Decluttering is cathartic and liberating. I get an immediate gratification after removing the old, no longer needed items in my living space. I love organizing and decluttering, this gives me a sense of calm and I can almost feel the new vibrant energy entering the spaces once occupied by the things I no longer need.
Usually within a month, however, as I look around my house I see again clutter, things just appear out of nowhere, the space feels chaotic and the sense of calm and content is gone. So why does the clutter come back? Well, if you have kids and pets the stuff just accumulates naturally – school projects, overgrown clothes and shoes, pet food. The list goes on.
Of course, the clutter can be always attributed to not putting back things to their rightful places. But there is also something else – the more our mind is cluttered, the more we get distracted with things, activities, more stuff to take care of, more errands to run. The idea of our mental clutter manifesting on a material level as a physical clutter is definitely not new and has been expressed many times by different schools of thought in the past.
However, there is something subtle that usually escapes us. We go about our days with almost total lack of awareness when doing things. The key is to do every single activity during the day with awareness. Then you will immediately notice the empty box after you unpacked your online order. And you will see the garden scissors next to the pot that you are just leaving on the floor now because somebody is calling you on the cell phone and you are trying to multitask.
Slow down and focus entirely on doing the thing you are doing right now, try not to get distracted and do it mindfully. And I guarantee you that the clutter, little by little, will slowly decrease in your environment, opening space for wonderful and magical things in your life.
K.D.