Boxes and boxes

We recently passed the six months mark since Sue and I moved to our new manse, and we were aware that we still had quite a lot of boxes which we hadn’t got round to unpacking.  To be honest, it may well be that some of those boxes have been waiting to be unpacked since we moved to Leicester from Doncaster three years ago!

I’m pleased to say that we have managed to open a number of the boxes, though it will take us a while longer to complete the task.  In some ways, opening the boxes has been a bit like Christmas or a birthday!   In certain cases we unearthed items which we had completely forgotten about.  Our intention is to slowly work our way through the boxes, deciding what to do with each item individually.

Perhaps not surprisingly, there were quite a lot of items which we decided we could easily manage to live without; they were sorted ready for the charity shop or for some other destination.  How easy it is to gather clutter as time goes by.  In reality, it’s probably true to say that a sizeable proportion of most people’s possessions could be dispensed with if push came to shove (I remember hearing a story of someone who visited a very remote part of the world with few modern comforts; the host said to the visitor, “Let me know if you need anything, and I’ll show you how to manage without it!”)

Some of the items we unpacked, of course, were very precious indeed, not in a financial sense, but in terms of their sentimental value or memory association.  For example, an item may be closely related to a certain important life event, such as a marriage or birth or other special occasion.  I did come across a bag which contained a collection of items from our honeymoon 37 years ago. We still haven’t got round to sorting them out; they have no monetary value but are precious to us!

Our box-unpacking experience so far has been thought-provoking.  Why do most of us tend to gather so much “stuff”? Does it indicate that we have bought into a materialistic outlook on life?  I have been led back to the words of Jesus, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’ (Luke 12:15)  I must say that I have found the process of sorting out and giving away a lot of items quite therapeutic.  Sue and I would both admit to have accumulated too much stuff.  If only we could agree on which items we no longer need!