Week 36. Declutter

Losing two hours worth of work and starting this text for the third time, so hello again!

Maybe it’s autumn, maybe realizing that it’s already the fourth quarter of the year or just a change in the weather, this week asks for decluttering. Not everything can come with us to the next chapter of this life’s journey. We’ve journeyed through this year so far with a set of things, traits and habits. This week invites us to review it, put the summer dresses to the top shelf until the next season and pull out the sweaters, the jackets and hats. I had an urge to go through all of my belongings and to reevaluate them. Looking into each thing, holding them in my palms I asked myself, does the piece I own bring me joy, have a vital function and make my days easier or does it have to go? Some things were there since the last declutter, which I make quite regularly, meaning, I have already decided that it does not serve me anymore but didn’t have the heart to throw it away just yet. This time it was time to say goodbye. I think these declutters are very necessary. Maybe not that meticulously as I’ve described but once in a while it’s good to look around at what surrounds us and to decide if it still has a place in our lives. If you think about it, most things we own see more of us than the people closest to us so maybe it’s a good idea to evaluate if these things invite us to spend our time the way we want to spend it, or do they distract, regularly ask for our attention and maintenance or to involve ourselves in things we no longer subscribe to in this season of life. Just like we can go through things, we can also look through our thoughts (do we maybe belittle, talk harshly or negatively about ourselves and others and it would be a perfect time to change that since it was weighing us down for some time now anyways), beliefs (maybe not everything we learned about the world, work, relationships, money or ourselves sound like true to us anymore but we’ve never really looked at these beliefs closer, with a critical eye to see the cracks in them), habits (if we’re doing something that is not the best for us just because we’ve always done it, maybe we could look into the reasoning behind it, with what intention and belief about ourselves we’re doing it? Why are we still choosing it even if we know it’s not what’s the best for us?).

There are days we are able to clean all our cupboards, ages of carpet dust, the baseboards and to rearrange the furniture by noon and there are days when breathing is a task. I invite us to meet ourselves where we’re at, without pressure to make everything right and to declutter everything all at once. Especially if we’re dealing with a lot of mental decluttering. Take breaks, pause, take a sigh, let’s honor where we’re at and move along at a pace that works for us.

Have a clutter free week.