• Lock, Stock & Barrel
Lock, Stock & Barrel
I have successfully downsized my storage unit to only one. This week I was able to eliminate the second one in my ongoing effort to downsize 40 years of ministry materials, books, resources and equipment. Consolidating years of work has been no easy task for me, but reducing the volume and eliminating the old and unnecessary has been a daily task for me for more than two years. I only work on it about an hour a day, so it has taken a long time, but I was determined just to stay with it, and eventually, I would get it into one unit.
Well, it happened. I now have just one. This is not to say that I am really done, I still have many boxes to sort and files to go through, some old and new, but the storage cost in has been reduced. However, at this point, I am calculating that in this last couple of years I actually have had eight storage units—not all at once. I would get a big one, and then downsize to smaller ones, as I was making progress towards the reduction goal. No one told me that this would be easy, and I can attest it has not. I could only take an hour or two of the emotional energy needed to remember everything associated with whatever I would touch.
Of course, after fifty years of ministry, some things were difficult to pitch, throw or remove, but eventually, reason prevailed and it went. Some things I have managed to donate to worthy causes or persons who might benefit from the resources. But I found that the downsizing in some regards was getting easier with the process of time. I have arranged the storage unit now with a desk for me to work there—as I need to either to work or prepare for various assignments that come up. This has been a great exercise to “eliminate and concentrate” for me. What is left is considered important. But the truth is, there is still more to eliminate and sort. There are still more boxes and files to go through.
In this process I have often wondered just how my family might have handled all my stuff, should I leave the scene and it was up to them. Maybe some day they will appreciate my efforts to spare them the misery of dealing with my life’s work and memorabilia. I guess I will never know that, I can only hope the effort was helpful to them. But today, I am very happy to have ONLY ONE Storage unit, NOT TWO UNITS!
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