Today I'm "recycling" an article I found online that speaks to minimalist ideals. I enjoy reading about feng shui and use it often as I clean and declutter my life. As I pursue the 100 Things Challenge, I find that cleaning is an important aspect of the process. I hope you enjoy Kathryn Weber's advice:
Clutter's Effect on Your Life
Clutter's Effect on Your Life
How clutter changes you
Publisher, The Red Lotus Letter
Creating a healthy, energetic home or office relies on diligence. It's much easier to let your home or office become cluttered and messy than it is to keep on top of papers, throw out old magazines, or otherwise dispose of the things that you no longer need, want, or use. For that reason many people don't bother with this kind of routine maintenance. And that's how Spring Cleaning should be looked at: maintenance for your home.
Now, I'm not going to tell you what to do for your personal Spring Cleaning because only you know if you are harboring clothes in your closet from 30 years ago, or if your addiction to paper has gotten out of hand. YOU ARE THE EXPERT at your own mess. Give yourself permission to clean it up and let go of it.
Let's go over some basics about dirty, cluttered homes versus clean and organized homes...
What does a dirty, cluttered home do to you?
- It makes you feel tired. A cluttered home is a visual and psychic drain. All that stuff makes you fatigued. One of the most fatigued people I know simply can NOT throw anything away. Antiques are her specialty. Everything is a "collectible." But that does not mean SHE has to collect it. This client is slowly letting go of her addiction to acquiring and is finding her energy is rebounding.
- It makes you feel hopeless. Simply put, too much stuff is overwhelming and we can't handle it all, so we throw our psychological hands in the air in frustration. This leads to that hopeless, it's-all-inevitable feeling.
- It makes you poor. Yep, that's right: POOR. Ever notice those homes of the mega-wealthy? They'e a study in restraint. You notice their homes because stuff isn't everywhere. Time and time again, I notice the environments of people who are struggling to make ends meet, and I notice that they have an overwhelmingly HUGE baseball cap collection or some kind of collectible. Get rid of all but the most meaningful things. You can DO it.
- It makes you feel out of control in your life. That's because the stuff is in control and you're not. Put yourself in the driver's seat of your life and take control of all THAT STUFF by donating it, throwing it away, or organizing it.
What does a clean, organized home do for you?
- It gives you a sense of calm. Imagine walking in to a room where the tops are cleared off and there are no papers and mess scattered about. How does it make you feel? That's the AAAHHHH feeling you get when you walk into a hotel room...it's neat and you can SEE the ROOM and not all the STUFF.
- It gives you back your health. Dirty, cluttered houses can make you fatigued, constipated, have back pain, and congested. Not just because there's stuff everywhere, but because there is dust on all that stuff -- and dust is nothing but negative energy. Unclog your home and your health might be better to boot!
- It gives you wealth. Think about the times when you were doing well financially... As money worries piled up, did you ever make the correlation that so has all the stuff around you? Get rid of it and you will see financial flow again! I know someone who built a house, and it had that model home look for about two years and then slowly but surely the knickknacks began taking over every surface and stuff began to pile up in corners. As this has happened, this person's financial situation began to deteriorate as well.
- It puts you in control of your life. Suddenly, order appears in the Universe, you can find things, the feeling of being overwhelmed isn't omnipresent and you look forward to things!
© Kathryn Weber, All rights reserved
Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter Feng Shui E-zine and certified feng shui consultant in authentic Chinese feng shui. Kathryn helps her readers improve their lives and generate more wealth with feng shui. For more information and to receive her FREE E-book "Easy Money - 3 Steps to Building Massive Wealth with Feng Shui" visit www.redlotusletter.com and learn the fast and fun way how feng shui can make your life more prosperous and abundant!