How We Changed Our Mindset to Clear the Clutter
As the New Year bells chime our family has found those bells do not resonate as soundly as they should. Why? Because we live a life of clutter. The beautiful bell chimes are blocked by stuff.
We are by no means hoarders. You can (in most spaces) clearly walk through rooms without fear of tripping over junk. But that doesn't mean that we don't have clutter.
This year, we are making a valiant and concerted effort to clean the clutter. We have already started the process, and it is liberating.
But, how did we get to the point where we are hemmed in and trapped by our possession rather than free? We have started to struggle with this question. There is no easy or simple answer to the question. A lot of factors created this clutter-filled lifestyle.
At the outset, I must admit that the clutter is mostly my issue. My wife has never placed a high value on material possessions. She easily discards items that are no longer useful and have no sentimental value.
I have not had such an easy journey. Throughout my life, I have placed a high value of stuff. As a child, I collected everything. I always started new collections. I collected coins, stamps, stuffed animals, rocks -- and books. Books were (and are) my mainstay. I place a great value on books.
From a young age, books transported me outside of the pain of my early childhood. I visited lands and met people I thought I would never see or meet in real life. What a blessing from God that I have been able to travel some in my life and see some of those things I had read about in books.
Unfortunately, books became the albatross around my neck. I bought books any chance I got. Used books. New books. Books from subscription companies. Discarded books from libraries. It didn't matter where or how -- I collected books.
When I met my wife, I had a house full of books. Really. Books were stored in every nook and cranny of my home. Before we married, she encouraged me to get rid of many of those books. I did get rid of many books, but it was a painful process for me. I placed sentimental feelings into each book. I remembered where I was when I read it, how old I was, etc. And those books which I had not read (and there were hundreds) were just waiting for me to read and attach sentiment to.
Gradually, I have weaned myself from the collection. Yet, I still have a great amount of books. In this day and age of Kindle and other electronic readers, there's no need for me to keep such a hefty collection of books. So once again, I am paring down my collection.
Our kids also have placed a sentimental attachment on many things. Their toy collections surpass my collections as a child (but still does not reach my book collection at its zenith). We have cleaned out their toys many times when they were not looking, so that we don't face their wrath.
Complicating matters more, we have been in a funk for the past 18 months or more. Our son has faced many emotional demons that have wiped out and zapped his energy and our energy as well. It has been so bad at times that everyone in our family has fallen into depression. Deep, molasses sticky depression. The kind of funk where you cannot drag yourself from bed. And when you do get out of bed, you wander zombie-like through the day -- uncaring and unconcerned with anything. We have gone to events because they were on the calendar, but we have not found joy in participating in these events.
These emotional roadblocks may still pop up (although we are working on them). You can, however, imagine the morass of living life daily. It has been so difficult to live life that clutter inevitably creeps in. We have tried to fill emotional voids by buying stuff.
And the stuff does not fulfill.
We have new hope in our future. There are some things coming up this year that may bring big changes to our family. This helps stimulate us to begin to clear away the emotional cobwebs and start cleaning up the clutter in our home.
We want to make our house a home again.
We want to live intentionally. With purpose. With a plan.
And this starts by de-cluttering. So far we have found it a freeing process. I feel lighter, happier, more content. I think everyone feels the same. Will there be snags and stumbling blocks along the journey? Undoubtedly.
There will be progress also.
It is abundantly clear that we needed a change of mindset to clear the clutter.
I read a statement recently stating "Everything you have is something you have to care for." That resonated with me, and with our family. Everything we own needs a space. It needs to be cleaned or dusted. It needs to be given a status. And too often, all of that stuff simply burdens us.
This statement has helped free me and our family from some of the ties to stuff. We have been able to let go of many things due to this different perspective. Sure, some of the things I possess bring back great memories. Many ties, though, I can hold on to the memory without holding on to an object.
