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Post by ohblondie on Feb 27, 2017 9:04:16 GMT -5
For Christians, this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Lent is the time leading up to Palm Sunday and Easter. If you want more information on the Lenten season, you can google it.
Many Catholics (and some other Christians) take the 40 days of Lent to practice self discipline and give up candy or sweets or alcohol, or the like. My father, a retired Methodist minister, always suggested people take on a self improvement task for those days, something along the lines of walking every day, calling your grandparents or shut ins, writing letters, eating more vegetables (when I was really young), reading your bible every day, etc. Something that you would like to do to improve yourself. The thought being, it takes 21 days to start a new habit, after 40 days you should be golden.
On facebook I have seen many Lenten Challenges, for example: every day, for 40 days, donate an item to a homeless shelter or a food pantry, etc. More recently I have seen posts encouraging people to take a bag and every day fill it with items you no longer need. At the end of Lent you will have 40 bags of clothes (or whatever) to donate to a homeless shelter. The most recent one from the Salvation Army says take an item every day and pop it in the bag and have a full bag at the end of the 40 days.
I think I am going to do a twist on this and for every day in Lent I will deal with 40 items. It might be that I toss 10 papers and put 8 socks away and donate 3 books, take out two small bags of trash and fold 7 shirts. It might be I pick up 40 pieces of paper or things off the floor every night before I go to bed. It might be I toss one box of old papers and figure there are 80 pieces and that will cover me for two days. I am confident the first few days will be “I will pick 40 pieces of paper/trash up off the floor and toss/file/shred”
I talked about this in the weekday workalong and a couple of people thought they might want to try this – not for the religious aspect but for the “for 40 days I can do anything” aspect.
PLEASE NOTE AND NOTE WELL: THIS IS NOT BEING PUSHED AS A RELIGIOUS AGENDA. I AM NOT TRYING TO CONVERT ANYONE OR MAKE THEM BE CATHOLIC OR CHRISTIAN OR WHATEVER. IT IS A NEW SPIN ON LENT FOR THSE WHO ARE CHRISTIANS. AND IT IS A 40 DAY CHALLENGE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT AND WHO JUST WANT TO TRY SOMETHING NEW. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT LENT – I SUGGEST YOU GOOGLE IT AS I WILL NOT BE ADDING THAT STUFF TO THIS POST. I AM CREATING THIS AS A 40 DAY CHALLENGE POST. I AM ALSO NOT SUPPORTING ONE CHARITY OVER ANOTHER. THIS IS MERELY A SUGGESTION FOR A 40 DAY CHALLENGE.
Lent is 40 days starting Ash Wednesday (Weds March 1st) and runs thru Easter (Sunday April 16th). Sundays are not included in the 40 days – so Sundays are your “free” day. Or in my case, the day to catch up on other days that I missed.
Feel free to post pics of your progress! Remember – this is just for fun – a new spin on a challenge!
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Post by dtesposito on Feb 27, 2017 10:29:47 GMT -5
I'm in!
I was planning to do my paper sorting during this challenge but ohblondie, you make a good point that 40 days of something should make a habit...so I'm going to think about this today and figure out what I want to do.
I like your idea of doing 40 "somethings", that gives you the flexibility to be able to keep up with the challenge because even on a busy day you should be able to manage 40 tiny things!
Thanks for starting this ohblondie, I'll be back later once I figure out what my challenge will be.
Diane
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Post by mynicehome on Feb 27, 2017 10:36:46 GMT -5
I like this idea ohblondie. I'm a Christian (Anglican) Buddhist, but I've never done anything in particular for Lent in my life.
I've done a fair bit of decluttering in recent months, but I'm sure I can come up with one item a day for 40 days, for a total of 40 items to donate.
And, while I don't condone pushy evangelism at all, I am more than grateful for all the sacred scripture that is available for all of us. It's heady -- and good -- stuff.
Count me in!
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Post by magda on Feb 27, 2017 12:46:23 GMT -5
Hi ohblondie I like this thread. I am a christian and I like to do something for Lent. I like the idea of donating. Like to do something positive as a way to honor the sacrifice that Jesus made instead of something individual and negative. By individual I mean something that involves only me. Donating helps others and so I love this idea! I need to figure this out but I think I'll try to donate one item per day and at Easter drop off a bag. I hope this helps me part w some clothes. "When I was naked you clothed me."
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Post by ohblondie on Feb 27, 2017 15:28:45 GMT -5
magda.this is great - welcome aboard!! Same to you mynicehome and Diane **************************** To everyone else - PLEASE NOTE: This is not a religious thread. This is an everyone's welcome to the 40 days thread - no matter what you do or don't believe in. I love hearing from EVERYONE how you try to make habits and do good things, etc...... We are all in this together - so let's help each other together!!!
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Feb 27, 2017 15:39:35 GMT -5
I posted an article somewhere here I found by accident trying to spell tschochke ..and it was for Jewish hoarders to fix stuff before Passover in April so GOOD ADVICE comes from all over, the world, always has, and I'm not Jewish to 'push' anything...so I hope we can simply understand that faith is a big part of MANY lives, has been for centuries, and should never be apologized for. If I am to "Accept Diversity " in our intensely PC secular culture, then diversity has to accept me too. 'nuff said.
