Reduce!

If you read any organization books or books on simplifying your life, you will find that the first step is always to reduce what you have to organize making the job of being orderly easier. This activity starts with that first step of Reduce. Start a family discussion on how blessed the family is to have all the things that you have. Being orderly with our possessions is one way to express gratitude for having them. It is also important to look at how much we have and compare that to how much we need. In most cases, we own quite a bit more stuff than we need. Pick a category of belongings such as T-shirts, shoes, toys, books, or sports equipment. Each family member must find all that they own in that category and pile it together. You can choose to give everyone a corner of the living room or garage and do this together or have each person do it in their own space. The point of the exercise is to look at the entirety of your belongings in that category to get the full sense of how much there is. Decide what should be kept and return it to its home. Everything else goes in the donate pile if it is still usable or trashed if it isn’t. Gather up the donate items and let the family say good-bye and send them off with blessings to their new owners. Make sure that the items that are kept are put away in a neat and orderly fashion. Challenge the family to then keep those belongings neat and orderly for the next month. Set up a time to “inspect” in a month and see who has completed the challenge. You may even want to make it a monthly event and pick a new category each month.