I bet all of us would benefit from donating to eliminate clutter from our homes.

I recall that when Steve and I moved to Galena a few years ago, we moved from a house we had lived in for 10 years or so -- and from which our kids moved off to college and their own homes.

The move was monumental. We had so much "stuff" to purge from the house before we could move that I became overwhelmed and actually broke down in tears as I toured the house and contemplated what would have to be done before the moving truck could roll...

But it wasn't so bad, once we developed a plan, and got some help:

We gave furniture to family and friends who had needs, donated to the Salvation Army and other similar sources, sold stuff on e-Bay, held a mini garage sale and even still, we had so much junk left over that we called 1-800-GOTJUNK and they hauled one and a half truckloads to the landfill.

Since then, we've tried really hard not to accumulate more "stuff" into our lives. I can't imagine how bad things would have been for our children if we'd not handled all of this before now, and they had to deal with it years into the future, when we die.

(The other thing I want to mention is that as an adult, I had moved more than 6 times prior to this move. I thought I was an old hand at moving... But it's one thing to keep packing stuff up and moving it forward, it's a total other thing to figure out how to divest yourself of the stuff you no longer need or use.)