A few Sundays ago our pastor said something I’ve never considered before. “I really hope you’ll think about this,” he said. By the seriousness in his tone I assumed it was important so I was ready to take a note. I was little surprised when he said, “America is one of the few, if not the only country in the world that has an overabundance of personal storage units.” Not one of the deeper spiritual truths, but then again, maybe it was.

We are such a country of wealth and abundance and keepers of stuff. But why? I think there’s a false sense of security in squirreling away things we’re sure we might need later? For me later never seems to come and I have stuff I’ll never use. I’ve started giving a lot away. My friend DK has a self imposed rule: for every new article of clothing she buys she donates an old one. Maybe I could purge the closet then implement that rule myself.

I read an interesting interview with Kathy Lee Curtis. She evidently is not only an accomplished actor, she is an organize expert. She didn’t push her methods, but offered some suggestions for getting life in order. She keeps most everything in the kitchen in plastic containers with labels and she wears mostly black, white and navy and organizes her closet by color. She only has one pair of jeans. I bet she never digs for measuring spoons and getting dressed must be so uncomplicated.

There’s a mutant gene that seems to have crept into Americans that pushes us to gather more and more. The law of diminishing returns is in full swing whispering enough is not really enough. When we get what we think we need, then there is the bigger and the newer one out in 6 months. So, we collect more. No wonder we think we need bigger houses. We need to keep our stuff.

What if everyone gave away things they don’t use or really even need? Life might be a little simpler and a whole lot less stressful. Besides the more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to take care of.