Want Inner Peace? Get Rid of Clutter One Step At a Time!
Melody stumbled onto the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group after she sought online groups to support her in dealing with decluttering. In late 2017, she moved her father into assisted living; anything that didn’t fit in his new home just got stacked up in the front room of her house, adjacent to the front door. The clutter caused tension with her husband. She explains, “He kept bugging me about getting it cleaned up because he was tired of having to explain the clutter whenever someone came to our house.”
Melody says, “At the beginning, I felt overwhelmed. I wasn’t sure where to begin. But, I just took one box or section at a time and worked in 45-minute to one-hour intervals, taking a break in-between. I kept telling myself that even baby steps are progress. I also took pictures along the way to remind myself of the progress I was making.”
Melody’s teaching job keeps her busy, so she decided to tackle the clutter come summer. She set aside two days to work on decluttering this area. She used Kathi’s system of 3 bags, with a slight modification. Instead of Put Away, Other Room, and Give Away bags, she had 3 piles: Other Rooms, Give Away, and Sell. Plus the Trash/Recycle pile.
She’s proud to be able to say, “The result of two days of work was that I felt very proud of myself for tackling this room; a load has been lifted from me. I was also very happy to hear my husband tell me what a great job I’d done.”
Working on this room has given her a renewed sense of optimism about what’s possible. “By decluttering this one room, I learned that I can get other areas and rooms of my house decluttered as well. I know it’s a process which will take time. But in the end, I will gain things like inner peace and being able to bless others because I will be living with less clutter.” Melody experienced the peace that comes from living with less, not more stuff!
How can you live with less for the sake of more peace? What are you no longer using that you could share with someone in need?
