Clutter Busting Challenge-Day 15--My Hardest Release Yet

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• She looketh well to the ways of her household
• She eateth not the bread of idleness

Today is Day 15 of the Clutter Busting Challenge at Money Saving Mom.  Our task, should we choose to do so--and you know you really need to--is to get rid ourselves of the clutter in our houses, by turning loose of (at least) seven things every day during the month of May. Big or small, trash or "treasure", give away or throw away, sell or donate, it doesn't matter, just get rid of it!

Today's clutter may look a lot like the 50 some-odd cassette tapes I got rid of a few days ago, but they tug at my heart strings just a bit more. These aren't just cassette tapes, they're soundtracks--not like movie soundtracks, but back-up music and vocals recorded to play behind a soloist.  I used to sing--sometimes at weddings and funerals, but mostly in church. Your church environ may call them "solos", in my church tradition, we call them "specials".  After the choir and the praise team does their thing, then you have a "special"--someone singing a special song as a solo, sometimes, but even groups could do "specials"--the Ladies Trio, the Men's Quartet, the Ensemble Choir, the Chorale--all could do a "special". 

When I was a teenager/young adult, I was part of a little group that toured around south Louisiana and southeastern Texas as part of any little Friday night or Fifth Sunday "singing" that would invite us (that was way back in the day.) Then I was on a praise team and part of a choir, when we had one, and always, I did "specials"--first as part of a group, and later as a soloist.

These tapes represent that.

As I got a little older, and went on to do other types of ministry, I quit doing much singing, except for the very occasional "special".  Those got fewer and farther between, until now, it's been five or six years since I've done any singing to speak of, except as part of a congregation. 

Once every blue moon, I dig these out, and I sit down with my old cassette boom box, and I sing, song after song, sometimes 10, 12, 15 songs at a time.  Then I pack them all back up and put them away until the next wave of singing nostalgia hits, and I do it all over again. 

Most churches, including my own, don't even have a tape deck as part of their sound system anymore, so these aren't any good, even to someone who does sing. (If they do, they use CDs or mp3 files or something similar.)

I just can't bring myself to throw then into the trash.  Isn't that silly?  So--for now, these are parked next to the give away/donate box, until I can decided which way to go. 

And this is the first clutter-busting that makes me a little sad. 

What are you getting rid of today? Have you had any twinges about any of your clutter-busting so far?

Until next time...