Space Making

Yesterday morning I watched an interior design show that focused the client on clearing clutter from her bathroom.  The designers asked the woman to get rid of every product and gadget she no longer used.  I was so inspired by the transformation of her room (and her energy) that I got up from the couch as soon as the show was over and cleared my bathroom drawers and closets, too.  It felt so refreshing and energizing once I was done!

Over the years, I’ve talked about the importance of living and working in a nurturing environment – rooms that make you feel good about yourself and that reflect what’s deeply important to your soul.  This week, as we settle into spring here in the Northeast, I thought I’d encourage you to do a little housecleaning .

Here are some of the challenges you might take on:

• Exchange your summer and winter clothes and when you do, pull out the items that you no longer need or love and donate them to a charitable organization (don’t forget to get a receipt for tax purposes!).

• Create space in your bedroom. Remove the pile of books next to your bed (the ones that constantly scream “READ ME!”), put clothes away, or move the TV to another room. The idea is to clear out anything that pulls at you for attention and that prevents you from resting your mind by getting a good night’s sleep.

• Go through the piles of unread mail and throw out every catalog or every piece of junk mail without thinking about what you “might” be missing. If you’re like most people, there’s a good chance you already have too much stuff anyway. Also, once the piles are gone, train yourself to go through your mail every day, standing next to the recycling bin or trash barrel.  That way you handle the problem at its source.

• Eliminate one or two social activities that you’d really rather not do and give yourself the gift of some free time. We all have a tendency to say yes to invitations we think we should accept even though our hearts may not be in it. Do others a big favor and make choices out of love instead of guilt or obligation.

• Go through your to-do list and let go of the bottom ten items that keep getting recycled to new lists.  If they were really a priority, they would have been done already.

When doing a little housecleaning, I invite you to use one of my favorite mantras: “When in doubt, throw it out.” Please remember that a high quality life has far more to do with what you remove from your life than what you add to it. Clutter, stuff, undone projects, and tasks constantly pull at us for attention and drain too much energy from our physical, emotional and spiritual selves. Plug those drains! Use your precious energy for far better things like spending quality time with loved ones or giving yourself the gift of space and silence – gifts that pay huge dividends.

Okay, let’s all start chanting now: When in doubt, throw it out, when in doubt, throw it out, when in doubt, throw it out…