40 Bags in 40 Days {Lent 2012}

Tomorrow is the first day of Lent.

Every year since high school, I have "given up" the same thing for Lent.
I have given up all dessert, candy & sweets.
If you know me, you know how much I LOVE my desserts.
But, this year, I am not doing this for lent. It has become "too easy"
I have done it for over 15 years & I feel like it is time for a change.
I needed a challenge & something for me to re-focus on during Lent.

So, starting tomorrow, I will be doing a 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge.
I read about this on a blog (can't remember which one) a couple years ago & knew that I wanted to do it for Lent one year. Well, this is that year. No more procrastinating.

The idea is that during Lent (40 days) rid your house of 40 bags of "stuff".
This "stuff" can be things you don't use... junk, clothes you don't need/wear, clutter, old toys, etc.

Why have I decided to do this?
A few reasons...
If you look at my house, it is very clutter free....that is until you look in the closets & drawers.
They are SO unorganized & full junk. Seriously, it is scary what my closets & drawers look like.
It reminds me of how we all appear sometimes. Good on the outside & messy on the inside.

To me, Lent is a time of prayer, self-reflection, sacrifice, self-control and renewal.
To me, a good home de-cluttering can go hand in hand with the Lenten season, just like our houses/blogs may look put together on the outside, on the inside we are a mess and need an intervention & de-cluttering ourselves.

Our house is decently sized, but our storage is limited, it is time to
GET RID OF STUFF.
It is kind of gross how much STUFF we have, that we don't even need.
The amount of clothes I have, but haven't worn in months/years is embarrassing.
They need to be given away to people who need clothes.
We have more than we need..it's time to SIMPLIFY.

It sounds overwhelming to get rid of 40 bags of stuff, but I know how much I need to do this.
Over the weekend, Kevin & I did some re-organizing of our garage. We found 1 box that we never unpacked (from when we moved 20 months ago!)
In that final box that was never unpacked, it contained items from our "junk drawer" in our old kitchen...there was a $30 Target card, $25 Target Card, $15 ITunes Card, $20 Peets coffee card, $25 Pottery Barn Kids Gift card and $25 in movie dollars..among other treasures. And, we found things that were still wrapped up in newspaper from our 2004 move to that house! It has been boxed up for 8 years & I haven't missed it. GROSS!
This is one of the reasons that motivated me to want to do 40 bags in 40 days....I know I have stuff in drawers/closets that need to find a new spot in my house (or at the Good Will).

I wrote down a list of 30 areas that I wanted to clean out & organize.
Even though Lent is 40 days, I know some of these areas will take me longer than 1 day.
I also know that some of these areas (like my clothes) will be more than 1 bag.
I figured I will do 30 areas & that will also give me some "spare" days if I don't have time one day to clean out an area.
I can't wait to SIMPLIFY our stuff over the next 40 days.
It is going to be a cleansing of sorts & I dreading this task, yet excited about it at the same time.

I know how much better I feel inside (& out) when my house is organized.
Life feels less chaotic.

I would LOVE it if you joined in...Let me know if you need to GET RID OF STUFF.
We can do this together!

This blog will help me stay accountable & I plan on doing photo updates over the next 7 weeks as I CLEAN OUT CRAP that I don't need. I will try and do some before/after pictures on some of the areas.
LESS IS MORE.
"LESS of me & my stuff and MORE of JESUS"
This shall be my mantra this Lenton Season.