I have recently been in the process of de-cluttering my flat, and as it turns out, my life. Historically, de-cluttering has been very difficult for me, so this time I chose to ask for support. At the moment a beautiful friend has been coming over every week specifically for this.
We have been tackling one area at a time – whatever area I have been ready to look at.
Now that we have almost gone around de-cluttering every bit of my flat, I am aware most areas have just had the first go. I could in fact re-visit each area and go deeper.
What a beautiful metaphor de-cluttering is for all the issues and patterns I have been getting frustrated with in my life in general. I realised:
- I could look at my life as a big project like my flat, and see each issue as an area requiring a de-clutter.
- I can enlist help to stop me from getting overwhelmed when I have resistance.
- I can look at one area at a time, doing whatever area I am ready to tackle, to the level I am ready to and then later on I will quite likely see I could go back and do even more.
The fact that I was not ready to de-clutter some areas did not mean I was not committed to clearing my flat. In fact, my choice to focus on one area at a time and avoid overwhelming myself was very productive as well as deeply self-loving.
Also the fact that I could see the possibility to do more in many areas by no means reduced the fact that amazing, celebration-worthy changes had already been made.
In fact, my ability to know I could go deeper was testament to how far I had come.
Seeing this as a parallel in my life, I now have a different way of considering my life: that my ability to acknowledge there are issues to be worked on, and my choice to engage with the process in itself, shows how amazing I am. It is fine, and in fact useful, to tackle one thing at a time and at a pace I am ready for.
Enlisting support and inspiration when I feel I need it is being self-loving and responsible.
When I spot that more work is required in an area it is worth celebrating my readiness to go deeper. De-cluttering is an on-going, forever deepening project that will never end, because there is always a deeper level of amazingness I can develop – in my flat and myself.
This way of looking at life and appreciating its reflections has been inspired by the presentations and example provided by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon.
By Golnaz Shariatadeh, BSc, London, UK
488 Comments
Moving house has made decluttering a very pertinent issue; I don’t have a lot of things to start with but have found that even some of those belongings that are perfectly lovely and in very good order end up being passed on or discarded because they don’t reflect me any longer and don’t fit the spaciousness of my new surroundings.
Thank you Gabriele for your comment about items being passed on because they don’t reflect you any longer, that describes exactly what I have been feeling with some of my belongings that are perfectly lovely yet just don’t seem to fit anymore.
Golnaz thank you for sharing the loving and supportive way you approached decluttering, we are too quick to judge ourselves and assume we should not be where we are, instead you chose to approach each task in appreciation of yourself “When I spot that more work is required in an area it is worth celebrating my readiness to go deeper.”
“…because there is always a deeper level of amazingness I can develop – in my flat and myself.”
Yes for sure, for the source of you and all of us has no depths to which we cannot go.
It’s such a joyful focus for decluttering, instead of the heaviness, shame, or other negative emotions that can come with tending to this task. To simply be ready for a deeper level of amazingness!
‘De-cluttering is an on-going, forever deepening project that will never end’, this is so true. One thing I am noticing since the start of my de-cluttering is as soon as I drop what I have learnt from de-cluttering eg, choosing what I bring into my house by making the choice about love and self-care or placing items back into it’s designated place with care, then I end up back where I started before the de-cluttering. It’s like we set a new foundation when we de-clutter and the aim is to up hold this new foundation that allows and creates space which inevitably brings more love in our home and body.
Thank you Kim for sharing your experiences, and that if your “choosing what I bring into my house by making the choice about love and self-care or placing items back into it’s designated place with care, then I end up back where I started before the de-cluttering.” This shows the attention to detail and love we can bring into our lives and the importance of our energetic quality and intention in everything we do.
A great reflection on the power of de-clutter – when we are willing to look at our possessions and let go of what does not support us, then it is symbolic of a huge clearing on the body and the ability to let go of things that hold us back.
I can feel the worthiness of decluttering small areas at a time. It is an ever deepening experience as you share Golnaz. A really inspiring sharing!
I’ve read a few ‘decluttering’ blogs this morning and what really stands out for me, is that some items I hang on to actually keep me in a pattern or emotion that is way beyond outdated.
Thanks Aimee for your comment, it makes sense that items may reflect an old way of being particularly when we bought them in that old energy and with an intention that was not based on self love or self care.
I love the appreciation here of the willingness to address things and look and the understanding that it’s a process, and that no matter where we are at in that process we are amazing, what a beautiful understanding, and how lovely is it to have picked that up today.
