Trash Collectors

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:20-22 (NIV)

Our neighbors adore us. Not that I really would know. We live in a semi rural area with lot sizes ranging from an acre to five or more. People have fences all around their yards and unless you meet up at the post office, we tend to drive through our gate and shut the world out. Everyone keeps to themselves. But, they don’t keep their garbage to themselves and since we have been in clean out mode, someone on our island keeps going through our trash and taking things. It started with a dresser we put out about a month ago. It was old and ugly, purchased second hand from a nursing home that was going out of business. So, you know how gross it was. I personally did not do the purchasing, husband’s parents did and they were so proud of themselves I couldn’t bear to tell them to take the piece of junk back where they got it. Our boys were younger and they didn’t care that it was probably last owned by a dead person. When we started cleaning up and ridding ourselves of our excess, guess what was the first thing to go? It was not out on the street more than one night before it disappeared. Since that time, we have left a television stand, computer monitor, chair, and lots of used sporting equipment and wait for it to wander over to someone else’s house before the garbage man arrives. We have even gotten to where we take it all down to the road a day or two before garbage pickup just to see how much will be scavenged. Yesterday, we finished cleaning out the attic before the termite exterminators come. We took the mother load, tons and tons of used toys much of which had pieces missing down to the street. And boxes of magazines. Whoever it is that takes all this stuff has kids and likes to restore old cars. I could be wrong though. Husband believes it goes straight to the flea market and someone makes money off our castoffs. I wish I could catch them rifling through it all but I guess they do it while we are at work because I never see them. It just disappears. And in the case of yesterday’s haul, about half of it is now gone. I really am ashamed of myself at how much stuff we collected over the years. When my children were little, I spoke love to them with things. I doubt either one of them remember playing with any of the items I threw away. Granted, I kept back some of their favorites, the Duplos, Cool Tools, and K’nex. I didn’t dispose of any books either. But, now, looking back, I wish I had not been so free with my money and been more generous with my time. Because my heart is certainly with my children. But, you wouldn’t know it by all the stuff I hauled out of the attic.