31 Days {Day 6}: Yellow Curtains

I want to tell you about my yellow curtains.  I used to have these curtains hanging in our living and dining room.  They were from Ikea.  I liked them and used them for a couple of years until I decided to just have all white curtains because they were more breezy and beach-like.

So I did what anyone does and I put them in a rubbermaid bin in the closet, and then the garage.  I forgot about them until I was in a decluttering mood one day and pulled them out of the garage, back into the dining room.  I also had two leopard print rugs in the same bin that used to be in our living room.

I decided to sell them on Craig's List and had to re-list them both a couple of times.  The rugs and curtains sat in the bin for a month or two in the dining room waiting to sell.  The leopard rugs sold but the curtains never did.  I finally gave up and decided all this wasn't worth it for $15.  I really don't know how long it was that I walked past that bin that was in the way.

So one Wednesday I took them with me to the Bhutanese/Nepalese apartments.  I usually have my trunk full of donations from us and other people, so I don't know why I had such a mental block against just donating these curtains and rugs in the first place.  I guess I thought they wouldn't appreciate the West Elm look.

That day we were walking around visiting families, and the lady who started this ministry suggested we go to a certain lady's house.  She had just had a miscarriage and she wanted me to pray with her.  We had a little bag of various junk from my house as well as the curtains.

The lady I was with proceeded to gift her all these little things that I had decluttered, and she loved them, I think.  Maybe she decluttered them later too!  I forget what they were.  We left the curtains with her and I headed home.

Later that night, the other lady emailed me and wrote that as she was leaving the apartments that the Nepalese woman's husband was going out to get curtain rods for my yellow curtains. I had given her three sets which were enough to go on every window in their apartment.

It gave me chills to think what my curtains may have meant to them.  Sometimes I hold on to things for so long.  Maybe I want to sell them and get a little money.  In this case,  it feels meant to be.  I love that this beautiful woman got my curtains at a time when she needed to be cheered up.  And I love that I learned this lesson.