Storing Up Treasures in My Attic
May 15, 2018
The average U.S. household has 300,000 things within its walls, or so claimed the LA Times a few years ago! I know, only too well, my contribution to the average clutter in American homes! Recently, I had new carpeting installed in my home and the flooring company gave me a checklist of things to do to get ready for that installation. One “get ready” tip was to empty the floors of all of my closets. It was the “emptying of the floors” which enlightened me as to my storehouse of treasures.
As I prepared for my new carpeting, I found things in my closets that I had moved from house to house to house over the last 40 years. My stuff was to me as Ruth was to Naomi- “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. [Your closets will be my closets…]”
Most of us know we own too much stuff. We purge from time to time, and vow to never let the clutter return, only to find it does return and with a vengeance! Our accumulations accumulate, as does our awareness of some trivia such as:
1. Our homes have more television sets than people
2. The average size of the American home has nearly tripled in the last half century yet we still rent storage space
3. There are five times as many storage facilities in the U.S. than the number of Starbucks
4. 25% of people who own two-car garages do not have room to park cars inside them
5. 3.5% of the world’s children live in America, but they own 40% of the toys consumed globally
6. The average American woman owns 30 outfits, one for every day of the month
7. Americans donate 1.9% of their income to charitable causes
8. Shopping malls outnumber high schools
9. Americans spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches than on higher education
10. Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend 153 days searching for lost/misplaced items -we lose up to 9 items every day
Clearly things matter to us! Our stuff can give us a sense of security and comfort, or a connection to people we love, or to our past. I found that the majority of what covered my closet floors consisted of photographs, cards and letters—all treasured connections to people I have loved along life’s way!
Thankfully, I was successful in purging my stuff and in time for the new carpet to be installed! Some of my stuff contributed to the local land fill; most of my possessions went to charitable causes. The purge cleared out my home, and interestingly enough, my heart and mind so that I can think more clearly about storing up treasures in heaven instead of my attic!
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:1-21