I’m going to share a story about, well, stuff. Sounds vague, I know, but trust me, this post will hopefully change your life, as it did mine. Here goes…

A couple and their young kids had just moved into to a new family home. They had boxes everywhere, filling every room, the blank walls and empty spaces called for immediate decoration. They started to put away the boxes and unpack. The boxes dwindled, soon they only had one box left. Still taped up, the one last box sat in the living room nearly ten years. One day, the wife had enough. She picked up the box, and threw it away. She didn’t even open it. True story, she didn’t even look inside. 

The wife from the story is someone I know personally. As she told me this story I was shocked. You might have thought as I did, “She didn’t even OPEN THE BOX!? What if she needed it? What if it was valuable?” I had so many questions. I was astounded. What she said next blew my mind. “It’s just stuff, you cant take it with you.”

😱     😧 💨

They had lived ten years without the stuff in the box, why did they need to open it now? What she said changed my way of thinking. “Its just stuff!” she said, “You can’t take it with you.”

My whole life I had kept EVERYTHING. Napkins with doodles on them, tickets and stickers from events, wristbands from water parks, and ACTUAL trash. (I kept a Hard Rock Cafe tooth pick, why I don’t know) I would keep all of this and hang it up on my wall.  Below is a video from the height of my ‘hoarding’ phase as some family members would like to call it.

I was surrounded, drowning in just trash, trinkets, stuff! I attached memories and people to things, things I really didn’t need.

Since hearing that story, I am a changed woman. I keep my memories in my heart, in journals, in pictures and videos. I am trying to make my way towards a capsule wardrobe, but thats whole other other blog post. There isn’t any more clutter on my walls, and as a result, in my mind. As I’ve been going through this gradual clean out, I have learned so much about myself, my values, and my faith.

We are all going to die someday, and it’s so true, you can’t take anything with you. Pay less attention to stuff; saving up for stuff, making room for more stuff, pining after stuff other people have. Pay more attention to the present moment, your relationships, experiences, and the grand and beautiful world we live in. Think outside the box, don’t worry about whats in it, because its probably just – stuff.