A few weeks back I was called by a lady to help her with her hallway. The visit didn’t exactly turned out the way I thought. Clutter had invaded the house in such a way that there was not even enough space to push the front door fully to let people in. The living room, a small sized room was completely blocked with different sort of furniture making it impossible to walk around the room, unless you were willing to walk on the furniture. The only advise I could give to the poor lady was to get rid of a few things so that she could live in her house.
This was an extreme case, but if you look closely around you, you will be able to spot quite a lot of clutter, that has appeared without you noticing. If we are not careful, clutter will invade our living space and leave us stressed out and miserable.
Having clutter is not a always related to not having a useful and well organized storage space (even if this can help a lot), or not living a big house. In fact clutter can arise everywhere, if we are not vigilant.
If you are not convinced by the benefit of getting rid of clutter, you can read Karen Kingston book "Clear your clutter with feng shui" where she explains what is clutter, how it affects us and how to get rid of clutter for a better life.
Why do we keep so many things?
According to Karen Kingston, there a few reason keep clutter:
keeping things "just in case"
Identity
Status
Security
Territorialism
Inherited clutteritis
A belief that more is better
Scroogeness
Using clutter to suppress emotions
Obsessive-Compulsive disorders
In Feng Shui, clutter is not good as it breaks the free flow of energy in the house, and create stagnant energy, and therefore, Feng Shui recommends to get rid of clutter. Even if you are not a Feng shui person, it makes sens that clutter is not good and create a lot of stress around us.
Karen Kingston divide clutter into four categories:
- things you don’t love or use
- things which are untidy or disorganised
- too many things in a small place
- anything unfisnished
In the western guide to Feng shui, Terah Kathryn Collins advise to get rid of all the extra belongings that we don’t love and recommend that we should only live surrounded by loved objects. She gives 7 questions we should ask ourselves once we have decided to de-clutter our house:
1. Do I love it?
2. Do I need it?
3. Does it support who I am now in my life?
4. Does it act as en environmental affirmation for me?
5. What positive and/or negative thoughts, memories, or emotions do I associate with it?
6. Does it need to be fixed or repaired, and am I willing to do so?
7. If it’s time to let it go, am I going to sell, lend, or give it away, and when?
I think it really make sense to only keep object that we love and use. As always, the most difficult step towards clutter clearing is the start. Choose a good time for you to start de-cluttering and set up a small size goal (even just one cupboard, one room), so that you can reach it, and be happy enough to carry on onto a new goal.
Karen Kingston recommends that you should have four basic box when you start your clutter hunt:
A rubbish box
a repair box (only for item that you are clearly determined to fix)
a recycling box (for things to be sold, exchanged, recycled...)
A transit box (for things which are changing location insode the house)
a dilemma box (when you are unsure about keeping an item or not, you will keep the items in the dilemma box for a determined period of time. If after this period of time you haven’t used or needed the item, it probably means you can safely let them go!)
An important thing is, once the different items have found their location into their box, to process the box immediately. Don’t allow yourself to live with four boxes full of clutter instead of taking them to the bin, recycling or any other location!
Karen Kingston also mentioned that it is good to have a drawer (on each floor of your house) where you can leave things, that might be clutter, and that you sort out this cluttter nest regularly. This allows to keep all the clutter in a restrained area.
When you have finally de-clutter your house, it is important to carry on checking that clutter is not coming back, and carry on sorting out your belongings regularly.
Having a clutter free house makes such a big difference. Happy de-cluttering!
Karen Kingston - Clear your clutter with Feng Shui - Piatkus
Terah Kathryn Collins - The western guide to Feng Shui Room by room - Hay house
E. Lemoine
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