Clearing Clutter

At the beginning of January, a dear friend and colleague who was in between homes came to stay with us at SaltHouse for a few days. Feeling fatigued with the burden of being temporarily homeless and managing her belongings stored in her car, her storage unit, at friends’ homes and in her classroom, she said to us, “I want to get rid of half of my stuff, I’m tired of moving it, I want to be done with it!” This prompted a housemate to loan her the book, Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, which my friend read in 2 evenings and I quickly read as soon as she was done with it. Inspired to take a look at our current material possession load, Grant and I woke up a Sunday in early January and started our decluttering mission.

The first step was to go over the Clutter Test together as I have paraphrased here:

Step 1: When I look at (or hold) my item, I ask 3 questions:

1) Does the item lift my energy? (Does my energy go up or down? What reactions am I feeling in my body? Trust my gut reaction)

2) Do I absolutely love this item? (Does it make me happy or sad? Does it inspire me? Do I already have enough?)

3) Is the item genuinely useful? (When did I use it last? When will I realistically use it again?)

Step 2: Repeat these words, “It is safe to let go, it is ok that we might be making a mistake in letting this item go, if so, something else will come along when we need it.”

We started easy: Clothes, Books, Magazines, Filing Cabinets, CD’s.

Next step: Old electronic devices and cameras that Grant has replaced with newer or better models, guitars, camping gear, tools and bike parts, the car, excessive worrying and too much email checking. 

No, not the car. 

At least not yet.

Really? the car?

A month later we are still looking at a pile of cardboard in our bedroom. (pile = boxes full of stuff that we said we don’t want anymore) The book suggests that the first time a person attempts to clear their clutter, they should just get rid of the stuff. But we are frugal here and have chosen to sell things or gift them, which means it is taking longer to actually move things out of the house. We have to get up the motivation to actually take pictures of items, write auction descriptions, and then make many trips to the post office. The latest post office run included an old cell phone that Grant just sold for more money than he purchased it for 2 years ago. Turns out this clutter clearing process has some benefits…except for that broken camera that Grant purchased, took apart to fix, and never put back together again. We’ll lose about $100, but at least the camera comes with a repair manual and all of the small pieces are taped to 8.5x11 inch paper. Want to bid?