When Your Favorite Blouse (and Other Worn Out Things) Must Go

 It had been my favorite top for years--this cozy blue and white cotton floral top with pretty scalloped crocheted lace edging around the wrists and waist.  I had found it at a very small thrift shop somewhere up in the mountains where I had gone with Jonathan when he had a job in the mountains of Colorado.

Inside it was fuzzy soft, and outside it was sturdy and resistant to dirt. But little by little, it had become worn, faded, and dingy, and finally there were slight stains that just would not quite come out. 

It was time to say goodbye to my beloved blouse. I cut it up into pieces for rags so I would not second guess myself, and also so that it would not seem that I just threw it away. The pretty blue and white floral pieces would still be useful.

I've thrown a shirt or two of Jonathan's away recently, maybe a pair of jeans, and another one or two of my skirts and tops. 
It was just time--time to let go of our favorite, worn out articles of clothing. 

"There is a time for every purpose under heaven," Ecclesiastes tells us. There is a time to gather, and a time to throw away. 

For worn out clothes and unnecessary items in our home, the time has come. 

It's hard to let go of things--unless you love being a minimalist. It feels wasteful. You think about poor people in Africa, refugees, and others who would welcome an old top, a shirt with a worn collar, or holey jeans.

Also, if you live in South Dakota where you must travel sometimes hours to get anywhere to shop, it is downright scary to get rid of things. What if you need them later on? 

What if the economy crashes and you wish you had kept all those sawed-off parts of plumbing pipes and scraps of electrical wire and boxes of leftover stuff from jobs that were finished and had to be cleaned up?

What if you end up needing the chain saw that doesn't work and the tool that is missing a part and one of the very out-of-date stories that you've saved all these years for Sunday School?

 But sometimes hanging on to things hampers our life. We spend an awful lot of time hunting through our stuffed closet for a blouse or skirt or shirt or pants appropriate for whatever occasion while several totes of clothing are stowed away in the attic.

Our mission director's wife was telling me tonight about how her brother (the dad of these children above to whom Crystal read stories during staff meeting recently) is clearing most of the "stuff" out of the huge shop/barn that belongs to the mission, to make room for what is really needed, including activities that need space. 

It's kind of scary, watching all those things go.

It's a good thing, but a painful experience. Seeing a special memento leaving for good can be hurt, just like saying goodbye to my favorite blouse was seriously painful.

But because space, dignity, and self-respect are important, I will decide that it's just time.

The stained and worn top, however loved, must go. 

The worn out hankie must become a rag. 

And the holey jeans, too worn for denim crafts, must find a hideout in the wastebasket. 

It must go and make space for the new and better.

It's time has come.