Daily Blogging

Day 1, September 25, 2008. 8:15pm
Clearing up the clutter. We all know the feng shui benefits of clearing clutter from our lives, but, somehow clutter sneeks up like a stranger in the night and becomes this terrifyingly overwhelming mess of paper that is out of control and can trigger an adreanal response in the most kaphic of personalities.

Getting a plan and sticking to it seems to be the solution for many people. Sarah Ban Breahtnach in her book, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, suggests that it is simply a matter of having all the right baskets in all the right places and budgeting the time to sort through the mess on a monthly basis. Friends have been telling me this for years, experts extol about the mental, spiritual and physical benefits of knowing where all your paper is. Some, like me, are delighted when we find an extra $400.00, cleaning up paper, in cheques that we forgot to deposit.

While simple strategies do not work for all of us who collect paper in our purses, our cars, the kitchen table, the kitchen cupboards, piles on our desks at home and at the office, cardboard boxes, rubbermaid bins and plastic containers in every corner of our lives - there is hope.

I have found that the best solution for me is to find a friend or pay someone to sit with me and keep me company. So I am there to help with the decision making and they are there so that I do not feel so overwhelmed and alone in the process. Now if I could just convince myself that this is nescessary on a regular basis and keep this process a priority I am sure I would find the paper nirvana that my friends, family memebers and organizational experts around me elude to.

The creative and emotional energy saved can go into a bank for really important things like hanging out with my children, being present in my relationships, practicing yoga and painting or drawing. What ever does make your heart sing. Half the stress of paper piles is the worrying about getting to them. Find what works for you. When it stops working find a new way to work. Buy into the idea that you are perfect just the way you are and find your system, not someone else's.

Be well and happy,
Denise

Interesting article on the Feng Shui of Clutter...
http://www.fengshui.co.uk/FSClutter.htm