Weighing down your living space with clutter is weighing down your life. Happiness, peace of mind, certainty, stability, and a sense of ease are all states of being that exist within you. If you haven’t connected with those feelings in a very long time, take a look around you.
Heaviness and clutter in your physical environment act as a tether that interferes with connecting with the positive traits of your true nature. By cleaning up your physical environment, you’re paving the way for the same to happen in your mental environment.
Your mind and your living space are like mirrors reflecting each other.
It can be debated if a cluttered mind creates a cluttered space or a cluttered space creates a cluttered mind, but either way, you can put an end to the cycle by cleaning up your living space.
Clutter weighs you down, and it’s a constant mental drain to live in a messy and disordered environment. Take note of what the inside of your overflowing cabinets and desk top look like. They’re symbolic of what it looks like inside your head.
You’re lighter and happier when you have less stuff. On top of that, think of all the money you’ll save. You’ll have a neater home environment, and it will be kinder to the planet. Minimalism is in style, so this makes it even easier to lighten up your space.
I use 2 methods to clear my environment.
- Use it up
- Purge it
Use it up: The Dutch have the perfect word for using up the things you’ve collected over time. It’s called onthamsteren, and it’s loosely translated as dehoarding. Dehoarding, as in the process of turning long-stored shelf-stable food into a meal. You can credit the hoarding and extended time at home from COVID-19 for this word’s popularity.
onthamsteren = dehoarding
Using up the things you already have creates a clearing effect. Office supplies, beauty products, canned and boxed foods, paper products…You name it. The premise is that if you’re not pouring more into your space, your space will gradually empty.
Instead of stocking up, use it up. In the future, when it’s time to replace the things you’ve used up, no more buying in bulk, especially the things you only use occasionally.
Don’t buy more until you’ve used up what you already have, and only buy what you need. Keep a designated area in your home where you store some emergency supplies, but keep that strictly for emergencies.
“When we clear the physical clutter from our lives, we literally make way for inspiration and ‘good, orderly direction’ to enter.” — Julia Cameron
Purge it: While you’re using up what you can, purge the things you don’t need or no longer use. Give away what you can. It feels good to give, and giving is linked with increased happiness.
Pass something useful on to someone who can use it rather than making yourself another to-do task trying to sell it. Of course, if you’re not comfortable with giving bigger things away, sell the things you aren’t using and enjoy some unexpected cash.
It feels light and free to have closets, cupboards, and drawers that aren’t spilling over. It’s peaceful. When you can find what you need, there are fewer opportunities to get frustrated. Feel your own energy lighten as a welcome result.
You won’t clear it all out in one day, but today is the day to begin. Your peaceful environment will support a peaceful mind.
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