Loosening the grip of clutter from around my neck and how you can too.
If you are anything like me, clutter and disorganisation can creep up on you until you suddenly feel strangled by it. It seems to spiral and compound on itself making it harder and harder to claw back. Part of me is naturally organised but in other ways, I am really relaxed. Becoming a mum took this to a new level. I didn’t have the energy or headspace to deal with my environment too often. The bare minimum was done and that was ok for that time. I am no longer living in survival mode, though.
About two years ago, we had planned to sell our house to upgrade to a bigger place. We packed up so much of our house to make it more display home worthy. We did some decluttering at the time but still had at least 30 boxes packed. Then the plans fell through at the last moment. I was devastated and discontent with where we were. I refused to unpack anything but the essentials. The boxes were retrieved from the various garages and spare rooms of family members and stacked in our back room. There they had stayed. I had some heart work to do. I have made peace with staying where we are for an indefinite period of time. I have fought for contentment. Now I wanted our home to reflect that.
I have spent the summer Christmas holidays unpacking boxes, donating several boxes to op shops (second hand charity shops for those not in Australian lingo), throwing away bags of things. I have had to shelve some of my sentimentality and be realistic about living within the space we have. My biggest motivator was clearing space to set up a home office for myself. I knew that this year would be infinitely more difficult without some dedicated work space. The more I have decluttered and cleared, the more I noticed my internal system breathing deeper and feeling more at peace. I have had the head knowledge that our external environments impact our internal space. I have experienced this now. Our house may not ever be a model home of organisation and minimalism and that is ok.
With the calmed internal space and added benefit of rest over the holiday period, there was a flow on affect to other aspects of organising, like getting into better house cleaning routines. Doing a little each day really does save time in the long run. The challenge I now face is maintaining these gains with work starting up again next week and my daughter going into school full time for the first time. I have vague ideas of routines and ways to manage my time effectively but have no idea how they will work when reality is here. There are still areas of clutter and spaces that need better organisation strategies to prevent the same build up from happening again. That is the challenge of the rest of this year.
A large part of my motivation in all of this effort is to better position myself to lead well in my family, in my work and in my ministry. If I can be organised, use my time effectively and save time on the mundane tasks, I open up space for what is really important in life. I recognise the tendency in me for this organisation and discipline to start becoming the focus and perfectionism to raise its head so I need to keep that end goal in mind. It is not being organised and disciplined for its own sake but to enable me to love and lead more effectively.
