I am talking about the clutter of mind, body and living space. As women we go through multiple transitions in life: marriage, children, career, illness, divorce and death of a spouse; it is often difficult to transition through theses major events with ease and grace. However becoming more organized can facilitate the adjustments that these major life changes demand.
What is the Cost of Clutter? Clutter can be expensive; the cost of clutter can be divided into 3 categories: financial, physical and emotional.
The financial cost of clutter can result in lost or displaced money and checks. Often mail accumulates and is not opened in a timely fashion. As a result, late fees can accrue, and often missing tax records can lead to financial penalties.
The physical cost of clutter includes the stress and anxiety experienced by the inability to locate items when they are needed; this fruitless searching can be frustrating and depleting to our physical resources and a huge waste of valuable time. Very often we experience confusion and a sense that we have lost control of our circumstances.
The question then arises: how do we regain that sense of control? Organization is one way we can master control of our daily lives and navigate through many challenging transitions. Often we feel that if we achieve a certain goal or arrive at a certain milestone, life will suddenly be better. Although this can be true, it is often the journey itself that transforms us. This journey involves change which can be difficult and frightening. Even though we know that change is the only constant in life, we still resist it! We resist letting go of people, places and things that are no longer useful or necessary and serve mainly to clutter our thoughts and our lives.
De-clutter Your Mind, Body and Space
I propose three main organizational concepts that can be used to de-clutter your mind, your body and your space:
- Create a schedule and make sure the entire family is informed and involved. The most imperative tasks should be scheduled first and the remaining tasks in order of importance.
- Prepare a list; this is the fastest way to physically reduce stress. This list can be created on paper or computer; the objective is to get the tasks out of your head!! Then use the list!!
- To de-clutter space: sort, categorize and purge!! For small jobs like a junk drawer, sort all the items into categories that are similar in order to determine how much of each category you own. Then purge what you don’t want or need. The left over items will determine the type of storage container needed for proper organization. For larger piles or stacks, like clothes, it’s best to simply sort items to keep and items to let go. The goal is to quickly reduce the size of the “to keep pile” and then categorize the remaining items.
Embrace the Journey
We can choose to embrace the journey or we can avoid it as the world moves forward. Although we have gleaned much wisdom on our particular road, we may need guidance to embrace change, to clear our minds and to guide us through the journey. It is most imperative that we are in control as we accommodate change with ease and grace.
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