Agnostic Mom

I am going to blog a mini-rant today. I just drove by a neighbor’s house and noticed that for the 2nd weekend in a row, they are having a garage sale. By now they only have clothes left, but you wouldn’t believe the amount! It’s the end of the 4th day! The clothes were lain up and down the driveway, and hanging across the expanse of the garage.

My first question is, where have they been keeping all this stuff? My second question is, WHY have they been keeping all this stuff? Is it really worth saving tons of unwanted junk for a garage sale, to spend the entire weekend on your driveway? For a few hundred dollars?

I had a garage sale years ago and found that for me, it was not worth it. Below are three soul-enriching reasons to ban garage sales from your home.

Items that you would otherwise sell could be donated to a charitable organization. What an easy way to make a contribution to society. I never feel I reserved enough money for the causes I support. It costs me nothing to donate items I no longer need, that would be useful to some child whose dad is long gone and whose mother is unable to parent him because of drugs.

Causes and organizations I support:

• American Cancer Society
• National Parkinson’s Foundation
• Esperanza Children’s Home in Sonora, Mexico (There is no official site for this, but I found a page from another organization that donates to this home.
• The International MOMS Club
• Clothes Helping Kids

The second reason not to hold garage sales has to do with time! Two days sitting on that driveway is two days NOT doing something enriching: running on my treadmill, taking the kids to the park, sorting thoughts while I blog, relaxing at the coffee shop, scrapbooking family memories, reading a good book, organizing my home, etc.

My minimalist philosophy inspires reason number three: A person should never hold onto enough unwanted junk that they could even have a worth-while garage sale! That much stuff is detrimental to the soul. Too much clutter makes a home disorganized and crowded. A cluttered environment poisons the mind with distractions and stress. If you don’t use it and you don’t LOVE it, get rid of it.

Two different organizations make regular monthly stops through my neighborhood to pick items up from my sidewalk. I have a space in my closet where I can put unneeded items until pick-up day comes. This week I bought new bed-covers for the boys. Guess where the old ones are going?

For more info. and helpful tips regarding clutter, take a look at Flylady’s website.