Why I Give My Stuff Away

I’m 41 yrs. old and have always been a stay-at-home mom along with 12 yrs. as a Homeschool mom. I plan to continue to be a homemaker now that my children are grown. As a single income Christian family we can’t afford to give many cash donations. We can afford to donate what we no longer need and to volunteer our time.

I Give to God:

We believe in Stewardship and showing our love for God with Our Time, Talent, and Treasure. I give out of love, worship, and service to God that provides so bountifully for my family. To God I give all glory and praise.

“For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” ~Matthew 6:21

I Give Local:

I have been giving our unneeded stuff away with no profit to my family for 25 years. I had donated to Salvation Army or Goodwill until we moved to North Lewisburg and I came across a local charity. I have been supporting the local charity in the next town called The Clothes Closet for 18 years. A couple years ago The Marysville Area Ministerial Association purchased an abandoned school and turned it into The Hope Center. The Hope Center is a local compassion network of charities which means that I can donate items such as furniture, household goods, clothes, school supplies, personal care items, and food at one location. The Hope Center is one of many local charities that my family supports. I could get a tax deductible receipt but I don't worry about it.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ~ Matthew 22:37-39

I Give When It Isn’t Convenient:

I have gone out of my way to donate our unneeded items even when the locations of the charities weren’t convenient for me. I save up my stuff to make a donation on my errand days. We don’t live close to the charities I support since we live in a small one stop light community. I like to give to the charities that give their donated items away to people in need for free. 

  

I Give in Need:

I’d rather give than make a profit off of stuff that could benefit families in need. I have held this belief even when my own family was in need and I could have had a yard sale or sold on-line to earn a little bit. I figure my stuff is worth more to a family in need than I could profit selling stuff cheaply. Thrift store shopping isn’t always within the budget when you are low income and raising children. 

When we had young growing children we needed to use local charities such as the food pantry, clothes closet, and Christmas gift charity. We lived in a homeless shelter for a year called the Homeless Families Foundation. It was a charity that gave families temporary apartments until they could get on their feet. 

I Give Out of Thankfulness:

I have always been thankful for the assistance charities gave to my family. I never wanted to take and not give back. My solution was to give away everything we own that we no longer needed rather than make a profit since we didn’t have money to give. We haven’t used these charities for quite a few years but out of thankfulness I give to them. 

When I drop off my families excess I pray for the charity and the people who benefit from its services. I have always donated regularly but I’ve been purging a larger amount of our excess stuff over the last couple years. I pray as I go though our things and collect the items that I’m planning to purge from our home that it may bless a family in need. 

“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” ~John 13:34-35

My Kitchen Day

My Kitchen project for Tuesday was the fridge. My guys (21 & 18) buy some of their own food so it can get crazy in the fridge and freezers. I buy lots of fruit and vegetables and don't always use them before they start to go bad. I started getting a good amount of vegetable from my garden last week.

I spend the day working on my fridge  I cleaned, purged, and cooked for 6 hours to use up items in my fridge. I sliced and bagged veggies/fruit. I made an egg bake, pot roast with veggies, corn on the cob, 2 apple pies, fudge, and tomato cucumber salad. I cleaned each shelf of the fridge and wiped down the walls. I condensed some of the large containers of condiments into the smaller containers on the door. I used almost everything that I needed to use up and very little went into the trash.

I put a beef roast in the crockpot with carrots, potatoes, beans, and Fool You Jalapeños. I got the beans from the farmers market and the Jalapeño's from my garden. Everything I used is from my fridge but the potatoes.

 My 88 yrs. stepdad had leftovers for lunch. He had grilled cheese, egg bake, and sausage. He has Alzheimer's and doesn't like veggies anymore. I had to hide the green pepper, onion, and zucchini in the egg bake.

I put an egg bake in the oven. My husband asked me to make an egg bake for a breakfast meeting he's having tomorrow. I used stuff from the fridge except the onion. I used 8 eggs, 1 cup milk, 8 oz. cheddar cheese, green pepper, onion, a large zucchini, bacon, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. How I ask can their be leftover bacon in a house with 4 men? LOL

I got corn on the cob to go with the beef roast and veggies for dinner.

The egg bake is out of the oven. Its a little over brown since I was busy working on the pies.

The apple crumb pies are headed to the oven. I didn't follow a recipe or measure. The apple are tosses in cinnamon, sugar, and flour. The crumb topping is cinnamon, sugar, flour, and butter.

I made Tomato Cucumber salad with tomato and cucumber from my garden. I used 1/2 an onion, salt, pepper, and packets of balsamic vignette dressing from restaurants.

I made a 2 Ingredient Fudge with the frosting and a bag of peanut butter chips. I made chocolate peanut butter fudge. 

The apple pies are cooling.

The fridge after but before dinner leftovers.

The kitchen all cleaned up before dinner.

The beef roast with veggies is done in the crockpot. I'll serve it with the corn on the cob for dinner along with apple pie for dessert.

I'm going to make egg plant parmesan with the egg plants from my garden later this week. I have a good size amount of tomatoes but not enough to can. I'll eat most of them this week and make fresh salsa. I have cucumbers and zucchini but not as much as I normally get. I have cantaloupe in the garden ready to eat this week. This is the first year I have done well with cantaloupe. I have about 6 in the garden.

Clutter Busting Challenge August 2014 Part 2

I've purged 184 items from my home in August so far. I'm just trying to make it to 495 items purged for the month. If I average 125 items per week I'll make the goal. I'm slightly behind my goal so far but I have exceeded the goal most months. I've been purging a long time so it bound to slow down at some point. This week I'm purging stuff from my kitchen storage, my craft office, my hobby stuff, and my grandkids stuff.


