You've heard it before but it's worth repeating. One of the best ways to stay organized it to keep only what you need or you love. Everything else is clutter. It may even be very well organized clutter. But it's still clutter.
So this holiday season as you are working on your charitable giving, consider how your clutter could be someone else's blessing.
Do you have coats that are still in great shape but not the right size (or style) for anyone in your family anymore? There are many homeless shelters looking for coats.
Do you have diapers that your kids have outgrown but you can't bear to throw those last 10 away because someone "might need them someday"? Give them to your neighbor who just had a baby.
Do your kids have so many toys that anything Santa brings won't have a spot in the toy bins? Have them help you pick things that another child might love.
This is one of my favorite suggestions. In fact, my kids and I did this a few weeks ago. We have two boxes of toys and books that are still in great shape but just not of interest to them anymore. The hardest part of this exercise for me was allowing them to decide what stayed and what went. They chose to get rid of things that I loved and they chose to keep things that made me scratch my head. But I kept my mouth closed and encouraged them to find those things that someone else might love. And today we are heading to the donation center to drop them off. This is an important step in my opinion. Usually I have the truck pick my stuff up during the day right from our front porch. But I want my kids to experience the actual giving away of the items. I want them to hand them over and get that "Thank You" back from the man or woman collecting the boxes. I hope they will come to learn that our stuff isn't what defines us and that giving it to someone who could love it better than we can will set us free to enjoy new blessings.
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