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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Getting Rid of Stuff Series: Give it Away

Since January we have been trying to simplify.  But not just simplify, redirect that attention to God.  One thing we discovered is we have too much stuff, plain and simple.  
Stuff shoved in closets.
Stuff under beds. 
Stuff covering every square inch of our house.
So after gathering a bunch that we did not need, we decided to do 4 different things with the stuff…
1. Give it away.
2. Sell it on Ebay.
3. Sell it on online Garage Sale pages on Facebook.
4. Have a garage sale.
Each had its pluses and minuses.  But I think the biggest plus of all is that we don't have so much stuff in our lives to distract us from God :).
For the next few weeks I am going to share a post on our experience with each… and I highly encourage you to simplify too, it has been a great experience!
1. Give it away.
I list this one first, because it is where we need to land first and so keep our eyes open to throughout the whole process.  Really all the time.  There are always opportunities to give.  And when I say give away, I don't just mean drop at Goodwill ( though there is a time and place for that).  But look for real needs and fulfill them.  
One awesome example was a friend of a girl in our small group had a fire and lost of her stuff.  Said friend happened to be the same size as me!  I was able to give her four bags full of all sorts of clothes!  
We also have a local thrift store and food pantry that proceeds go to support ministry.  We gave there too.
We are still looking for ways to give.  What I have learned is that it is way easy to say, "I don't have anything to give," when in actuality, we have an abundance of things we can share with others.

So take a peer around your house.  Is there something you have 2,3,5,11 or more of that you can provide to someone else's need?  

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5 comments:

  1. we have a Facebook page in our town called "for sale in amarillo" and people get on there and post their stuff. then you just meet up and exchange money for goods. brilliant idea I tell ya!

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  2. hey! I got your comment on my blog post, but I can't reply because you're a no reply blogger :( If you google how to fix it, the directions are super easy to understand. I try and help bloggers out when this happens to them because it used to be me and I always thought no one was replying because they didn't like me. haha. in all reality its because they couldn't. by the way, shoot me an email at whit.cramer@gmail.com so we can talk about your question (since I couldn't reply) :)

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    1. That's so good to know! I didn't even realize I was a no reply blogger! I will fix it and shoot you an email tonight!

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  3. I have a bag of stuff thats ready to donate in my kitchen. Its been there a while now :( Thank you for reminding me to make it a priority.

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    1. I am so glad my post was a reminder!!! It is so easy to forget to give away stuff we don't need anymore! Hope you find a great place/ charity to take it!

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