Have you ever noticed the build up of clutter in your life? Not just in your physical environment, but in your mind as well. Have you noticed that one type of clutter effects the other and vice-versa?
So which came first – the chicken or the egg – the physical clutter or the mental?
How often have you put something off until later day after day? When you continually put things off, your physical space becomes a reminder of your little broken promises to yourself, the “shoulds” you use to beat yourself up.
How often have you put something off until later day after day? When you continually put things off, your physical space becomes a reminder of your little broken promises to yourself, the “shoulds” you use to beat yourself up.
We have become inspired by Kim Payne’s book Simplicity Parenting and have been working on simplifying our home and our lives. We have been seeing some amazing changes. In doing so, I had an experience of how putting things off, until later created both physical and mental clutter for me.
Just the other day, when I was getting ready to exercise, I went to turn on the ceiling fan and discovered there was no pull cord to turn it on. In came the mental clutter, “Right, I said I would fix that.” I went to the drawer where I knew the pull cord would be and the drawer was overflowing with receipts, coins, pens, papers, batteries, tools, mail, old cookies, etc. you name it, and it was there. And again my mental clutter appeared saying, “How many times did I commit to cleaning this out?"
Okay enough! It is time to clean the clutter!”
Do you know what usually happens when you engage in cleaning project? When you start cleaning, things may look worse than before. Instead of all the junk being packed into one drawer, it is now affecting your visual and physical realm. What began as fixing the pull cord on the fan becomes a three hour overhaul of your junk drawer. Oh, and of course, while you are doing that you might want to clean all the stuff on the counter so it doesn't go into your nice clean drawer.
Do you see the pattern here?
Again, if you keep putting things off, they not only create physical clutter but they become reminders of unkept promises and this, results in mental clutter.
The solution is to take action NOW and to begin to develop more simplicity in your life.
Very soon I will be posting more on how simplifying has changed our family dynamics
If you would like to find out more about Simplicity Parenting, visit their site simplicityparenting.com.
Live simple. Think BIG.
Bhagavan