Contentment in the Home - the Clutter Edition

Clutter. Yuck! All the little piles here and there, all the not-so-little piles there and here. It drives me nuts, yet I sometimes feel powerless to get rid of it permanently. It stresses me out, makes me wish for more storage, more space, more organizational skills, more time, more everything, and it hinders me from hearing what the Holy Spirit wants more from me.

This is another area I'm trying to tackle room by room, bit by bit. That's why one of my yearly goals is to complete an unfinished craft/home improvement project each month - to get rid of the piles of supplies and half-finished projects in my bedroom. That's why I'm purging papers and possessions - if it's not there, I likely don't miss it, and I certainly don't miss the stress of seeing too much stuff! That's why I'm trying to keep up on daily household cleaning tasks that are so easy to let sit until "tomorrow."

I feel much better now that the usual pile of "to-do papers" has been taken care of and is now gone from the kitchen counter. I feel much better now that I have purged the 2-drawer filing cabinet and the pile of papers to be filed has been done and there is room to actually find things. I feel much better that we've taken several bags of unused items to Goodwill, where they are out of my way and can find new homes with someone who will actually use them. And I feel much better having pared down my cross-stitch stash to things that I will actually stitch and display, instead of keeping projects that I just like or are pretty.

It takes time to go through things, and depending on what it is, I have a few little tricks that I use to motivate me. One is to set a timer. When I go through my cross-stitch and craft stash, I could easily spend hours looking at everything. Setting a timer helps me get through it quicker. When I go through especially my kitchen cabinets, not only will I ask myself if I'ved used something in the last year, but have I used it since we moved? Certainly if I haven't used it in the 7 years we've been here, I won't be using it anytime soon! Another trick I use is to ask myself, if I were moving again, would this item be one of the first things I packed or one of the last and why? Sometimes I pack something first because I know I can live without it for a couple weeks, and sometimes I pack it first because I know I definitely won't use it for a while. If I definitely won't use it, perhaps it's time to give it up. If it's something I will pack last, is it because I use it a lot, almost every day? Or is it because I don't know what to do with it? If I don't know what to do with it, why do I still have it?

Don't get me wrong, I still have my piles, way too many of them! And I still have clutter around, things I will never use and/or don't need, but as the days and weeks go on, I hope to tackle these. One of my goals is to only have things that I love, need or use a lot in my home. But more importantly, hopefully by having less stuff and less stress connected to the stuff, I will be better able to listen to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to me about what He wants more from me and for me.