The Circle of Second Hand and the Practice of Living with Less

Our church here in Vienna is home to a seemingly never-ending circle of hand-me-downs. Moms are constantly bringing outgrown clothes and other items to church to be passed on to the other kids. We’ve been blessed by this time and again, and we enjoy blessing others with hand-me-downs as well.

The sentiments of one mom express how committed people are to decluttering and re-purposing: “Somebody take it because it’s not coming back home with me! I’ll put it in the Goodwill box before that happens!” Decluttering is such a way of life here. The work of it is ongoing, given the limited amount of living and storage space. People here are good at using it up, giving it away, or recycling.

I remember being anxious about how Naomi and Evie would handle not having their toys with them during the year we were on “home service assignment” in the States. We packed a small amount of favorites, but it was just not possible to bring more than a few toys. Once we got settled into the apartment in Texas, we found some Duplo blocks at a thrift store, friends let us borrow their supply of baby toys, and we bought some coloring books, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. We borrowed dvds from the library. And you know what? The girls were fine! Even bigger kids have fun with baby toys when that’s what is available!

We also ended up taking a huge road trip across the southwest U.S., all the way to San Diego, and then on to Indiana with our toddler and baby in a 4-door Toyota. There were a few toys in the back seat and a couple of cds with kids songs. One of them had kids songs in German, and by the end of the trip all of us were singing them together. Not that we would want to repeat that kind of roadtripping ever again, but the point is, the kids were fine and learned to make due with the minimalism.

So that was really freeing, realizing the kids didn’t need a lot of stuff, especially as we had to de-clutter in preparation for moving into a new apartment after returning to Vienna. Our current apartment is bigger than our old one, but the basement space is smaller. Once that is used up (which it pretty much already is), everything else we’re storing fits under our full size bed, and after that everything else has to go! In fact, when my parents were here, Dad helped me clean out our basement space and take some items to the dump/recycling place.

The neighborhood dump has big dumpsters designated for recycling different items, and a person can walk right up and throw stuff in, self-service style. Dad had so much fun throwing a broken, standing floor fan up into a huge dumpster (although there were stairs he could have used to gently drop it in)!

Over time I’ve tried to develop a habit of decluttering on a regular basis. At first it was overwhelming, but with practice it has become easier. Now it’s kind of fun and simplifies life.

How about you? Do you enjoy decluttering? Do you have any tips that have been helpful for you to make this a habit in your life?