Why Do YOU Live With Less?

Live with less...Purge...Declutter...Organize...All words that require inspiration, action, and determination.Why have you made the choice? The choice to live with less, purge, declutter, and organize? Because it is the latest fad? Because "everyone else is doing it?" I have pondered this question often as I write this blog called "Organizing Life With Less." Am I just jumping on the bandwagon? Am I just trying to be like all the others and live up to this status of an organized life?When I was trying to think of a title for this blog, I remember going to bed one night and telling my husband what I wanted the purpose of this blog to be. I was throwing various "buzz" words together, but I kept coming back to living with less. My husband was monumental in asking me hard questions such as "how are you going to do that?" Well, I wanted to live with less through organizing. Bam. That was it. Organizing Life With Less.I have dug deep. Why do I have such a passion to live with less? When I look through Better Homes & Garden, House Beautiful, HGTV, or Real Simple magazines for example, I sometimes crave the organizing bins and storage containers they use. I crave the color, the spunky look of rooms. Then I close the magazine and jump back into reality. No, that is NOT the life I want to live. I don't need my home to be in a magazine. Many think that because I write a blog about organizing life with less, that our house looks like it is out of a magazine. Friends, if you have ever been in our home, you know it is far from that. Our $40 sectional couch from college (which was 8 years ago) still sits proudly in our living room. Our entertainment center, also from college, is held together by super glue. Our car, has a decent dent in the front left corner and we have no thoughts of ever fixing it. Our dressers are hand-me-downs from my sister when she got her own room when we were kids. Our life is far from a magazine.This is the life I want to live.There is something about "new" that I do appreciate. But I know that "new" is not what I live for. Because surely, as soon as I purchase it, it is no longer new. That is why using the used and living with less, is what we desire. It isn't because it's a new fad or way to live. It's because we are living out of a heart full of conviction. Our thoughts are never far from our experiences in the Dominican Republic and Belize. We knew from those moments and on, that we are not to fall into the trap of consumerism and climbing the ladder of American success. In fact, quite the opposite. Our faith calls us to live for so much more - for an eternal home that isn't obtained by material possessions or wealth, but by faith and belief in the One who died for us. Jesus Christ. Living with less, purging, decluttering, and organizing may be a trend. Trends die off eventually. It may be 5 years, 10 years, 50 years. This is a standard that I do not want to ever give up or let go of. This is more than a lifestyle - I have scripture as my standard and I know that a life with more and more material possessions, is not a life worth striving for.I hope that as begin to start or continue to read this blog, that you will find inspiration to live with less. Not because it's a trend, but because you want this as your standard of living.