The Path Towards Clutter-Free Living

Our physical environment affects our internal one- but the connections don’t stop there.

I often catch myself coming home at the end of a day, and walking into our bedroom (or any other room in our house) and seeing things in the same place they have been for a few years. Things collect in the corners. We take items we don’t need and box them up with hopes of using them again, only to never use them and continue keeping them tucked away in boxes. We are not messy house keepers. Our house just has that “lived in” look. So day after day, we come home to the same space, with the same old things, and we call ourselves organized by continuing to put things away.

What happens over time, is we end up with all this stuff we will never use (no matter how many times we tell ourselves we will). As a result, our living space becomes stagnant. Our lives become stagnant. We end up feeling more down and lifeless in a space that was designed to help us relax us at the end of the day.

Then it happens. We wake up one Saturday morning and decide it’s time to do something about all this mess. We start going through all the boxes of stuff. We realize that we really don’t need to keep a Christmas card from our Aunt Edith from 1988. Or those clothes in our closet that we were keeping, just in case we got to that size again.

The more we go through stuff, the more we get rid of. The more we get rid of, the lighter we feel, not only in our home, but in our mind too. We finally finish going through all those boxes and we take a look around. “Look at all of this space we have created.” We can now replace all the old stuff we didn’t need with things we do need.

But wait. Before we do that, we realize we really don’t like the way this room is set up. So we start rearranging the room. “Let’s put this over by the window. Let’s move the bed on this side of the wall.” (After moving it five times and ending up in the first spot your wife told you to move it to.) I’m sorry, I digress. We move things around until we like the way it makes us feel. Then we get a sense of accomplishment. We feel so much lighter. We have created a space that is now clutter free and completely relaxing to come home to. Home is now a place we can call all our own.

Our life is the same way. We find ourselves stuck so many times. Going through the same things we’ve tucked away in our minds for years. Its clutter we keep just in case life calls for it again. But do we really need that statement from our parents that asks why we made a 98 on a test in 1983 instead of a 100? Or a letter from our ex that says we will never amount to anything without them?

It’s time to de-clutter our mind, and get rid of all the negative talk we heard over the years. It’s time to rid ourselves of all the statements that say we are not enough. We only have to be good enough for ourselves, nobody else. Let’s get rid of all the images other people have planted in our head. It’s not the words from people that hold us back. It’s the way our mind reacts to the words that hold us back.

It’s time to get out of our own way.

Once we go through all the boxes in our head, and get rid of all the things that do not hold a purpose in our life anymore, we make room for things that better serve us. We make room for all the things in our life we want, desire, and attract.

We can rearrange our thinking, just like our furniture.

We can change the way we look at things.

We can change the way we respond.

We can fill our life with things that matter to us.

De-cluttering is not an overnight process. It takes time. If rearranging our life is anything like rearranging furniture with my wife, it could take as long as it takes, and that sometimes takes years. But it’s so worth it in the end.

Take the time to go through all your boxes, one box at a time. Deal with the things you need to deal with. Get rid of the things you don’t need. When you’re finished, you will feel more relaxed, less stress, and you can start the beginning of your awakening.

Want to clear the clutter from your mind and home? Book a session with Paul.

Our Catalyst Coaching Intensive will help you clear your mind and rearrange your thoughts for effective living. Check it out.