By MEREDITH HARBER

The more time I spend inside during the winter months, the more I look around at my stuff and decide what I can get rid of.

No, really, the other night, I was watching TV, looked down at the entertainment center and at 9:30 p.m., pulled out all my board games, cookbooks, DVDs and even a stack of VHS tapes. I made a pile of “stuff” in my living room and began sorting it. Some to thrift, some to pass on to friends, some to keep and some that I had a weird emotional attachment to but didn’t want to keep.

While I consider myself a minimalist and someone who doesn’t collect a lot of “stuff,” I still have more than my share of piles when it comes to sorting it all out.

As I sat and saw all of my things sprawled out across the floor, I was reminded of what a good therapist said awhile back:

“Doing therapy is like taking a bushel of apples, dumping them all out and deciding which ones go back into the basket. Some are bruised. Some are rotten. And some are just what you want to keep around.”

Winter is a great time to think about the “bushel” of stuff that we have in our lives, whether old VHS tapes or that one kitchen appliance that takes up a whole shelf and never gets used.

It’s also a great time to think about the “bushel” of our other stuff — of the expectations we place on ourselves, the expectations that others have of us, the weight of the world that seems to find itself seated comfortably on our shoulders.

What if, just like with our physical “stuff,” we spend some time in the upcoming weeks before the official season of breakup begins, and take everything out of the bushel or the entertainment center, spread it on the floor and decide what we want to keep, what we want to throw away and what we want to donate to the thrift store.

I want to throw away the feeling that I’m not good enough.

I want to get rid of the idea that I’m not capable of what I dream of doing.

I want to destroy the notion that I’m not worthy.

I want to put goodness and love back into the bushel, making room for good people, good thoughts and good “stuff.”

What’s taking up room in your life that you could clean out, both physically and metaphorically?

Pastor Meredith Harber ministers at Christ Lutheran Church at 128 N. Soldotna Avenue.

Worship: 10 a.m. on Sundays in person or on Facebook Live.