What Does it Feel Like Cleaning Out Your Emotional Closet?
A Short Lesson in Emotional Tidying
I like collecting vintage, but the clutter of past relics can interfere with maintaining a clear mind. Afterall, most of my clothes have had previous lives. They carry memories with missed stitches, uneven hems, and crazy patterns of the past.
The first half of the closet is long and thick like foliage. Pieces I won’t chop because of their utility and comfort regarding the last of the familiar. Nothing matches and various shades of the rainbow collide, color coded. It’s symbolic of my scattered organization, it only makes sense in my brain.
The second half remains empty at this point in time. Not due to any emptiness inside myself, but because I had to take a machete to some of the grassland in order to make a path. I hadn’t found the energy to fill it up again. This did not sadden me. I have learned to be happy with less. Things I don’t use until they are worn do not fill my soul’s basket. They just make it heavy.
I have a second closet that is still a jumbled mess. I’ve learned to tolerate that cleaning it is an ongoing project. Over the next year, I will donate and gift pieces that I don’t need anymore. It is impossible to do this with our minds, but that is a good thing when it comes to learning lessons. I used to think the opposite. It seemed that the collection of memories in my mental closet had grown too large. I tried to rid of many only to find out that they had just slipped off of their hangers.
Minimalism has taken over my heart. I have patience with the empty side because soon it will be filled with my other half. I never filled that side with clutter to keep room for you. Cleaning out the emotional closet felt like a scab that won’t fully form. Hands forced in water so that the skin can’t dry up. It might have been a year that felt like an eternity, but the wait brought clarity and hope for what will fill that space. Patience is what helped clear the closet. Every tear was worth it for the triumph. Now I have energy for the new, precious additions I’ve chosen.
Our closets are all interconnected in ways not always visible to our naked eyes. I’ve learned to curate carefully and with intention.