My purge pile this week:

Food and Kitchen stuff.
It took 4 days to completely clean, organize, and purge the kitchen along with my basement food storage.

Office/Stationary items.
I actually put these in the care package envelopes that I am making to mail to family and friends. I'll probably mail several to my daughters over a couple months time. I have 10 that I'm putting together. I'm slowly buying a few little things and adding things I find that I don't need or use. I hope my packages brighten someone's day. I'll be mailing them out mid-September.

Items from my cookbook cabinet.
I hadn't purged anything in a couple days. I spent time with my daughters and grandkids. I thought I would go through my cookbook cabinet.

My grandson's rattles.
I think 5 rattles is a good amount for a baby so I'm purging 3 fabric rattles that are harder to wash than plastic.

Nutrition/Fitness items.
I have subscription to Fitness magazine. I've been keeping up with them but its time for the older issue to go. I've never done Curves but purchased this booklet at a thrift store then never used it. I like exercise DVDs to use at home. I bought this set of yoga videos last summer but didn't like them.

Glassware items.
I forgot my punch bowl at my youngest daughters wedding location last year and never purged the cups. The plates, bowls, and cup set is my everyday dishes. I've wanted to get new ones for a few years. I've been collecting replacements at thrift stores for years and storing to replace broken ones. I'm just going to deal with a few broken dishes as they happen and eventually buy new. A cheese cloche that I put on a candle holder for height but realized its not very useful to me.

Cross-stitch projects.
I like to cross-stitch but these projects are not my style.

 
Book, Slippers and other odds 'n ends.
I donate each newer book to the library after I read them. I put my initials on the back page and like to see if the library keeps my books. I donate older books to a local Clothes Closet Charity. I have 2 pairs of the same slippers and one pair went bad. I keep a pair in my closet downstairs and my bedroom. I like to wear slippers in the house.

 You may be interested in:
 Clutter Busting Challenge August 2014 Part 1

Widen My Vision

God open my eyes
so I may see
And feel Your presence
close to me...
Give me strength
for my stumbling feet
As I battle the crowd
on life's busy street,
And widen the vision
of my unseeing eyes
So in passing faces
I'll recognize
Not just a stranger,
unloved and unknown,
But a friend with a heart
that is much like my own...
Give me perception
to make me aware
That scattered profusely
on life's thoroughfare
Are the best Gifts of God
that we daily pass by
As we look at the world
with an unseeing eye.

~Helen Steiner Rice~

My Big Declutter Project

I have always been someone who declutters along with cleaning my whole house every Spring and Fall.  I started my big declutter journey in 2011. I have participated in several Challenges over the years to make it fun and to keep me moving along on my personal project. I have done way more work on my home than I have actually posted about my blog.

A few of the Challenges that I have post about:

52 Weeks of Organizing

8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered Home

Clutter Busting Challenge

40 Bags in 40 Days
The Minimalist Game

Clutter Busting Challenge August 2014 Part 1

This is my 4th month playing the minimalist game. I've been seriously purging since January 2011. The bulk of our stuff has left within the last 1 1/2 yrs. I'm getting close to being done. I'm purging 80 items this week.

You may notice a trend in the areas that I'm working this week. They are things that came in and left right away, holiday, my grandchildren's toys/puzzles/books, kitchen, and food storage. I'll share pictures of my food storage when I finished my project which will probably be tomorrow. I should share pictures of my grandkids stuff too. It might be nice to share how to make your home fun without it looking like children live with you. LOL

My purge pile this week:

Christmas wrap.

A tank top and food items.

These are things that entered my home and are leaving right away. 

A hotel sheet accidentally brought home after our trip. The magazines are subscriptions that don't belong to us but are delivered to our home. A book I bought over the weekend at a yard sale but already own. The plastic spoons from the wedding of a fellow homeschool family. My husband and I volunteered 6 hours a couple weeks ago prepping, serving, and cleaning up the food for the reception. I used my serving dishes and crockpots so I had extra prep and clean up at home for the wedding.

Children's books.

I went through all my grandchildren's toys and books in the living room. I think 10 toys, 7 games/puzzles, and 15 books is more than enough.

Food and a store booklet.

Food items.

 More food items.

Kitchen items. 

I had tea cups hanging for several years on the unused paper towel bar. I took down the towel bar but left the little shelf to display my tea cups.

Anywhere is a Place of Prayer if God is There

 


I have prayed on my knees in the morning,
I have prayed as I walked along,
I have prayed in the silence and darkness
And I've prayed to the tune of a song----

I have prayed in the midst of triumph
And I've prayed when I suffered defeat,
I have prayed on the sands of the seashore
Where the waves of the ocean beat----

I have prayed in a velvet-hushed forest
Where the quietness calmed my fears,
I have prayed through suffering and heartache
When my eyes were blinded with tears----

I have prayed in churches and chapels,
Cathedrals and synagogues, too,
But often Ive had the feeling
That my prayers were not getting through,
And I realized then that our Father
Is not really concerned where we pray
Or impressed by our manner of worship,
Or the eloquent words that we say----

He is only concerned with our feelings,
And he looks deep into our heart
And hear the "cry of our soul's deep need"
That words could ever impart----

So it isn't the prayer that's expressive
Or offered in some special spot,
It's the sincere plea of a sinner
And God can tell whether or not
We honestly seek his forgiveness
And earnestly mean what we say,
And then and then only He answers
The Prayer that we fervently pray.

~Helen Steiner Rice~