Peace and order

As I wrote in a previous post, my pursuit of a Zen like mindset and home/office environment has led me to explore the konmari method of dealing with clutter.

Like any journey, before you step forth on the path, there is always the mental, emotional, spiritual preparation. First, the dream itself… the destination that calls your soul and galvanizes you to make a decision, to take action.  Then, the mental, emotional, spiritual preparation.

So as part of my preparation for decimating my possessions, I sat down and asked myself the question that Marie Kondo poses in the beginning of her book.

What do I hope to gain through tidying?

Here is what came to me:

A sense of peace and order when I walk into my house or into my office.

The certainty that anything is possible, that nothing is obstructing me from my dreams.

Why do I want this?

Because I want to be a clear channel for whatever Life wishes to express through me.

Because I will feel happy and at peace, energized and enthusiastic.

It is a humbling thought that our relationship to things, to the physical stuff of life that we have accumulated, can be an obstacle to the expression of our greater good. You wouldn’t think that mere things could have such power, yet… it seems they do.

So here is my question for you beloved reader. If you too, have the urge to let go of a large amount of your stuff…. what is your why?  What do you hope to gain through tidying?

De-cluttering magic – letting go of the stuff of life

Last week on the blogging trail I chucked out a load of burdensome mindsets from my back pack.  This week, I decided, it’s time to tackle the actual physical stuff that clutters my desk, my shelves and my drawers – and hence my mindset.

I’d say I am a pretty organized person – I have my neatly labeled files, my tidily arranged storage boxes, in theory a place for everything… but the reality is, that despite my best efforts, it just gets out of hand. A few days of busyness, and lo and behold, the inevitable piles of paper, the stacks of books, the this’s and that’s, mushroom like magic, like mutant viruses intent on conquering my space.

Now, I know it’s me… only me who prints the paper and buys the books and acquires all this stuff and brings it in to my space….. and believe me I have tried almost every known system for dealing with it. Over the years I have probably purchased at least a dozen books on organizing your life, de cluttering, feng shui, etc., and yet wherever I look, office, living room, bedroom closet, and of course my sock drawer… there is always just way too much STUFF!  And did I say books? 

Speaking of books, I happened upon this little gem over the weekend – The life-changing magic of tidying up – the Japanese art of de cluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. Her revolutionary method, which challenges the conventional little-by-little approach to de-cluttering, advocates a once and for all system that, she promises, leads to lasting results.

This caught my attention. Although I came to the conclusion that lightening my metaphorical backpack on the blogging trail was a daily practice, I’m not so sure that de -cluttering as a daily practice actually works. It really hasn’t worked for me, and judging by the fact that Marie Kondo’s book has sold over 2 million copies, I don’t think it works for most of us either.

So, I’ve decided to set my sights this week on liberating myself from the too much stuff of life, for once and for all. Sound unrealistic or overly ambitious?  Perhaps. Yet I know from past experience with short lived de-cluttering results, that it feels so freeing, so spacious, so fresh…. to have a clean desk and a minimal amount of stuff.

So starting today, until I’m done, I’m following Marie Kondo’s advice. “Start by discarding, all at once, intensely and completely.”

It will be interesting to see where this leads. Want to join me dear reader?