Spring Is In the Air – Time To Clean House
For many of us spring is in the air and soon warm weather will beckon us to open the windows in our homes which have been tightly sealed throughout the winter. As we open our windows to let the sunshine and air in many of us will also embark upon spring cleaning. When I look around the rooms in my home I see that besides the dusting and deep cleaning that needs to be done I also see clutter. As I do a couple times of year I will start going room to room, closet to closet and assess the “stuff” that I have collected that is creating clutter in my living space. I will determine what is no longer needed, what I can and should let go of and get rid of the stuff that is no longer serving me. In the end I will have a house which has less clutter. The space in my house will be and feel more open. I won’t be tripping over stuff or shuffling the clutter from one spot to another as I tend to do to make myself feel as though I have less clutter. When I have less clutter in my house I feel more comfortable and even more creative because I have more space to work with. Yes, I do love when I take the time and effort to clean house. It is a lot of work and it does take some integrity on my part to be able to assess what I truly need and what is just taking up space. It sometimes even takes courage and convincing to let go of some of the stuff because in the back of my mind I am thinking “Maybe I should hold on to this, it could come in use some day or maybe it will be valuable some day”. Sometimes I am reluctant to let go of things because somehow I have allowed myself to believe that some of my stuff defines who I am, when deep down I know that is not true, I am not defined by stuff that I have cluttering up my house.
The house of which I speak cannot be found by the mailman, you can’t find it on any map and your GPS will not cleverly guide you this house for you see the house I speak of is me.
What steps will you take to clear your house of clutter? What are you holding onto which no longer serves you? Is it time to make space for that which is yet to come? These are important questions which we should ask ourselves as we prepare our internal home for the next season of our journey.
“We are not afraid to look under the
bed, or to wash the sheets; we know
that life is messy. We know that
somebody has to clean it up, and
that only if it is cleaned up can we
hope to start over, and get better.”- Marsha Norman – American Playwright
Letting go is a very difficult thing isn’t it. Sometimes people and places don’t want to let you go. One day I am not sure if I was feeling sorry for myself or that I thought and end would bring a clear vision to a new beginning. I hadn’t heard from my friend and I felt kind of like an emotional yo yo, so I envisioned placing him on a boat and sending him out to sea, I left out the little part where I imagined him tied in the boat. Ironically he wrote back with an apology that he was in Europe and didn’t get a chance to write.
I try to focus on the reality of life, but I feel torn by others expectations of me.
My life is like spring cleaning the house, I start to toss things out and donate for the next person to say, you can’t toss that out.
I have a curio, a real curio, not one in my mind, and the things in it do not define me , they help me to remember the positive in my life. From the wooden crucifix my son made out of an branch in second grade, to my daughters gift of a lucky stone. Each year I spring clean and I pick up each piece to dust off and smile at the memory each holds.
Nice Post ! Spring is my favorite time of year, I vote for three seasons, I am not so fond of winter. But than again all the seasons have a beauty of their own when shared with that someone special.
I have to say when I first started to read your post I thought you were speaking of really spring cleaning, and my first thought was she better not let him go he cleans house. lol smiles.
Thank you Mark. I am releasing much of what is no longer serving me.
I appreciate you and the springtime robins for reminding me to do exactly that.
Much love.
There’s an amazing connection between our external clutter and our internal clutter. And it’s truly liberating to do a regular tidy-up of both.
I feel so much better with a clean “house” – literally and figuratively. Been getting rid of a lot of clutter of late too!
Have a great weekend Mark!
It took a major crisis for me to realize what was cluttering up my life and what stuff around the house i had to let go..tough decisions like that tend to clear house and mind…insightful post thanks….zman sends
Is it possible to erase the clutter of the past? I hope it is possible.
I don’t really clean our house lol and Spring is totally non-existent here in my country, haha!
As for starting a new beginning and changing oneself and forgetting some bad habits, I’m all for that every time. It doesn’t need to be Christmas or New Year for me to change.
Beautiful quote by the Playwright. We all find it hard to focus if our lives are messy.
Mark,
What a timely post. Yes as spring is upon us, it’s great time to de-clutter not only our surroundings but our minds as well.
I try to clean on an ongoing basis
Thank goodness for the housekwwper that does the physical one – and thank goodness for my willingness and Sprit’s generosity in assisting me with the mental one
I CAN’T SPELL – AUGHHHHH !!!
Housekeeper
so true! i want a maid!
Is our life cluttered with too many material things? And we are drowning in up keeping all of the material goods? Is our emotion cluttered with too much baggage? Are we buried under all of our hang ups?
Are we all so busy, because we have so much that we must attend to? Or are we just busy because we are full of clutter?
Are we mentally tired because we think so much about improvements? Or are we just tired because we are buried under our emotion baggage?
Thank you,
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action
walk into a house and you can feel the warmth or coldness too as much as the visible clutter or clean space. yes, we do need to learn not to clutter and keep the space free for movement. So is it with the mind that needs to be free from attachments and clinging. ‘let go”, a vital attitude towards freedom indeed!
Seasons of nature again and again keep reminding us the Truth in all possible ways…wonderful post, Mark!
Interesting analogy, and I totally agree that cleaning out the clutter is a good thing. One difference between the mind and a house – when I toss something out of my garage, it’s gone for good. If I toss an old habit or thought pattern from my mind, chances are it will be there again the next day, or week, or minute. (smile)
I do know old thought patterns and habits can be decluttered from our selves. It can take a great deal of intention, awareness, introspection, meditation, etc. but it can be done. I will take this call for spring cleaning as a reminder to be more mindful!
Dear mark, I like the analogy you use to make your point clear. Yes getting rid of the clutter is a valuable project and should be done regularly even in the figurative way….Happy Blogging
Letting go of what you no longer need includes physical objects as well as misdirected attitudes, misplaced emotions and thoughts. Anytime is the right time for shifting conscious awareness and facilitating personal evolution.
With each new day I am getting rid of that which I no longer need and for me it has increased my peace and sanity.
Getting rid of clutter, whether mentally or figuratively, is one of the hardest things in life for me to do. I make attachments to people and things. . . and though I know these attachments may no longer serve me any purpose, in fact, they may be quite harmful to my physical or spiritual well being. . . the act of letting go seems so very hard to do. Anywho. . . I shall read this each day this week, as an affirmation, so to speak…. Thanks for writing and sharing!!!
Blessings. . . Mark
There really is a powerful connection for me between decluttering my home and letting go of emotional ties that have long needed to be released. Like David mentioned, the physical clutter is so much easier because it is permanent. It’s interesting that each time I’m revisited by difficult memories and the feelings they contain, they return softer the next time and the memories are less and less difficult until eventually, even if there is some negativity left, I’m able to view them as lessons and accept them with gratitude. Instead of remaining a painful memory, they serve as a reminder of how much I’ve learned from them, that change has occurred and that healing does come in time and with acceptance.