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Decluttering a House
Real estate agents advise homeowners to empty their house of furnishings and clutter before putting it on the market. Even the kitchen counter must be completely clear. Two years ago my husband and I spent the better part of one month clearing the clutter from my mother-in-law's house to sell it. While in the hospital, she knew she could never return to her home of sixty-one years. We were given the task of deciding what to keep.
My husband began in the basement while I worked in the bedrooms on the second floor. His Dad had built a cupboard in the furnace room the length of one wall. Reaching into one corner of it, my husband pulled out bits and pieces of a coal furnace over fifty-five years old. Meanwhile upstairs, not wanting to throw away any precious memory, I packed up nine boxes of papers and photographs. We took them home to sort out later. The more we discovered, the more we wondered why she had kept so much junk, particularly three broken dehumidifiers and a broken humidifier.
Our minds can sometimes be cluttered needlessly just like my mother-in-law's house. We may be preoccupied with past regrets or worries about the future. We may be so engrossed in everyday activities of life that we neglect God and his Word. Perhaps destructive emotions such as anger, bitterness, or jealousy consume our thought life. Clutter in the mind harms our relationship with Jesus.
It takes determination and perseverance to clear away clutter. The first step in tidying my mother-in-law's house was to get rid of garbage. Thankfully, we were also allowed to leave as much metal at the curb as we wanted to on garbage day. We were pleasantly surprised when scrap dealers stopped and picked up everything. Our son helped move some furniture into the garage. We stored boxes of stuff in the garage to give away. Many other boxes ended up at our house.
For one month we concentrated on cleaning my mother-in-law's house so that it would be ready for showing. Clearing the clutter from our minds is even more important. Paul testified, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:7, NIV). Let us cast out those thoughts, which prevent us from focusing all of our attention on Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Paul provides the solution for housecleaning our minds. "Rejoice in the Lord always…Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:4-6, NIV). If we obey, God promises to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
I learned two important lessons that month. I need to declutter my own home while I am still healthy and not leave a mess for my children. They will not know the special memories behind my things. More important, I must never become so preoccupied with earthly concerns that I forget to spend time with Jesus.
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