Possessions: Pandemic Clutter

My Journal - Agatha Nolen

This coming week I’m going to be focusing on Simplicity in Possessions. I know that this isn’t easy and will actually be a commitment to a lifestyle change, but I need to start somewhere!

I realized that I have areas of my house where I have stored away things purchased during the pandemic. Some of them are “case quantities” of everyday items that were only available from Amazon or Costco in large quantities, and others are things that I thought I needed to prepare for a new lifestyle under the pandemic. I have a “pandemic junk drawer”, a place in my master closet where a few things have been carefully stacked for 4 years and a hall closet that I converted to an additional pantry.

Just this weekend I’ve identified a few items and new philosophies that will bring me some more space and a bit of simplicity into my life:

1. I have a case of tea bags from the pandemic. This is in addition to the normal stock that I have in my food pantry in the kitchen. I’ve started drinking a cup of tea each evening, and I have an estimated 200 tea bags on hand. I plan to go through them to see if any have expired and for the remainder, I will share them with friends. (This is in addition to the hot chocolate mix, hot fruit tea mix, etc. also from the pandemic).

2. When no one was coming to the house, I thought I was going to become a superb gardener. I bought soil, mulch, pine chips and a fertilizer spreader (that is still in the box). This week, I’m going to use what I can, but I’m not fooling anyone. I have a lawn guy that mows, mulches, aerates, overseeds, and fertilizes. Surely someone I know can use a small fertilizer spreader.

3. I have a drawer full of masks, hand sanitizer, and assorted other pandemic-related fashion statements (mostly alumni masks). Oh, and expired COVID tests. So, I’m going through those also, throwing out the expired tests and keeping a few masks for future use. The government has extended some of the expiration dates on COVID tests so I’ll check those first, but if they are really expired, out they go. (You can check COVID test expriation dates here: https://bit.ly/4927fPp).

4. I still have 100+ plastic bags from all the groceries I ordered on-line. We help serve food at the Church of the Holy Trinity, one of our downtown Episcopal Churches, once a month and the guests always ask for a plastic bag. A nice way to put them to good use.

I know that simplicity of possessions is not easy, but I hope to start changing my lifestyle to bring fewer things into my life and start moving more things out. I think a negative “net” (more moving out than coming in) will be the secret to long-term success for me.

In what ways are you using possessions to bring simplicity into your life?

Blessings, my friend,

Agatha