Our host had asked us to consider what we could let go of that no longer served us, to think about what was cluttering up our lives, and, if we wanted to, go through our clothing and let go of what we no longer needed. BAM! That really resonated with me and I’ve been looking at the impact of clutter ever since.
For me, clutter is one of the greatest thieves of clarity, focus, energy, and productivity - and it sneaks up on me.
My desire for simplicity and my well honed skills as a consumer battle each other and often times clutter becomes the spoils of that war.
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to get things done and think clearly when your environment is free of clutter? When you walk into an office or someone’s home where things are in order how you feel possibility, spaciousness, and free? I do.
And clearing the excess in life isn’t only about getting rid of stuff; it’s about being willing to let go of the reasons why you hang on to stuff to begin with. Like:
- We think it’ll be useful to us in the future.
- Hanging on the dream or the memory it symbolizes.
- Thinking we may “need “ it someday.
- We spent a lot of money on it.
- We identify with the possession and our self-image and worth are in them.
I for one have been giving my possessions too much power. Most of them aren’t making me happier, they don’t really make me more secure, and none of them really contain my memories, I do. I want things, don’t get me wrong, but what if I just kept what I REALLY loved and what brought beauty into my life around me? Only 20 percent of the clothes in the average person’s closet are worn on a regular basis, according to the chief design officer for California Closets, interviewed in The Wall Street Journal. Just cleaning out our closets alone could free us up and allow someone else to possibly get use out of the other 80 percent!
If you look at household clutter from a feng shui perspective, as author Tisha Morris does, Morris, who penned Feng Shui Your Life: The Quick Guide to Decluttering Your Home and Renewing Your Life(Turner, 2011), asserts that our homes mirror our emotional state.
“[Clutter] is just stagnant energy,” she says. “Where there’s clutter in your home, there will be clutter in [you] — either physically, mentally or emotionally.
Letting go of things that no longer serve us is one of the healthiest things we can do for our mind, body and soul. Clearing out clutter helps our creativity, energy, health and clarity and I can use that for growing my career, time with friends instead of endless re-organizing, and exploring my art.
If de cluttering your world is of interest to you, check out this lovely book by Marie Kondo who encourages us to only keep things that “spark joy”:
http://tidyingup.com/
Or this Ted Talk from Graham Hill about having less stuff and more happiness:
https://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness?language=en
See you on set,
Jessie