As we cleaned my house to get it suitable for Michelle to move in, a lot of my stuff was thrown out. I was reading something that would help me be o.k. with parting with all my things (old T-shirts, stupid trinkets, cables and adapters that didn’t have a gadget to serve, and a lot of other things that I have forgotten about)

I read this and it helped, “If you don’t love it, use it, or need it, get rid of it- throw it out, donate it, sell it.”

and I often heard

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” – I refuted that it wasn’t quoted like that in the scriptures (although the principle is scriptural), and it got us on a conversation where we asked the origin of the saying.
So we googled it and found this:

CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS – “This ancient proverb is said by some to have come from ancient Hebrew writings. However, its first appearance in English – though in slightly altered form – seems to be in the writings of Francis Bacon. In his ‘Advancement of Learning’ (1605) he wrote: ‘Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God.’ Near two centuries later John Wesley in one of his sermons (1791) indicated that the proverb was already well known in the form we use today. Wrote Wesley: ‘Slovenliness is no part of religion.’Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness.’” From “Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins” by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988). There are a couple more details in “Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings” (1996) by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996): “.According to the fourteenth edition of ‘Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,’ it is an old Hebrew proverb used in the late 2nd century by Rabbi Phinehas ben-Yair. First attested in the United States in the ‘Monthly Anthology and Boston Review’ (1806). The proverb is found in varying forms.” http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/1209.html

No matter where the quote comes from- my life has been blessed by having a cleaner house and less things.

and as I was about to post this, Michelle said, “We are about ready for another round of dejunking.”