And so we de-clutter. And as we clean out our drawers and rooms, we are also cleaning out our minds. Without this process, we've been stuck in the past. Cleaning the clutter helps us (at least for now) look toward the future.
We are by no means hoarders. You can (in most spaces) clearly walk through rooms without fear of tripping over junk. But that doesn't mean that we don't have clutter.
This year, we are making a valiant and concerted effort to clean the clutter. We have already started the process, and it is liberating.
But, how did we get to the point where we are hemmed in and trapped by our possession rather than free? We have started to struggle with this question. There is no easy or simple answer to the question. A lot of factors created this clutter-filled lifestyle.
At the outset, I must admit that the clutter is mostly my issue. My wife has never placed a high value on material possessions. She easily discards items that are no longer useful and have no sentimental value.
I have not had such an easy journey. Throughout my life, I have placed a high value of stuff. As a child, I collected everything. I always started new collections. I collected coins, stamps, stuffed animals, rocks -- and books. Books were (and are) my mainstay. I place a great value on books.
From a young age, books transported me outside of the pain of my early childhood. I visited lands and met people I thought I would never see or meet in real life. What a blessing from God that I have been able to travel some in my life and see some of those things I had read about in books.
Unfortunately, books became the albatross around my neck. I bought books any chance I got. Used books. New books. Books from subscription companies. Discarded books from libraries. It didn't matter where or how -- I collected books.
When I met my wife, I had a house full of books. Really. Books were stored in every nook and cranny of my home. Before we married, she encouraged me to get rid of many of those books. I did get rid of many books, but it was a painful process for me. I placed sentimental feelings into each book. I remembered where I was when I read it, how old I was, etc. And those books which I had not read (and there were hundreds) were just waiting for me to read and attach sentiment to.
Gradually, I have weaned myself from the collection. Yet, I still have a great amount of books. In this day and age of Kindle and other electronic readers, there's no need for me to keep such a hefty collection of books. So once again, I am paring down my collection.
Our kids also have placed a sentimental attachment on many things. Their toy collections surpass my collections as a child (but still does not reach my book collection at its zenith). We have cleaned out their toys many times when they were not looking, so that we don't face their wrath.
Complicating matters more, we have been in a funk for the past 18 months or more. Our son has faced many emotional demons that have wiped out and zapped his energy and our energy as well. It has been so bad at times that everyone in our family has fallen into depression. Deep, molasses sticky depression. The kind of funk where you cannot drag yourself from bed. And when you do get out of bed, you wander zombie-like through the day -- uncaring and unconcerned with anything. We have gone to events because they were on the calendar, but we have not found joy in participating in these events.
These emotional roadblocks may still pop up (although we are working on them). You can, however, imagine the morass of living life daily. It has been so difficult to live life that clutter inevitably creeps in. We have tried to fill emotional voids by buying stuff.
And the stuff does not fulfill.
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We have new hope in our future. There are some things coming up this year that may bring big changes to our family. This helps stimulate us to begin to clear away the emotional cobwebs and start cleaning up the clutter in our home.
We want to make our house a home again.
We want to live intentionally. With purpose. With a plan.
And this starts by de-cluttering. So far we have found it a freeing process. I feel lighter, happier, more content. I think everyone feels the same. Will there be snags and stumbling blocks along the journey? Undoubtedly.
There will be progress also.
It is abundantly clear that we needed a change of mindset to clear the clutter.
I read a statement recently stating "Everything you have is something you have to care for." That resonated with me, and with our family. Everything we own needs a space. It needs to be cleaned or dusted. It needs to be given a status. And too often, all of that stuff simply burdens us.
This statement has helped free me and our family from some of the ties to stuff. We have been able to let go of many things due to this different perspective. Sure, some of the things I possess bring back great memories. Many ties, though, I can hold on to the memory without holding on to an object.
And so we de-clutter. And as we clean out our drawers and rooms, we are also cleaning out our minds. Without this process, we've been stuck in the past. Cleaning the clutter helps us (at least for now) look toward the future.
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