Be thankful for what you have!

I saw this quote the other day and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Generally when I see quotes like this my mind immediately goes to things like family, friends, Baxter, my car that works, zero rent living, grad school, 3 year old laptop that still works, and stuff like that. What about every day stuff though? So many people out there don't have stuff. Right now, the news is really letting us know about all the kids out there without stuff. Kids without cool clothes to wear back to school, kids without all the school supplies they need, kids without enough food outside of school. I bet some of these kids would love to have one of my bazillion backpacks and I should probably give a few of them away!


Ok, so I am NOT the queen of being thankful for what I have. Seems like there is always something out there that I don't have and really really want. That, and quite honestly, I love shopping! Tell you what though, the garage sale prep last week has been life changing! All this cleaning and organizing makes me realize several things.


1. I have too much stuff.
2. I have some really awesome stuff.
3. I should appreciate my stuff more.


I am really thankful for all the stuff I already have. Now I just need to maximize the use of it all. So despite the fact that I bought not 1 or 2, but 3 purses in the last couple of days...I've decided that I should work really hard to love the stuff I have and enjoy it more than usual. Here's what I've done so far. 

These are my purses, and yes...I have plaid
wall paper and purple walls in my room.
15 yrs old will do that to you!

I bought a purse hanger thing so that my purses can be up off the floor. I think this will make me want to get rid of a few I never ever use, but also switch it up more often! I got the hanging thing on amazon for about $10 and it works so well! The black and white purse on the top right still has a water bottle and my iPad in it. Weight isn't a problem for this thing! Woohoo!


I laid out all my jewelry. I've already been having fun picking the jewelry to go with each outfit in the morning, because I can actually see it all! Brilliant!


My closet is pretty wonky and you're not going to see a picture! Basically it's L-shaped, but if you could really see it you would agree that it's more T-shaped. On one side there is a clothes hanging bar with 2 shelves above and 1 shelf below. The other part of the T is floor to ceiling shelves. I remembered that some of the shelves were removable. Took 2 out, added a new clothes hanging bar for short things like shirts. Again...brilliant use of $10! I can see what I have and it's way more fun to pick outfits. Plus, thanks to Pinterest, I have all these new outfit ideas utilizing clothes and accessories I already have!


So enough about me. What do you take for granted? What can you do to appreciate your stuff more? Do you have stuff to get rid of? Go hop to it!