We can always go deeper, always. I am coming to feel that some things I have hung on to are actually keeping emotional wounds open and seeping. When I come to let the physical items go, it means I am saying a big no to leaving these wounds open, it means that I am clearly choosing to close them and ignite instead the only other energy that can fill my body, that which comes from my soul.
It is such a joy to clear out the old. It is an appreciation of what is no longer with us and a welcoming of something new. The whole process is incredible, especially all the connections with people who were part of it – from garage sales, online sales, storage shed rental managers etc. The support is incredible as is the deeper healing that is on offer.
I’ve given de-cluttering a go, a few times now and like you Golnaz, it’s an ongoing work in progress for me. I’ve spent most of my life holding onto things on the off chance I might need it. It’s a safety net of stuff to keep me stuck. Recently I re-arranged the furniture in my room. I cannot describe the difference it has made. The room hasn’t changed size, yet it feels soooo much more spacious. I love the fact that we are forever changing and so is our environment, so we need to keep moving and re-adjusting.
I have been decluttering my desk today and did one thing at a time, some of the things I saw myself just moving around not ready to make a clear decision what to do with it or where it belongs. And that’s fine too as I know there will be another phase in the decluttering in which I will know what to do with it. With everything in life honouring our own rhythm works best.
‘Now that we have almost gone around de-cluttering every bit of my flat, I am aware most areas have just had the first go. I could in fact re-visit each area and go deeper.’ It’s rather like peeling back the onion layers isn’t it, whenever we deepen there is always another layer we can go to.
I love de-cluttering and I love clearing out my computer files and emails too. Having a clean desktop screen with well labelled folders makes life feel clear and I find it fun to organise my folders appropriately and to delete old files and emails that are no longer important to make space for new opportunities and connections when they arise.
Doug I too love decluttering but it is my paperwork that is the challenge at the moment, it just seems to come from nowhere and accumulates at a very rapid rate! And as you share it is very draining to feel and observe this, and I am starting to become aware of how this is actually a lack of respect for myself. I also know I have more clarity around what I am doing if I have a clear desk and clear surroundings so In view of this, I am about to put myself on a paperwork decluttering program.
I love decluttering and so much so that I hardly own anything any more, I have gladly let over 90% of it all go. Now when I allow any area to become cluttered and my desk is one of the the last bastions of this lack of order, I can feel how it is dragging me down and how I need to stop and put it all in order, which is exactly what I am going to do next. Thanks for the prompt!
I can fully relate to what is shared here. I moved home about 16 months ago, for the first time in almost 28 years. When I first began clearing and deciding on what I would take I felt overwhelmed, so much so I spent that day away from the house and went visiting friends. The next day though I knew I had to begin, and the moment I did everything fell into place. I began in one area and naturally moved to the next, it was not difficult or overwhelming, but an experience in flow and feeling what a steady commitment can bring.
I have found de-cluttering very daunting and would avoid it like the plague! It was an area of my life I did not or was not ready to look at.
Since attending a recent retreat I had the impulse to de-clutter and I actually enjoyed going through my things. Letting go of things I no longer wanted or wore. It was so freeing and suddenly I could feel there was space and a lightness about the place so this blog is relatable.
Golnaz in appreciating what you have shared reminded me to appreciate what I have been able to achieve considering I used to dislike de-cluttering – Thank you.
This may sound weird but I absolutely LOVE decluttering and refining my things down to the bare minimum. It’s like a preparation for moving forward – what keeps me in the past and what is coming with me and actually supports me to step forwards?
I love this. Yes what if the future contains no clutter and hanging on to it keeps us in the past? Does clutter hold us back from evolving? There’s a great thought to ponder on!
Love your blog Golnaz, I love decluttering and have always felt a lot of satisfaction in getting rid of things that no longer serve or have never served. If I am feeling out of sorts one of the first things I will do is clear out a cupboard, doing this can help bring a sense of purpose.
Yesterday I decluttered a community kitchen which felt awesome to do, I was throwing away stuff that had well gone by there sell by date.
To me one of the great mysteries in life is how can people can keep tomato ketchup for over 10 years?
It is beautiful to feel your appreciation for yourself within the ongoing process of decluttering your flat and your life which I find inspiring as I can still tend to get overwhelmed by the vastness of the task instead of celebrating how far I have already come with it and how open I now am to continuing this in all areas of my life.
I am thinking I might enlist the support of someone to help with my deculttering. I like that you have respected the fact that somethings you are not yet ready to deal with, but you are celebrating the areas where you have already made changes.
