De-cluttering

Is this another word for Feng-Shui? Well in a word no! As you can see Feng-Shui has a section all to itself and for a very good reason.

In the Western world though we have taken Feng-Shui and diluted it to mean de-cluttering. Of course there are aspects of Feng-Shui which advocate a clutter free space, but there is much more to it than just that.

This section though is about de-cluttering alone.

Clutter. Even the word sounds uncomfortable, and if you look it up in a dictionary or thesaurus it means “confusion”. Physical clutter is just as damaging to our inner peace as internal clutter, and often we will avoid dealing with anything internally when we are surrounded by mess. Not only this but clutter and mess can cause stress and as such physical reactions!

How often after clearing your desk of all its clutter and organising your papers etc do you feel more able to get on with some work? And when you last started a spring clean, how long did it take to get you started as you stared at the pile of magazines in the corner? The reason that pile of magazine is so detrimental is that it draws your energy away from everything else, because your attention keeps going to it, so you are unable to focus on what you really need to focus on.

You see clutter has a way of holding us back, and de-cluttering sets us free! Its not about having a pristine show –house home, its not even about making sure the place looks presentable for guests, its about respecting the energy in your home and letting it flow freely, so that now only will your home feel better – you will too.

How you go about de-cluttering is up to you, there are plenty of magazines out there with hints and tips, and even more TV home shows! The best piece of advice on this ever given is this: tackle it in small chunks. Don't attempt to clear out all your clutter in one big swoop – as this attempt in itself will seem too huge a job, and leave you feeling stressed! But by taking one section of one room at a time, and then methodically going on to the next, in no time all those annoying piles of stuff will be gone!

To save you searching out the articles in magazine etc here are some more tips:

1. If you haven't worn it, used it, looked at it, remembered it existed in a year – throw it away
2. If you have storage problems, find clever ways of storing things – eg covering old shoe boxes in nice paper and using this for bills, or make room under your bed for slide out drawers
3. Give old books that you won't read again to a charity book shop, or pass them to friends
4. Go through old magazines and clip out interesting articles you think you will re-read or refer to, including recipes etc, put these in a scarp book and re-cycle the bulky magazine
5. Create a charity box – put any old gifts you've never used/liked and anything else you haven't used for over a year in here, this removes the guilt of throwing away a perfectly good item AND benefits a well deserved charity
6. For those of you with valuable clutter – create an eBay pile or car boot sale pile, and make some money out of your clutter!