What to Maintain?

Spring cleaning is upon us and I recently came across a Tik-Tok influencer who talks about organizing, cleaning, and decluttering. These are all things I try my hardest at, but I end up falling subject to my sentimental and arguably lazy tendencies.

I have always been the person to save every little thing attached to a memory—from a concert ticket to the concert confetti that fell at the end of the show. Yes, that is a true statement, I have saved concert confetti. You might ask, “What did you do with these things?” Well, I’d love to say I put them in a scrapbook or made some cute trendy picture frame, but the truth is, they have remained in a shoe box for the last 20 years. Fast forward to adulthood and mom life, while I am not still saving such things, I am doing the same things with clothes and kids’ toys. The conversations I have with myself regarding the decision to throw away a McDonald’s toy are ridiculous. The conversation usually ends up with me justifying why I keep it, only to inevitably be picking it up off the floor for the next week and eventually finding it in some dusty crevice of their playroom.

This influencer I came across made a single statement that has reformed how I think about things, “Do you want to continue maintaining this item?” It’s so simple, yet so profound. The items in our house from clothes to toys are things we have to maintain, maybe not daily, but eventually. The shirt you keep in your closet that you keep pushing to the side, you are maintaining. The toy that is collecting dust or taking up room in the bin that the kids haven’t looked at in months, you are maintaining. That extra Tupperware bowl that doesn’t have a lid that you keep getting out and putting back in because you forget it doesn’t have a lid, you are maintaining. To the logical person, the easy answer would be to throw it away, but if you’re like me it feels easier to just leave it there. This thought process has helped me get a hold of those feelings and make better decisions in organizing my house. I have been able to clean out 8 bags worth of clothes, throw away silly items taking up space in boxes and drawers, and remove my guilt from throwing away the kid’s meal toy.

To take this idea to a deeper level, we not only maintain unused, useless, and outdated items in our homes, but we do the same with thoughts in our minds. How often do we revisit unresolved conflict, which is taking up mental space and time? Same with unforgiveness and fears— we allow them to take up our capacity, causing us to constantly maintain giving them time and energy. Just like we can give away our old clothes to the Salvation Army or a broken toy to the recycle bin, we can resolve the areas taking up space in our minds by giving them to Jesus. These are two areas that I am working on to not only provide a clean and organized space in my home but in my mind as well.

I challenge you to take your spring cleaning to the next level and join me in getting rid of all the things in our lives that we don’t want or need to maintain anymore, so we can look forward to a fresh and organized spring!