May 24 2008
Space Clear Your Clutter
I thought I knew everything there was to know about removing clutter from a house when I moved from the east coast to the west, taking only what would fit into our RV.
Emptying the house was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Many of the things we liked but wouldn’t be taking with us were offered to family and friends. We had a giant house moving sale, then truck loads were donated to the Salvation Army, and by the time we left, we filled a dumpster with things no one would want.
In the end, we reduced our belongings by about 95 percent — as I said, only what we could take with us. It was difficult both physically and emotionally. Five years later there is still a sense a loss over some things and a wondering…where did such and such an item go? But the good part of it was that we learned all about clutter because there wasn’t much room to bring new things into an RV.
But, five years later, I realize we only thought we had learned about clutter. You know that saying about expenses increasing to meet income, no matter how much income increases? Well the same is true of belongings and space.
A few years ago we moved back into an apartment - a change that necessitated starting from scratch to outfit a home. And once again we had space we could fill. People began giving us things, we found ‘treasures’ and incredible bargains we simply could not pass up…
We’ve been apartment dwellers going on 4 years now, and while it is true that we are much more conscious of accumulating than we have ever been in the past, we have watched (almost helplessly) as old habits crept back into our lives. It has become obvious that there is much room in our lives to learn more about living lightly.
One of the things I’ve noticed is a tendency to give things emotions: that the knickknack a friend gave you (that you don’t love) will have its feelings hurt if you give it away. Or that the person who gave it to you will know it’s gone from your life — some kind of psychic connection. And so we hang on to things that are obviously clutter, until the appropriate time comes to let it go. And this is the reason people end up having to rent dumpsters when they move — all those deferred decisions finally catch up with them.
I had an idea, that if space clearing was combined with clutter clearing, the items needing new homes could be honoured and blessed for the intent behind them. I would make them part of a blessing altar, take photographs and bless and clear everything on the altar before the objects I no longer want to keep are sent on their journey to find new owners who will love and treasure them.
And that would feel really good because I know that objects that have been part of a blessing altar are very auspicious gifts to give and some of my energy has gone into the item to be passed to new owners.
(c) Deborah Redfern, 2008. All rights reserved.
Tags: belongings, Clutter