Winter Blues AND Clutter

On one of the forums I visit a lot we're discussing the winter blahs and that got me to thinking. One of the ladies asked if it was just her that wants to do something new or was someone else like this. Bunches of us have responded and said yes we're like that to. After Christmas and all the decorations are put away things look bare and not shiny anymore with all the lights and shiny items of Christmas. The weather is dreary with little to no sun and lots of rain and some have the snow that I am SOOOOO THANKFUL we don't have much of. :) Anyway I was telling her I go through wanting change like this all year long but especially at this time off the year. It just lifts me up to have some changes. I get tired of things being the same way all the time and it just perks me up to change things often. I love fresh flowers especially in the wintertime. You know, it just hit me, that would make a GREAT Christmas present for me and I've never even thought about it until now. You're like, WHAT are you talking about? ;) A Wal-mart gift card because I could get a bunch of fresh flowers every other week until my gift card ran out. What a great idea! ;) You can use it if you like, for someone that likes fresh flowers in the wintertime to perk herself up. You could specify on the envelope what the cards for and that it's NOT TO BE USED FOR NOTHING ELSE. :) Talk about a gift that KEEPS ON GIVING!

Also on another subject..... I've been thinking about posting about this for awhile and I was reminded again earlier today about it. We pass this house that is in our town ever so often that just kills me. You ask why do I feel like that when I pass the house? OK let me see if I can explain it. When I first noticed the house years back, it has a 2 car carport, then a small front porch that I'd say is 3' wide x 12' long. There was never a car there and lights were on so I figured an elderly lady must have lived there. Well I noticed early in the year of '07 there was a car there and they were cleaning the place out. So I figured the lady must have passed away or was moved into an converest home. Why I say cleaning the place out is because, oh my goodness, the whole carport, and the porch was litterly packed and I DO MEAN PACKED with STUFF! Boxes and just stuff. I've only seen one other place like that in my life and it was one of my husbands friends Mom's place. She had a path in the living room to walk into the hallway and in every room of that house was a path she could walk and boxes were stacked to the ceiling with stuff in them. She had them all labeled and I always wondered just HOW could she live like that? She did craft shows and when she would find bargains on things she used to make her craft things she would purchase the things and store them in boxes. Needless to say she had loads and loads of things to use for making her items to sell. Anyway it appears this other home was like this as well. It has a large picture window in the house under the porch and the house looked like the carport. Now I'm not meaning to run these people down if that's how it appears, but what I am trying to say is this, I was thinking about the people they leave behind having to clean that stuff out and figure out what to do with it all. Under normal circumstances we have lots of stuff to have to deal with when cleaning out a home when the person passes on. I can see how over whelming it could get for figuring out what to do with all the things but when the person has THIS MUCH "stuff" one would be tempted to get the shovel or a back hoe and push it all out the door to the curb. :( I noticed this house here in our town, in the early spring of '07 they were starting to clean it out. Piles of stuff that looked like trash was piled all out in the yard and it looks like they are STILL in the process of cleaning the house out. I got to thinking, man I would not want to leave my daughter with that kind of a burden when I pass away because our families or most all of them have jobs and life's of their own and under normal circumstances it's hard on them to get the house cleaned out but it's so much clutter it's wayyyy harder on them. Anyway this just really got me to thinking because one never never knows when it's going to be their time to leave this earth and I just can't stand the thought of leaving things in that order for my daughter to have to deal with!!!
Do you have clutter issues? I know I did and still do to a certain degree. That's one reason why I/we de-cluttered the attic. I have also been working on decluttering the house and it's an on going issue I have to deal with because there are three pack rats that live inside this house! LOL Two of them are much worse than one of them. ;)
There are folks out there that really need the items we are packing away for hard times. God tells us He provides for the birds of the air so He will also provide for us. I feel much better now that I have gotten rid of some of my clutter and will feel even better when I get rid of more of it. It weighs us down and stresses us out.