Saving Junk

I’ve heard that the easiest way to organize your possessions is to let someone else do it for you. They won’t hesitate to trash what’s unimportant. A corollary of this is letting our heirs sort all our things after we die, since they’ll trash most of it!

Why do we save so much? Why, everyone knows why. We tell ourselves that things that seem useless today may be useful sometime in the future.

Is there a limit on how much to save? Sure, and most all of us exceed it. We should have no more in our homes than we can easily clean around. I’ve also heard that if you don’t use an item in a year (or two or three) it’s time to get rid of it.

Believe me, my wife and I have much too much stuff. However, I don’t believe in throwing everything that is old away. I think our clothes should include new things plus old and comfortable things. Decorations should be a combination of new, wondrous items plus old items that evoke precious memories. Books and magazines ought to combine old knowledge with new.

Still, there is a lot to get rid of.

Matthew 13:52, “Jesus said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.’”