don’t need to be stretched beyond their capacity. Others fit but I don’t wear them. When you have that many T-shirts, it’s difficult to put them all into rotation. They sit in the bottom of the drawers and the ones on top get the most play. But it has not always been that way.

When I first entered the professional working world, I worked for a travel therapy company. The biggest perk is that my assignments would be for 9 months—an entire school year. I would have the opportunity to get to really know the city and then move on to the next city. The biggest downfall was the moving part. Because moving means packing, lifting heavy boxes, and then unpacking. Bible Study Mama, Bible Study Cousin, various other volunteers, and I eventually had the move down to a science. Aunt Linda would lend me her vehicle for every move. Between her big body vehicle and my car, I had enough room for 10 huge boxes.

I lived my life like it was golden during that first school year. I bought new clothes, found the most interesting odds and ends, and collected items as the year progressed. And then it was time to fit this life in these same 10 boxes. Spoiler alert: It would not all fit. I had to weed through the items that I acquired and make decisions. What needed to stay and what needed to go. I already knew my assignment in that location was not permanent. But I got comfortable. I settled in.

After my first assignment, I was more focused. I still enjoyed the new city, but I remembered that I did not need to keep acquiring things just to have them. While the shopping was fun, I did not have the room to keep hauling every little thing around. Boxes are heavy! And let’s be real, the 10-box system was a HUGE stretch for me anyway. It taught me to prioritize and weed out unnecessary things.

But that was over a decade ago. I have been settled in this place for longer. I have allowed myself to become attached to things that I really should release. And it’s not just my T-shirts. I am well aware that I am on this here Earth on assignment. I cannot always articulate what that assignment is; however, I know that it is much harder to complete the assignment when I am trying to drag along unnecessary items. The boxes are heavy, and it makes it much more difficult to move to my next location.

So yes, a random conversation about removing clutter was a gentle reminder to me that I need to do that in many areas of my life. Not just my T-shirt drawers. What do you have stuffed in drawers that you cannot even access because other things are in the way? What are you holding on to that is making it more difficult to move to your next assignment? I know that I am not the only one in the world that needs a push. Get rid of it. You have work to do. #wepreach