Do you have a growing pile of mail you’ve been meaning to get to but just haven’t yet?
Maybe there is a half-started project you’re finding difficult to muster up enough energy to complete?
Are there negative people in your life who keep bringing you down but you continue to put up with them anyway?
I have a guest room downstairs that I wouldn’t allow any guest to actually enter. It’s the dumping ground of every box or item that I’ll get to later. It’s been building since 2019 and keeps getting worse…
I also have a dining room table that’s not suitable for dining 90% of the time – the other 10% only works whenever I finally clear all of my books and work papers off of it.
So here we are, in the month of April (just like April arrived in 2020, 2021 and 2022) and the guest bedroom still hasn’t been organized.
Why do so many of us have resistance to declutter?
It’s not just simple procrastination…
When you think of clutter, you probably think of things like books, mail, files, toys or clothes. You may not include items like: toxic relationships, unhelpful habits, negative self-talk, regrets, emotional baggage, and outdated thoughts.
These different types of clutter are intertwined, with one often causing the other.
Imagine this: After a long day, you come home to piles of stuff on the counter and you’re exhausted.
You start beating yourself up for not taking care of it sooner. You get annoyed with family members who have piled more stuff there.
Suddenly, it’s not just about the counter. The clutter triggers your inner critic to remind you how lazy you are… not organized… sloppy…
Now imagine what this scenario does to your plan to drink sparkling water instead of wine tonight or try the new healthy recipe for dinner or meditate instead of watching Netflix.
Clutter works both ways. Physical clutter becomes emotional clutter and emotional clutter becomes physical. Both drain your energy and build up negatively in your body.
Said simply: Your outer world reflects your inner world.
And the good news? Cleaning one helps sort out the other.
The hard part is transcending the resistance; clutter habits are just as hard as any other habits to re-pattern.
But when you finally do, you can get double the benefit – a cleaner house and a calmer mind.
Do you have a declutter goal this Spring (emotional or physical)? Hit reply and let me know. When I get home to Colorado next week I’m finally attacking that guest room.
Just thinking about it, I feel lighter already.