After reading the book entitled The More of Less by Joshua Becker, I’ve been on a mission to minimize and declutter, meaning getting rid of stuff. Stuff that has accumulated in the house over the course of 30+ years. Stuff that never gets used. Stuff that is worn out. Stuff that was bought on impulse. Stuff that has no purpose and brings no joy. This includes everything from clothing to knickknacks to kitchen items and more. It’s been a good experience so far, and we’ve had a few garage sales to recoup a little bit of dough!

Somewhere along the way of decluttering and minimizing, my first Teddy Bear that I had tucked away somewhere was missing. I couldn’t remember where it was, and I looked everywhere for it. Then I was consumed with the thought that I might have pitched it out in my frenzy to declutter. Every time I thought about it, it made me ill. You see, Teddy was given to me when I was a baby by my Uncle Joe Leaser, and both the Teddy and my Uncle Joe were special to me. So I searched high and low all over the house for days. And since we’d gotten rid of so much stuff, there were very few places to look. Weeks and weeks later, I had all but given up on finding Teddy when, as luck would have it, I found him! He was tucked away in a shoebox in the closet. Whew! Was I happy! Here’s a picture of Teddy.