[Tweet “my tea cup would probably say on most days, “Still stressed though I’m blessed.””]

That’s not the way I want it to be. I shouldn’t be that way, when boy am I blessed. If I counted my blessings through God-eyes, my list would be so long. They’re truly many, many, many people who are in worst situations in life than I am. If I make a list called “It could be worst because…..” That list would be a long list as well. God’s got my back and I know it.

We live in a place of abundance, toys are cheap, clothes are cheap, food is cheap, books are cheap, things are cheap if you shop the right places. Even my family, who has not had that much money for time we have been together, collected so many things.

Recently, due to the family getting bigger, having more interest and collecting more stuff (given to us or bought by us), I realize that we don’t need the amount of stuff we have collected over the years.

We received more clothes for our kids than they can use, because they don’t go out that much. Even when I try to donate some of it, it is still so much. I look at such beautiful clothing and it is hard to let go of the really pretty ones, but really I know they don’t need that much clothes.

I threw away a lot of their toys before Christmas, because I knew more was going to come. Now coming on to the end of February I realize having so much toys are just a waste of time and money. It is better just to keep the long lasting, quality learning toys. The timeless toys in our house have been the Legos, which are scattered all over the floor, all day long, but have created many-a-masterpiece. I’ve seen my son grow into quite a Lego Architect.

I spent $35.00 on a Paw Patrol Look-out Tower for Christmas and it was barely played with, because it was cheaply made and does not spark his creative juices, the way the Legos and art supplies does. I have realized kids don’t need so many toys, and plan to simplify and refocus Christmas next year.

I have a lot of clothes in my wardrobe I do not like, but hesitate to throw them away until I get new clothes. Truth be told my husband or I don’t need the amount of clothes we have. We don’t go that many places. We work at home, our children are schooled at home and we probably leave home one –three times on average, a week.

I hesitate to throw some things away because I would rather donate to others in need or give them a home where they would be more useful. We don’t have a car and would not be able to carry our unneeded stuff to donation centers. I did look once to see if they were organizations or charities that would do pickups and had no luck. I’ll have to look harder.

The things I have quite a majority of are books. I love books, the look, the feel, the smell. My favorite types of books are children’s books and women christian-living books. I have books I’ve bought that I haven’t even read yet, and still want to someday.

I have books that I have read already and loved but not sure I’d read them again because there are so much new books to read. I’d love to do more reading. We have three bookshelves in our little apartment. I wonder if I should get rid of my books and switch over to e-books only, because books take up so much room. What if I only feel that way now, because space has gotten so limited?

I am using a book right now that we bought about four years ago. I only started using it for the first time this year. It is a Betty Crocker Cookbook. Just today I used it to make a Peanut Butter-Oatmeal cookie recipe and Saturday I used a cheesecake recipe for the third time (fantastic recipe). So who is to say that I might not draw encouragement, knowledge or usefulness from one of my unread books in the future? It’s hard to let go of the “what ifs.”

Other things I have collected over the years are old journals (filled with poetry, dreams, thoughts and goals), photo albums, my post card collection, art supplies, cooking supplies, baking supplies, my souvenir collection, scrapbooks and more. I am a woman with many hobbies and interest, and my children are growing that way too.

My husband plays the saxophone with our church, and he has two saxophones and about five different types of saxophone bags/cases. He also loves to cook and wishes for a bigger kitchen. He loves fish, and we have an aquarium put up in our living room. We used to have two but took down one for lack of space. My 5 year old son wants to learn drums, my 8 year old daughter is learning the piano and I just got an acoustic guitar for Christmas to learn to play.

We are a growing family. That’s why I pray for more space for our family to grow. I also pray to used that space with more wisdom. I no longer want to collect things for the sake of having them. I want to keep only what is useful and necessary for the growth, joy, peace and Godly living of our family and others. That is actually not as easy to do as it may sound. It is hard to know what you might want to use in the future.

I pray for the wisdom to know what to let go of and what to keep. I also hate throwing away useful things (that might not be useful for us, but for someone else), I want to give them a home, not discard them like unwanted trash. Doing that haunts me. I think about some one out there who needs it and I am throwing it in the trash. I feel that way about wasting food as well.

I am grateful for what we have, but we are a growing family, it is time for us to move up a few steps in the line. So that others behind us can move forward into our place. We need more room to grow, but not to collect more unneeded things.

Below are some other related resources you can use. A pinnable poem written by me, called “Things,” a very popular blog post this week, even with TGI Saturdays from sodomesticallychallenged.com “Are you a Hoarder?” and a great resource in the quest for decluttering your life from livingwellspendingless.com “31 Days to a Clutter Free Life.”