De-Cluttering Your Life

I swear, I just love Oprah. Sure, she's got bazillions of dollars to spend on real estate and jewelry and clothes and shoes, but she knows about the hard life too. As I recall, she grew up dirt poor in Mississippi, was abused and was told she's never amount to anything.

And just now look at her; she's at the pinnacle of her career. In all her wealth and power, she finds ways to relate to the American Woman.

Yesterday's episode was about de-cluttering your home and in turn, de-cluttering your life. They spotlighted this family of 6, who had more stuff than I thought possible. 18 year old sweatpants, every toy their daughters ever had, and they're oldest (twins) are 9. Oprah got this organizational guru to go into their home and get rid of the crap. And what the couple didn't realize is that they were putting their focus on all the wrong things; all the things that they might need one day. It was an amazing transformation, watching this mother realizing why she was saving all this stuff.

I did a purge 6 months ago when my ex moved out. He liked to save things: sale circulars, clothes he knew full well he would never wear again, old shoes that were worn out. Our home was constantly covered in papers, I just couldn't keep on top of the mess so I fed into it.

Well, once he was gone, I filled 3 or 4 garbage bags with stuff that I was never going to use. I just chucked it all. I went through my closet and gave away all the clothes that didn't fit or that I hadn't worn in a year; looking back, I probably got rid of half my wardrobe. I went into my daughter's room and filled a garbage bag of stuffed animals that she's never touched let alone played with. I gave away clothes, toys, baby equipment...tons of stuff.

I felt so much better when I was done.

I told a girlfriend that I was doing all this deep cleaning and she responded, "No, honey, you're not cleaning, you're cleansing."

Wow, it was an a-ha moment. She was absolutely right. I was sweeping all the bad energy out of my home to make way for good, positive energy.

That realization gave me the strength to go into my nemesis room, the 3rd bedroom that was supposed to my my home office. It became a walk-in closet, full of books, boxes and clothes. It was like that for 3 years. I went in there with a vengeance and got rid of even more stuff, most of it being true garbage so I kicked it to the curb.

My home and my life are nowhere near perfect. I still have dust under my living room sofa, I still have blank walls where I'd like to hang pictures, and I still don't have bedroom curtains. But my aura and my feng shui is straighter that it's been in a really long time and even if it's a little off center, it's ok. I'm not striving for perfection, I don't believe perfection exists. I'm just trying to make my home into a haven, a safe place, a soft place to fall...