Find happiness – free yourself of clutter

I have a confession – I used to suffer from clutteritis. You might be familiar with it – it’s hoarding things that are not liked, needed and used. Up until recently I suffered from this condition, but thankfully I’m free of it now.

So what cured me? I bought the book Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by space clearing workshop leader Karen Kingston. After reading it I hoarded no more, and the results were just like the book said, “Clearing clutter can…transform your life.”

How did the book cure me of clutteritis when previous treatments had failed? Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui details what clutter is, how to identify it, how it affects us, why we keep it and how to clear it. The book also provides ideas to clear our body, mind and soul of clutter.

I’m into healthy living, so the section where Karen discusses how clutter can negatively affect our health and well-being was what propelled me, in particular, to became an anti-clutterer.

Karen describes over 15 ways she believes clutter can badly affect us. Some of the ones I think are most noteworthy are that keeping clutter can:

• make us feel depressed, ashamed, tired and lethargic
• congest our body
• affect the way people treat us
• cost us financially
• make us disorganized and
• be a fire or health hazard

I’ll share with you one of my favorite pages from the book.

Life is constantly changing. So when something comes into your life enjoy it, use it well, and when it is time, let it go. It is that simple. Just because you own something, it doesn’t mean to say that you have to keep it forever. You are just a temporary custodian of many things as they pass through your life. You can’t, after all, take the contents of your kitchen cupboards with you when you die, and nor would you want to!

Everything material is merely energy in transition. You many think you own a house or have money in the bank, but the fact is you don’t even own the body you stand up in. It is on loan from the planet and after you are done with it, it will be automatically recycled and reappear in a different form without you. You are spirit – glorious, eternal, indestructible spirit – but your human circumstance is what can best be described as a transient ‘rent-a-body’ situation.

Your body is the temporary temple of your soul. What you keep around you in the extended temple of your home needs to change with you as you change and grow, so that it reflects who you are. Particularly if you are engaged in any kind of self-improvement work, you will need to update your environment regularly. So get into the habit of leaving a trail of discarded clutter in your wake, and start to think of it as a sign of your progression!

Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui is easy to read, practical and interesting. Who would think reading about clutter is uplifting, but Karen makes learning about junk-clearing enjoyable. It’s like Elle says, “A gem of a book. You’ll read it on the bus going home and be boxing, filing and clearing the instant you’re through the door.”

written by Nyomi Graef

References:
Kingston, K, 1998, Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, London, UK: Piatkus