Letting Go

Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Albert Einstein

Even Albert Einstein had an opinion on clutter. Simplifying and clutter clearing has become a big business. You can hire people to help you do it. Shelves of books have been written on the subject. It’s a topic of conversation. As we become older it’s on our minds more. What do we do with all this stuff?

This Christmas Village brought it all to light for me. Last year I didn’t put it up. It’s one more box to be hauled up from the storage room. Besides that, it’s time consuming and fiddly to do.This year, I decided to give it one more try. It was a half- hearted attempt and I admit to not putting up everything. When I take it down it will get packed off to the Assistance League to donate. I am done.

Through the years, I have given away lots of holiday decorations. I do admit to still doing a substantial amount of decorating. There are live greens for the door and a planter on the porch. Lots of boughs, berries, a tree and Santa Claus collection indoors. I forgot to mention the lights in the balcony planter boxes.

My goal, when I take down the decorations this year, is to cut the number of boxes by half. My son, who drags all of it back and forth from downstairs, will be happy to hear my decision, I’m sure. The truth is climbing up and down and lifting boxes has become harder and I don’t enjoy doing it as much as I once did.

Just as we have stopped doing as much entertaining, I will cut back on the decorating. It doesn’t take away any of the joy of the celebration. It just makes it less complicated. There will be more time to play some carols and enjoy the tree lights.

Hopefully, this if just the beginning of my simplifying plan. I have worked at it half-heartedly through the past months and this is the year to get serious about it. We have lived in our condo over twenty years and have accumulated at lot of unnecessary stuff. I thought moving from a large house to a condo would solve the problem and it did help. Sadly things have continued to accumulate. As I get older, I want to make my life easier. I don’t want to spend my time taking care of a lot of unnecessary stuff.