Own Only What You Need

I am a lover of simplicity.

And yet I’m terrible at living this out at the same time :).

Like I’ve mentioned before, I used to have an organizing blog that became fairly successful, fairly quickly, but realized that in the name of organizing, I only obtained more and more stuff – that I didn’t need. I also had our daughter and while also keeping up a personal blog, I knew I couldn’t do both well.

Since then, I have taken what I’ve learned through writing that blog and trying to live it out as our seasons of life change. I like to live by the rule, “ONE IN, ONE OUT”, where if I buy something, something else has to go. Or the old has to go. But the trouble is, is that what we have in our home, do we really use it all in the first place? Yes I can buy other things to replace, but to start, do we even use all that we have?

That seems like a simple question, but putting it into practice is difficult.

Look around your home – focus in on one room. Do you use everything in it? If so, great! If not, what purpose is it serving?

In owning only what we need, it creates this sense of gratitude, that is often lost in our culture today.

Rather than striving for more or better, embrace the beauty of what you have. When you look at what you have in your home, do you constantly think “I need a new version”, “I need a bigger one”, “I need to update this…”

In owning only what we need, it takes what we have and turns it into enough. And if we only own what we need, we then can humbly accept the gift of stewardship from God, to take care of what he has given us. When we have too much, we can’t faithfully be good stewards over it all.

As you walk through your home, take note of what you have. Own only what is serving a purpose. The rest? Time to let go of it.