Decorating and Shopping

2011-12-04T21:27:00.001-06:00

We have been shopping and decorating for weeks and Christmas approaches quickly.

Fear of Santa

2011-11-28T15:21:00.001-06:00

It seems that every little kid loves Santa Claus and we wait anxiously for him to arrive and bring us presents. I find it odd that when presented with the man himself to meet, greet and share our wish list with, we all seem to cry. Come on you know you did too.

Rain Forrest in Dallas

2011-11-21T19:57:00.001-06:00

The Dallas World Aquarium is an amazing multi-layered rain forrest in the middle of downtown Dallas. It's well worth checking out.

The Season to Come

2011-11-11T20:43:00.001-06:00

Christmas has definitely arrived at the mall.

The Great Purge

2011-11-11T12:33:00.001-06:00

My wife and I have learned something since we moved to Texas, your stuff weighs you down and can even contribute to unhappiness. I know it sounds like crazy talk in our stuff-driven capitalistic economy, but too much of anything can be a bad thing.

Over the years we have been together, my wife and I have collected a lot of stuff, nick nacks, old clothes, decorations, hand-me-downs, less-than-wanted gifts, impulse purchases and the list can go on forever. All this on top of the stuff you actually want, need and use. Now don't get me wrong, we are not hoarders. Our apartments have been clean and livable; we just learned how to store things very efficiently.

It was during our move from Arizona to Texas when we started to realize the problem. As we packed box after box it never seemed to end. We had more than 20 boxes of books and that was after having donated some to the library. We had a much larger moving truck than one would normally use for such a move and it took all day to load up.

By the time we got to Dallas, we still had not found a new apartment so we ended up staying in a long-term stay hotel, with our stuff in storage. Let me tell you, a few weeks without most of your belongings can be a really eye-opening experience. You start to realize how little you actually need or use most of your possessions.

The final nail in the crate was the TV show, "Clean House" which we had started watching. I think that was part of our "stuff therapy"; it put us in the mindset to start getting rid of things. We started to talk about having a yard sale or finding a flea market where we could sell stuff, but then we realized that we had said that numerous times over the years and it only led us to keep things we normally would not have kept just because we could sell them "some day".

Want to know the truth? That day rarely ever comes.

When we took that in and embraced the fact that we just needed to break down and start getting rid of stuff, our purging began. Books were sold to the used book store (I read eBooks now anyway). Clothes, sheets, pictures, decorations and other odds and ends were donated bag by bag and box by box over the past three years as our time and energy have permitted. The purge is still going on but now we dig deep into closets and storage areas and really question ourselves when we look at things (and when we consider bringing things into our house). Do we really need it? Do we need it?

It feels great! Every couple bags out the door is like a weight off of our shoulders. It sounds odd to hear, but it's very liberating to get rid of crap that we have been lugging around with us for, what, a third of our lives? I would recommend that you and your spouse or significant other take a long hard look around your dwelling and really assess what you need... then go take a look in your closets.

Sunny Morning

2011-11-11T05:34:00.001-06:00

Sunny gets very cuddly on crisp cold mornings. I finally got him to sit still for a closeup.

Butterfly

2011-11-10T14:27:00.001-06:00

We were at the Dallas Zoo and came across this butterfly (or is it a moth) just hanging out. I was surprised it didn't fly away.

Ceiling Cat

2011-11-09T19:08:00.001-06:00

Wyatt, our own little Ceiling Cat, seems to approve of our recent closet purging efforts. He casually climbed up to the highest point and made it his own.

ChrisStehno | info