Clutter's Effects on Your Life: How clutter affects you and what to do about it
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I recently downsized from a single family home with a backyard and 2 car garage into a 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment with just one little storage closet on my patio. As you can imagine, I had no choice but to plan my move with only what I really needed and wanted. Everything else had to be sold, given away, donated, thrown away or recycled. In the process, I also rediscovered things I had but was not using and am happily enjoying them again. Besides the physical decluttering, I've also worked on decluttering my mind and heart of negative thoughts and feelings (not as easy as the physical decluttering). This is a great exercise to do whether you're moving or not because it opens up an energetic space for beneficial energy to come in your life. I've been working with a local feng shui consultant on not only space clearing, but also with clearing myself on a personal level. So it is very timely that as we enter the new Spring season, Kathryn Weber, a master feng shui consultant who publishes the Red Lotus Letter Feng Shui E-zine wrote the following article. As she says, if your closet, car, house, checkbook, purse, desk, mind...) is a mess, it's likely going to stay that way -- unless you do something about it. Can you think of a better time to "spring into action?"...Enjoy! Creating a healthy, energetic home or office relies on diligence. It's much easier to let your home or office become cluttered and messy than it is to keep on top of papers, throw out old magazines, or otherwise dispose of the things that you no longer need, want, or use. For that reason many people don't bother with this kind of routine maintenance. And that's how Spring Cleaning should be looked at: maintenance for your home. Now, I'm not going to tell you what to do for your personal Spring Cleaning because only you know if you are harboring clothes in your closet from 30 years ago, or if your addiction to paper has gotten out of hand. YOU ARE THE EXPERT at your own mess. Give yourself permission to clean it up and let go of it.
Let's go over some basics about dirty, cluttered homes versus clean and organized homes... What does a dirty, cluttered home do to you?
It makes you feel tired. A cluttered home is a visual and psychic drain. All that stuff makes you fatigued. One of the most fatigued people I know simply can NOT throw anything away. Antiques are her specialty. Everything is a "collectible." But that does not mean SHE has to collect it. This client is slowly letting go of her addiction to acquiring and is finding her energy is rebounding.
It makes you feel hopeless. Simply put, too much stuff is overwhelming and we can't handle it all, so we throw our psychological hands in the air in frustration. This leads to that hopeless, it's-all-inevitable feeling.
It makes you poor. Yep, that's right: POOR. Ever notice those homes of the mega-wealthy? They're a study in restraint. You notice their homes because stuff isn't everywhere. Time and time again, I notice the environments of people who are struggling to make ends meet, and I notice that they have an overwhelmingly HUGE baseball cap collection, some kind of collectible that's taken over the house, or too many pets. Get rid of all but the most meaningful things. You can do it. How does clutter hurt you?
It makes you feel out of control in your life. That's because the stuff is in control and you're not. Put yourself in the driver's seat of your life and take control of all THAT STUFF by donating it, throwing it away, or organizing it -- and get everyone in your home in on the act.
What does a clean, organized home do for you?
It gives you a sense of calm. Imagine walking in to a room where the tops are cleared off and there are no papers and mess scattered about. How does it make you feel? That's the AAAHHHH feeling you get when you walk into a hotel room...it's neat and you can see the room and not all the stuff..
It gives you back your health. Dirty, cluttered houses can make you fatigued, constipated, have back pain, and congested. Not just because there's stuff everywhere, but because there is dust on all that stuff -- and dust is nothing but negative energy. Unclog your home and your health might be better to boot!
It gives you wealth. Think about the times when you were doing well financially... As money worries piled up, did you ever make the correlation that so has all the stuff around you? Get rid of it and you will see financial flow again.
It puts you in control of your life. Suddenly, order appears in the Universe, you can find things, the feeling of being overwhelmed isn't omnipresent and you look forward to things; life is sweet again. For ideas on where clutter is stopping the flow in your life and more information about how feng shui can make your life more prosperous and abundant, visit http://www.redlotusletter.com.
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