In an earlier
post, I mentioned my attempt to de-clutter my life. This process has been going fairly well. In addition to resigning from my job, I have been trying to eliminate any tangible clutter that I don't really need. To an outsider, my house probably wouldn't look extremely messy or cluttered, but to me, it just feels like there is too much.
We have been cleaning out closets. I cleaned out the pantry. I am going through the baby's stuff. We are donating, recycling, selling. With each article that leaves the house, I feel so much lighter.
As I was perusing the recent issue of
O Magazine ("De-cluttering your life: say goodbye to the stuff that's weighing you down"), Oprah says, "I'm not just cleaning my closet. I'm cleaning out my life. And I'm keeping only that which delights me or enhances my well-being... Organizational expert Peter Walsh says in his book
Enough Already! that our homes are 'overwhelmed with stuff and [our] lives littered with the empty promises that the stuff didn't fulfill... In buying what we want, we hope to acquire the life we desire... [But] chasing the life you want by accumulating more stuff is a dead-end street.'" (p. 212).
In the same issue, a New York designer shared similar sentiment, "We don't have a lot of control in life, but we really do have control over the objects in our homes. So when the world is spinning too fast and you feel completely crazed, just get the things around you settled. It makes you feel better." (p. 159).
I remember an article I read in
FitPregnancy when I was pregnant. The article was "Avoid 'stuff stress'" and said "Succumbing to the idea that you can't have a baby without buying tons of stuff causes stress in the form of buying decisions, clutter, and financial hardship" (p. 75, 2009).
At that point, I started realizing that Stuff=Stress.
This information by no means reflects my most deeply held convictions, but I figure it offers a simple and positive way to practice better stewardship and self-control in our homes and in our lives!
