A De-cluttering New Year
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
De-Clutter your New Year
While I was looking in the shops over the Christmas, I found a book called “No More Clutter” by Sue Kay. I had heard the author interviewed on the radio, and was interested in her views on decluttering. I like the fact that she is a psychologist, so she understands the reasons behind why we clutter. That helps me more than someone just setting out a bunch of rules I have to follow to clear out my stuff. I have started reading it, and I have started decluttering. They go hand in hand. At the moment it has a real feelgood feel to it, and that has to be a good thing.
I suppose it wouldn’t have appealed to me as a book to read if I wasn’t in that place mentally, where I want to clear out old “stuff”. I mean mental stuff as well as the daily clutter of my home and life! Readers who are interested in the life-coaching elements of this blog can probably relate to this too. Possibly mental clutter is the reason behind the physical clutter, but - unlike Sue - I am not a psychologist, so I don’t know for sure.
One of the most useful exercises in the book is the “Smile Test”. I hope she will forgive me for reproducing, verbatim, her piece on the Smile Test:
“Your pink shoes pass the Smile Test - you just have to smile because you feel so good in them! A photo of you drinking champagne on your 30th birthday reminds you of a great evening friends. The Smile Test tells you when something is real treasure. Even practical things like wine glasses and mugs should be a pleasure to use and pass the Smile Test.
Stay tuned in to your reactions for warning signs that you feel unhappy or negative about an item. People often start sighing when they hold up something they feel ambivalent about. Or they give long, complicated explanations of why they should keep something, even though they never use it and do not like it.
Paula was keeping old love letters in her wardrobe from a man who had brought a lot of misery into her life. She could not bear even to handle them, let alone re-read them. So she asked me to shred them. Letting go meant she was literally no longer giving him space in her home or her heart.
You deserve to surround yourself with beloved possessions and warm associations from your past. Junk bad memories like rejection letters from interviews and you will let go of a lot of negativity in your life.”
Sue Kay makes a very good point. When we’re kids, “things” have no emotional hold on us whatsoever. If we like something (whether it makes sense or not) we hang onto it for dear life. If we don’t like it, we quickly lose it, or forget to bring it home, or give it away. We don’t agonize over it. We don’t say “I’d better keep it because auntie so-and-so gave it to me and she’d be really upset if she knew I gave it away”. Our decision making was simple.
I’m not suggesting you broadcast to auntie so-and-so if you’re giving the lamp she gave you for Christmas to the charity shop at the very beginning of January. But you are entitled to make your own decisions about your own life and your own possessions. That’s what I’m trying to do, starting this month. I also accept that, for it to work, it has to be ongoing and not just for the holidays. Watch this space …