Clearing Out the Clutter
Dec 29, 2017
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity. ~ Albert Einstein.
With a mission to clear out the clutter, I appreciate this quote from Einstein.
I won't get into the gory details of paper clutter around my home but I can report noticeable, perhaps even profound improvement. Energy flows all around us like a river. My days of whitewater kayaking taught me, the more obstacles, the rougher the water. Clutter is like big boulders in a river, blocking the flow. It creates eddies where water (or the energy in our home) stagnates. It also clutters our mind. Out of sight, out of mind. Take a quick look around your place. Any piles? How do they make you feel? A pile of dishes to me is a very modest challenge I can tackle during 10 minutes of listening to public radio. The ever-present piles of paper on my table ignite a sense of full-blown panic. Well, they are gone now. I feel liberated. Rather than just shuttling them from place to place as I had done, I have now created places for them. A place for everything, and everything in its place. I knew these clichés were good for something....
Help is available. At one point, I actually hired a clutter consultant. It was a good value to pay someone to tell me to throw out my junk and make a useful filing system. She asked me to get rid of 1/3 of my wardrobe. I did it that night with glee. When we got to my desk the next day, I almost started crying. I began to panic. We all have our difficulties, but there lies the opportunity. It may be shoes, books or old appliances. For me it's paper. I value the written word but I must not let it overrun my home.
The clutter consultant helped immensely. For annual tune-ups, I rely on Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. She addresses the feeling of clutter and our relationship with it so we can untangle ourselves mentally. This makes it much easier to get rid of whatever happens to be in the way of the wide, wandering cool flow of energy in our homes.
The best tip I can share from my clutter liberation adventures is to set a timer. When I am looking at those piles and sweat starts beading on my brow, it is essential to have an out. That out is my timer. I set it for 20 minutes and dig in. When the timer chimes, I walk away and I am always impressed with how much I accomplished. A friend who deals with similar paper challenges made a 40-day commitment to organizing his papers. Every day for 40 days, he set his timer for 20 minutes and dug in. It changed his life.
Have fun creating more space in your mind by clearing out the clutter around you and enjoy the sense of liberation.
