As seen in the Dayton Daily News on December 17, 2016.
At the conclusion of one of my corporate seminars, an attendee asked me, “Does Craigslist allow you to advertise pets on their site?” To which I replied, “No, but I’m curious why you are asking.”
She explained how she lives on a farm and recently some kittens were abandoned on her property. She already has plenty of pets of her own to care for and was looking for good homes for them.
I said, “I have someone in mind. I’ll get back to you.”
On my way home from the seminar, I called Amy, our office manager. The previous week she had to put her beloved cat to sleep because of kidney failure. She and her family were greatly saddened by the loss of this special family member.
I’m guessing you have jumped to the end of the story on your own. One of the kittens was lovingly adopted by Amy’s family. He has won their hearts with his charm and funny antics.
Working as a professional organizer, I often find items that people once enjoyed and loved, but no longer need. These items sit in their homes taking up space instead of being passed on to another family who would treasure them.
Everything we own can come with an emotional attachment, which is why we hold on to stuff even though we have long been done with it.
If you walk into my home, my chair would be just a chair. But a chair in your home suddenly has a magical pull on you because it once belonged to your deceased grandmother. Even though the chair is in bad shape, thrown in your storage area and never going to be reupholstered, you hold on to it because giving it away feels like giving a part of grandma away.
If you stop and think about how your grandma would feel about the treatment of the chair, she may be disappointed that it is stashed away and forgotten with all of your other cast-offs. Instead, if you give it away to someone who would repair it to its original beauty and then enjoy it, grandma might be quite happy to see her chair loved again, even by another family.
One way to honor a loved one’s memory is to display and enjoy the items they have left behind. Stuffing these items away and only coming across them when digging around for something else is not the best use for these items.
Look around your home and find items that have served their purpose for you. Consider giving them to others who could benefit from your generosity. Stop letting them take up valuable space in your home.
I’m glad the woman with the kittens recognized that even though the kittens were adorable and fun to play with, she let them go because she knew another family had the time to love them more.
Your beloved cast-offs could be just the thing that someone else very much needs and would treasure. Why not give your things a second chance to make someone happy? All while you benefit from having less things to deal with.
After all, “Giving liberates the soul of the giver.” ~Maya Angelou