12 Month Clutter Clearing Community

“I never spend time at home.” Those were the words of a woman who recently heard me speak about clearing clutter to get more of what you really want.

When I hear those words they usually mean one of two things:

1. Her house has some serious clutter challenges because she doesn’t have enough time at home to do what it takes to maintain a clutter-free home.

2. Her home is so uncomfortable because of clutter that she’d rather be anywhere else.

People who are never home often develop the dangerous habit of “drop and plop.” When they do get home they are usually so tired that they drop their mail, their bags, their clothes, etc., and plop on the sofa or into bed from exhaustion. Consequently, the all important habits of regularly putting things away, throwing things away, and cleaning up take a back seat to the more pressing need to get rest from the exhaustion of doing too much.

If you suffer from “drop and plop” or if you are over-committed…

I finally whole heartedly dove into planning a seminar entitled “Organizing for Productivity and Success.” I’d done some preliminary planning the weekend and during the week before. As I usually do with something new and overwhelming, I chipped off small bites of the big project so I could get it to a size I could handle mentally and emotionally. Because I’d done that prep work, I was able to pin my butt to my chair and worked diligently on all aspects of the preparation–the slide show, the handouts, props, and the outline of the speech. When I finished I felt really good about my effort and my results. And, I felt good about me.

That got me thinking about procrastination. When you procrastinate, you put off doing something that needs to be done. You may be having a great time doing something else, but somewhere in your subconscious the task is nagging at you. With it there you are unable to fully relax, fully enjoy the present moment. And, you aren’t able to fully…

“I bought those curtains for my bedroom, but they don’t fit the windows.” This is the kind of statement I often hear when I explore the contents of a shopping bag in a client’s home. And, I’m thinking, “Then, why is it still here?”

Have you ever purchased something that just didn’t work the way you wanted it to? Or, have you ordered a CD course that you were sure was going to change your life for the better, but discovered that the speaker’s voice was intolerable? We’ve all done something like that from time to time.

Once you realized that what you bought was a mistake, what did you do? Did you return it? Or, did you just leave it in your space, immobilized by the feelings of regret about your choice?

Things you’ve purchased that just didn’t work out for you have “mistake” energy, a particularly toxic type of negative energy comparable to the energy of something that is broken. Every time you come across “the mistake” you remember its history, its flaws and you…

We all have a need for down time. We need time to do whatever we want to do–rest, read, play on the computer, visit friends, anything that is pleasurable and gives us a break from the many essential tasks of living. I have a hunch that if we don’t make enough time in our busy schedules to take a break, we find ways to take it anyway or we pay for not doing it by being only halfway present for essential tasks.

What…