Your home is not only a physical structure but also a spiritual sanctuary that should offer you rest, respite, and retreat with God. If the cozy cradle of your home feels more like clutter claustrophobia, thus restricting your capacity to revitalize and recharge, consider implementing micro-systems and mini-routines to reclaim your space.
Making any space into a home requires a plan, an intention. Give yourself the time, energy, and effort to develop a plan [AtoZita specializes that!] for manageability. Serenity and solace are within your reach, but commitment to the small changes is vital. [Proverbs14:23]. Do not plan for hours upon hours; start small with a 30-minute time limit on simple project once or twice a week.
Clutter demonstrates a need for daily-doable systems. People with tidy homes do not clean constantly, but rather they [read: “I”] depend on efficient systems that elevate daily living. Everything has a place or procedure, not burdensome or complicated, but automatic, natural habits. The keys are hung on the rack; the bills set on the desk until bill day (also a system), the pants rehung or dropped into the cleaners bag; the undies tossed in the laundry pile, the bed made daily, the lunch box emptied and stowed for the next use, the briefcase unpacked, groceries put away, and so on. Even meal-planning and prep can be made user-friendly through small shifts of intention and time.
Clutter is neither wrong nor right; clutter is data, informing of a need for a different style of maintenance. If one’s environment is unkempt, so will the mind be. The reverse is also true: if one’s heart and mind are preoccupied or distracted, the home environs likely reflect that. The aggregation of stuff could be evidence that our hope or identity is misplaced in possessions rather than in God. The scriptures consistently teach us not to spend time worrying about earthly matters, but rather to be content with, if not cherish, what God has already provided.
Knowing where or how to start a decluttering project can be so daunting that avoiding the ever-growing piles seems easier. The clutter remains and grows more ominous with each coming and going. Ask God to help you take captive the thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back. [2 Corinthians 10:5] Keep in mind that organizing is a foundation for effortless living, not the end goal. The end goal is to free our minds and hearts and spaces of anything that takes our focus away from God and godly living. Thousands of thoughts per day enter and churn in the mind; many of them are the same mental clutter of days, weeks, or years past, thus, occupying the space into which God wants to pour His grace, love, and peace. The same can be said of clutter—stacks and knickknacks of events and months past occupying spaces and countertops and drawers that could be free and clear or better used.
The first step is to always ask God for guidance; ask Him to show you how to value the countless blessings that fill your home, and of course, thank Him for those. Think first about what is most bothersome to you—the unopened mail, the pile of clothes that no longer fit, the boxes or albums of old family photos, too many kitchen gadgets, the overstuffed garage. Mementos of a deceased loved one frequently present an emotional and logistical quandary. Save this harder stuff for later.
The key is to start somewhere, adopting one new change a week or a month depending on the scope of your change. To make a small beginning, take on your medicine cabinet or your spice cabinet. Discard all expired spices and/or medicine. Voilà—you have now room for current spices and medicines that you actually use. While you’re into this task, organize the ones you keep. Mine are in alphabetical rows and returned to their place when finished. For the ones I reach daily, I set them aside in a different area of the same shelf. Next, consider moving to the food storage drawer or cabinet; discard pieces without corresponding lids or the bottoms. The missing parts are not coming back and taking up time and space in your life. This may seem silly, but small successes build confidence to tackle larger, more menacing projects. Be sure to quit while you’re feeling positive about your progress; this is important.
Other small tasks for starters: 1- Grocery Bags: gather your grocery bags. Fold and stack the reusable ones and take them back to your car for the next trip. Put the plastic ones in another plastic bag for recycling. Most grocery stores have collection bins for plastic bags. 2- Your frayed, threadbare socks and undies are past their prime and not donatable—discard immediately. Ecclesiastes 3:6 states, there is a “…time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,” teaching that God has a designated time for every detail of our lives; He brings order to our lives, not our stuff. Clearing stuff, even small stuff, makes room for Him. 3- If opening your email feels like digital assault and battery, spend 30 minutes and unsubscribe from unwanted or outdated subscriptions and solicitations. Do that 2 or 3 times per week, and by the end of the month, reading emails may actually bring you something you want. Remember to time yourself so as not to overload emotionally and mentally.
You can unclutter your calendar: I schedule nothing on Wednesdays, nothing—no phone calls, meetings, appointments, or errands. I stay home and work on my business. Because my Tuesdays already include regularly scheduled meetings, I plan errands or social outings between those meetings. I have a designated day to wash my linens. While these timelines are preferred and rarely fluctuate, the regularity of my routine, including intentional conscious contact with God, anchors me in a way so that I’m not flustered when flexibility is required. These examples of my schedule mark smaller steps that were doable and freed my mind.
Even though our earthly homes are not our final home [Hebrews 13:14], an uncluttered space unclutters the mind, making room for more meaningful pursuits. “[A]s they go on their way, they are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures…”[Luke 8:14] Workable routines that simplify your life are the foundation to declutter one’s mind and heart. The goal is never to cram more into one’s daily life, but rather to develop simple practices that lure us into order both spiritually, stylistically, and logistically.
Dealing with clutter, physical, logistical, or spiritual, is a life-long challenge. Let not your heart be troubled if you find yourself repeatedly dealing with internal or external clutter. Identify the flashpoint, pray, make a small, realistic, manageable adjustment, commit to follow-through for 30 days, and then adopt another one and repeat and repeat and repeat. With God’s help, and hopefully with AtoZita’s help, too, your uncluttered world will soon be at your fingertips…and on your countertops…and in your drawers…and in your inbox!
