Thankfulness Thursdays Week 7--Living with Less Stuff

Today is week seven of Thankfulness Thursdays where we meet up each week to share what we are thankful for from now until Thanksgiving.  You can write a simple list or focus on writing about one thing you are thankful for.  No rigid rules! 

Also feel free to use the above image in your blog post if you wish!

You can find out more information about the link up here.

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This week I am thankful for less stuff.  We had our second yard sale of the year (we had our last one in June) which is a little crazy that we had enough new stuff to sell a second time around.  We combine all of our yard sales with our parents and my aunt and uncle so together we accumulate enough for a good sale.

Every time we have a big clear out in our home it is like a whole layer of stuff we are freed from.  I almost automatically find a few things I would have liked to have sold after the sale because I can actually see what I have with new eyes.

I am not sure if this yearly yard sale will continue to happen or if I will start learning a thing or two and bring less things inside our home.  But either way, the discipline of letting go and reevaluating how we live is so refreshing.

So often I feel like I cannot do what I want to do or live the way I want to because the stuff gets in the way.  I want to do (insert the blank) but first I need to tidy up this paper work or put away these clothes, or reorganize my craft supplies so I can actually use it. 

So many of us have this dream for a big home, and a big yard, and big pretty things.  But it is so easy to see what we think we want until we have to actually take care of it all.  I love my stuff and the fact we have enough rooms that I can have a crafting space but it is when this extra space is no longer big enough that creates a problem.  When there are so many things filling cabinets and hutches and counters that I am no longer spending my life living in my home but trying to make it less chaotic, the stuff has become too much.

As I go into a less cluttered house and the upcoming holidays, my goal is to continue to live with less.  Not that I will never bring anything into our home again but that I will be more thoughtful about my purchases and I will look to what I already have at home before going out and buying what I think I need.

I want to be thankful for what I do have instead of what I think I should have.  Perhaps if I was more thankful for what I had I would not have as much of a desire for more. 

What are you thankful for this week?