Is your house full of clutter? Your office? Maybe you’ve made a New Year resolution to de-clutter your spaces.
Think about this: A few years ago, someone told me that we are energetically connected to our “stuff.”
It made perfect sense to me. The more “stuff” that is hanging around the house, the more physical, mental and emotional mental labor it requires to maintain. Think of everything in your house that is unneeded, unwanted or uncherished. No doubt the thought makes you sigh.
Think about those piles of old magazines that you intend to clip
“some-a-day,” or that really ugly painting Aunt Betty gave you five years ago, gathering dust in the back of your closet. Even think about the chair in the living room that you bought on an impulse and never really liked.
How many times have you opened a drawer or a closet and muttered, “What a mess. I really have to clean this up”? Or bemoaned the lack of space in a closet crammed with clothes you never wear?
They are creating stress in your life. Let ‘em go!
Stress is deadly
My regular readers will know that I frequently write about stress and its negative impact on our health, including in my most recent book, 10 Best Ways to Manage Stress.
Stress is at the core of many chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, depression and many more. Research shows us that stress compromises immune function, opening the door to cancer and autoimmune disorders.
What can you control?
Why add to the normal stress of your everyday life? Maybe you can’t control the stress associated with your child’s poor report card, the traffic jam on the way to work or the illness of an aging parent. Clutter is something you can control.
There is always someone who will love Aunt Betty’s painting or use those magazines for kiddie collages or cherish the clothing you never wear.
Do you love it?
Another sage friend once told me to spend a few minutes sitting quietly, looking around each room in my house. If I looked at an object and thought, “I love this!” it was a keeper. Everything else must go.
Of course, I couldn’t get rid of every uncherished chair or not-quite-right pot or pan right away. Some things were necessary and it would be wasteful to just send them on. But when it comes time to replace things, I take the time to find what I love.
I also discovered I didn’t need four sets of dishes or eight black sweaters. I committed to keeping bric-a-brac (like my beloved grandmother’s mantel clock from 1919) behind the glass doors of cabinets so it stays safe from wrangling dogs and grandchildren playing tag in the living room. I can get away with dusting it every month or less.
Do you have too much?
Most of us have much more than we need. When so many people don’t have enough, this is a great time to let them enjoy things that are causing you stress and draining your energy.
Your local thrift store will happily take all that old stuff off your hands or you can have a yard sale and raise a little extra cash in the process. I post many things on my local freecycle.org (find yours here http://www.freecycle.org/) where I’ve met some truly wonderful people who are dedicated to keeping usable “stuff” out of the landfill.
Simple feng shui lesson
I’m also a fervent proponent of feng shui, the art of placement in your home. Clutter restricts the energy flow and promotes stagnation of mind and body. Yes, I know, feng shui can be terribly complicated. Or not. Karen Rauch Carter’s book, Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life is a simple and powerful tool.
De-cluttering, a whole house can be an overwhelming and stress-inducing task in itself, so take some advice from my neighbor, The Fly Lady. She recommends “baby steps” — 15-minute daily commitments to bigger tasks and 5-minute clutter zone sweeps. You can clean out a drawer in 15 minutes right? Do it today and then go on to the next one tomorrow, she says.
Something in, something out
My house will never be minimalist, but it is much less cluttered than it was a few years ago. I still have “stuff,” and a lot of it by many folks’ standards, but I love it the “stuff” I have. I don’t buy anything, even a steal at a yard sale, unless I know exactly what I’m going to do with it and (this is important) I am prepared to let go of something of equal size and value.
It has unquestionably reduced my stress levels and I can promise you it will reduce yours.
None of us will ever completely eliminate stress from our lives. When there’s something this simple over which you have absolute control, why not de-stress just a bit little this weekend by de-cluttering just one drawer or your desktop? You may find it’s addictive!
