How to declutter your life

A couple of years ago our friend Andrew Barton, now vicar of a church in Auchterarder, Scotland, wrote a small booklet called "Decluttering: A Spirituality of Less". I think it's still avaiable from www.grovebooks.co.uk. When I read it, I inwardly applauded a lot of what he said, and even began to declutter in a small way. Things that we really didn't ever use were given away, and there was a bit more space on the book shelves.

But now we're only a few weeks away from leaving our house in Leicester, and moving to Queen's College Birmingham. Suddenly decluttering is at the top of the agenda. We will take two large suitcases each on the airplane to Belize. Another 2 cubic meters each of other possessions will go with us to Birmingham, and then be shipped off to Belmopan, Belize. That's it. Everything else has to go.

Christian Aid used to have a slogan that went something like: "live simply, so others can simply live". I've always thought that was a good motto. My reality has been rather different, and a bit of me is quite glad of the opportunity to return to a bit more simplicity. Another bit of me, however, has a real emotional attachment to some of our things...

Some good friends have made room for us to store a few bits of furniture and some boxes in their house, but that still leaves an awful lot of possessions to deal with, and not long to do it in. Knowing there is a strict limit on what we can take, and on what we can keep, we have to make some hard decisions. So no more prevaricating about the bush. Less is best! Time for some more adverts in the local newspaper, and another trip to the charity shops.