NO one thinks you are pushing anything, if you were a Celtic wiccan you might be teaching us to make a spiral rock garden to walk and meditate in, as a way to decluttering the spirit.
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Post by def6 on Feb 27, 2017 16:16:35 GMT -5
Thank you ohblondie for this 40 day Lent challenge. In this 40 days I need to write down my: spending, everything I eat and drink, time management, exercise, daily cleaning and decluttering and last but , certainly not, least my interactions with others. The reason my goal is to simply write everything down is because ...when I write things down, I want to look good on paper so everything generally gets much improved.
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Post by closetofchaos on Feb 27, 2017 17:18:54 GMT -5
That means Mardi Gras is tomorrow . Does that mean I get to make a huge mess? , jk. I'm probably going to make one without meaning to:) The Lenten Season is always one of cleansing.
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Post by closetofchaos on Feb 27, 2017 17:22:50 GMT -5
Most people I know give up an unhealthy food they like or volunteer somewhere. I know after my concentrated dehoarding this last month, I realized how much my time was actually worth! I hope everyone has a good Lenten Adventure this year ☆♡☆
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Post by megsb on Feb 27, 2017 19:59:21 GMT -5
Good idea ohblondie I think I will plan to "give up" one hour a day (40 Lenten hours) and use it SPECIFICALLY towards eliminating the "hidden and unnecessary" paperwork I have "stashed and stored" in my home. (Aka known as "The Project", in my blog here at SooS.) (I will do more <or try to> on some days - to compensate for a few days that my granddaughters will be with me - during "Spring Break".) Good luck everyone!
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Post by haywirehousekeeper on Feb 28, 2017 2:18:36 GMT -5
I love this idea ohblondieIt just happens to fit perfectly into my current timeline since I am due to return to work full time immediately after Easter so it gives me an extra focus for my decluttering during the period of time leading up to that deadline. I think that 40 items a day might be too big a commitment for me, and one per day is not enough given what needs doing around here. So I am going to go with getting rid of 40 items a week. I will aim for 8 items a day during the week and use the weekend to catch up on any days where I fall short. I will aim to donate as many items as I can during that time, but will also dispose of items that are not worth giving to anyone else. Can't wait to get started.
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Post by Ally on Feb 28, 2017 12:31:53 GMT -5
ohblondie, Thanks for starting this thread. Yesterday a 40 bags in 40 days post showed up on my facebook feed, and I had thought about starting a thread, but then was distracted and forgot about it. I decided to look for one today, and here it is! I am Christian but not from a background where Lent was practiced. There have been a few times over the past several years that I joined or started a Lenten thread, although some of those were more religious in nature. I tried to relate daily reading to my issues with clutter and hoarding. I came to see that often my hoarding is a lack of faith on my part that my higher power will care for me, or that I "love" this stuff, more than I love God/family/others. It was very eye opening for me. I am still pondering what my goal will be this year. There are days that I leave home for work at 5:40 AM and don't return home until close to 8:30 PM, and I would like to keep my "goal" something that I could achieve, even on a work day. I will also be taking a class during this time, so I will have reading and writing assignments taking up much of my time. Tentative Challenge: I would like to donate or discard something daily, more than one thing on days that I don't work. My work days it can be something as simple as putting something in the trash. It would be cool to find 40 items to donate! I'd like to be able to do that!
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H2H
Banned
halfwaytohoarder gets rid of it all!
Joined: February 2017
Posts: 2,041
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Post by H2H on Feb 28, 2017 13:06:37 GMT -5
Hi Ally.. you have such long hours,I truly admire you pushing forward to have the energy to donate something, or trash something daily. Being 'retired'now I find you can dawdle around all day with excuses, and get one thing done..but working people have to much more efficient.
Yesterday I put a 20+ year favorite winter nightgown into the trash..the shoulder seams worn out, already repaired 3 times, loved that thing! did not cut up for 'rags' (have million and it is a delaying tactic, I will be buried in cut up clothes if I keep doing that)
I imagine Obi Wan Kinobi saying "the scissor force is strong in you, release the fabric"
There IS something very productive on just letting something fall into the trash, out of my hand, and I never think of it again. I tried to toss new 4 and 5" ceramic tiles yesterday, and could not..will try again today with broken ones at least. Baby steps!
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Post by sadbuttrue on Feb 28, 2017 13:12:08 GMT -5
I saw this on Facebook and completely intend to do it. I could scarily provably get rid of 1 bag of clothing each day. So that's where I intend to start. If I run out of clothing I'm sure I can move on to something else. Thanks for sharing the information here. H
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Post by ohblondie on Feb 28, 2017 13:25:04 GMT -5
OK everyone - I am happy so many have jumped on board. Everyone is welcome even if you don't post!
On my hard days I might just commit 4 mins.......I hope that I can keep this up every day.
We can all hold each other accountable in the most kind and loving way....
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