Inspiration from my reading

I picked up a copy of Messies 2 by Sandra Felton at a thrift shop for $0.25 the other day. I'm trying to tackle some books in my "new-to-me books" pile. This happened to be the one that caught my eye yesterday.

Are you familiar with the Messies books? I have one or two of them and will collect the rest as I find them at secondhand shops. A fellow pastor's wife encouraged me to keep resource books like these on hand for the occasional new convert who has never been taught how to keep home. But I've discovered they're also good for those of us who run across an occasional bump in the road to organizing our houses.

I'll have to admit that I have one or two "Messie" tendencies that I am forever battling against. The biggest one is that I'm a sentimental packrat.

My kids are two and four, and I have every outfit they ever wore (complete with shoes), unless they somehow stained it or ripped it. They have only just started staining and ripping, so you can well imagine I have lots and lots of baby clothes to store.

You know, baby clothes for that third baby that we probably won't ever have ... The third baby that, if it ever comes along, will be so far into the future that all these adorable clothes will be completely out of style ... These adorable clothes that are taking up all my precious storage space in a house with no basement and no attic.

And did I mention that most of these clothes were either given to us or purchased for less than $1 each at yard sales or thrift stores?

So why do I have such a hard time agreeing to get rid of them? It's because I'm a sentimental packrat, that's why! :)

One of the things I read that helped me a lot went something like this ... Why hang onto things you don't use that simply give you stress [because you can't store things that you will use]? Are you willing to get rid of something that you just might need within the next 10 years?

Okay, so that's not word for word. But I'm pretty good at getting the gist of things, and that's exactly how it spoke to me.

My husband has been trying to convince me to let go of these clothes for over a year now, and I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it.

"Do you know how hard it is to find little boys' suits?" I ask him. "And what about modest dresses for little girls?"

Of course he does! So how about we share the wealth with someone else before they're so badly out of style that no one will wear them?

So I'm tentatively thinking about a yard sale for Saturday to sell those beautiful clothes my kids have outgrown ... and possibly some other baby accessories I've been hanging onto for too long. One thing I'm not budging on, though: I'm keeping their "coming home from the hospital" outfits.

Oh, and if that third baby ever does happen to come along (don't hold your breath), I'll have an excuse to shop for more adorable baby clothes at the thrift stores.