Christian Character Clubhouse: Reduce
If you read any organization books or books on simplifying your life, you will find that the first step is always to reduce what you have to organize, making the job of being orderly easier. This activity starts with the first step of Reduce. Start a family discussion about how blessed you are to have all that you have. Being orderly with our possessions is one way to express gratitude for having them. It is also important to look at how much we have and compare that to how much we need. In most cases, we own quite a bit more stuff than we need. Pick a category of belongings such as T-shirts, shoes, toys, books, or sports equipment. Each family member must find all that they own in that category and pile it together. You can choose to give everyone a corner of the living room or garage, and do this together, or have each person do it in their own space. The point of the exercise is to look at all your belongings in that category to get a full sense of how much there is. Decide what to keep and return it to its home. Everything else goes in the donate pile if it is still usable or trashed if it isn’t. Gather up the donated items and let the family say goodbye and send them off with blessings to their new owners. Make sure the items kept are put away in a neat, orderly fashion. Challenge the family to then keep those belongings neat and orderly for the next month. Set up a time to “inspect” in a month and see who has completed the challenge. You may even want to make it a monthly event and pick a new category each month.
When you are done, process the activity with these questions:
What category of belongings did you choose to gather?
What did you notice when you saw all of your items in one place?
What was easy about deciding what to keep?
What was hard about deciding what to let go of?
What did your “donate pile” look like compared to your “keep pile”?
What did this activity show you about how much we own compared to how much we actually use?
How does reducing what we have make it easier to stay neat and organized?
How does taking care of our belongings show gratitude for what we’ve been given?
How did it feel to donate items that could bless someone else?
What did you learn about yourself and your habits by doing this?
How does this activity help us understand the character trait of Orderliness — “structuring my environment and routines to help me think clearly and follow through on what matters”?
What is one habit you want to practice this month to keep your belongings neat and orderly?
How will this activity help you remember to put things away and take care of what you keep?