There is a natural and contagious inspiration in your words, Golnaz – because you have embodied this lesson and movement for yourself, when you express it from your body it speaks to others peoples’ bodies directly and bypasses the doubt or complication of the mind. In other words, I’ve got the de-cluttering bug and want to get in there too!
De-cluttering is indeed forever and on going; it is reflective of how we are in our bodies and the way in which we live our lives. Thank you Golnaz for the beautiful timely reminder to de-clutter and re-imprint as we step forward.
With appreciating even the smallest changes we give ourselves the opportunity to feel the spaciousness that is available in all the other areas of our house and our lives.
Beautiful Amiee – it’s true, even the slightest detail moved into another position can transform a space and how we move in that space. Essentially, it is about honouring what we feel in every moment and our belongings and living environment reflect that relationship.
I wonder what a totally decluttered life would look like, I almost feel like I am continually discarding stuff and refining my life, your blog makes me wonder exactly what life would look like if we didn’t constantly accumulate and build stuff up… perhaps it would be that every choice we made would be in line with the future, so that when the future came, there would not be the need to discard or declutter that previous choice.
We have the opportunity to reimprint our relationship with our environment everyday, and if we evolve everyday then this will keep being reflected back to us.
I love this and it’s perfect to read this today! It’s so important to understand that we can commit to something and then focus one area at a time, rather than allowing ourselves to become overwhelmed and attempt it all at once, and that we can support ourselves as we need – a great reminder for me just now.
Around and around the cycle of decluttering goes not just in our living space our home, but the decluttering of our issues within our being, allowing more space for who we truly are to emerge, I love how you are appreciating yourself and taking one area at a time to work on “my ability to know I could go deeper was testament to how far I had come.”inspiring words thank you Gyl.
What is most inspiring about your process here Golnaz, is that you are appreciating yourself at every step of the way.
We need not be ‘perfect’ (what is perfection, anyway)), and it is well worth acknowledging the depth of old patterns and held-onto ways we may be letting go when we undertake such a clearing – and appreciating that we now stand at such a point, with a foundation within that holds us in doing so.
And then, YES to the space that emerges, for it allows more of who we truly are the room to be, and express…
“my ability to know I could go deeper was testament to how far I had come.” A beautiful realisation to celebrate and a knowing that the more we let go of the more amazing we realise we are.
I find it amazing that there are times when it is very easy for me to clean up and declutter and there are areas of our house that are always easy to keep clean and decluttered but there are other areas where it is harder for me to always keep them clean and simple.
‘I could look at my life as a big project like my flat, and see each issue as an area requiring a de-clutter’ I love this. As we let go of the old we make room for the new and how much clarity we feel in body and mind as we go through this process.
Great to re-read this blog, especially as one of my favourite pastimes is to de-clutter, but whilst reading I could still feel like there is a picture of having arrived at something once the house is ‘perfect’, whereas what I know the truth to be is that it is a never ending process of clearings and deepening the relationship I have with my home, and myself. Thank you Golnaz.
So any women, and I was one of them just soldier on, struggle on, and don’t think to ask for support because we have become so independent….. I had to learn to not only ask but allow support in my life, and you are right Golnaz, it is truly self-loving to do so.
When we declutter our houses we declutter our lives, and this is why it is so worth it to take and make the time to do it. That said, many people can feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to start initially as the whole house needs attention, so I love how you asked for support Golnaz, which feels very loving and honouring of where you were at. When we are ready to go deeper with ourselves, there will always be support; but we do have to ‘ask’.
How beautiful to read Golnaz. It is indeed a great metaphor for life and how tangled up we get into patterns and behaviours that we at some point not even see anymore who we are! This kind of clutter is to be approached step by step and just like with decluttering our houses, flats etc, it is not healthy to think we will be able to let go of everything at once.
That is true – cleaning up that part actually makes it easier for us to live in a more harmonious way.
Great blog to re-read for the beginning of the New Year Golnaz.
Standing in my kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil this morning, I suddenly felt a strong impulse to go through my herbs and spices and throw out anything that was out of date, along with an old herb carousel that takes up un- necessary room in the cupboard. This feels so great in my body, an instant lightness as they went in the rubbish bin!
Tidying up for when we have guests is a great trigger point to de-clutter for me. Of course tidying for me and for us is the essential thing to appreciate but it does help me to get round to it, and to look at it through fresh eyes.
There is such a parallel between clutter inside and outside of us. Just cleaning the house and re-imprinting the way it feels is important and like yesterday makes a huge difference to me and my life. I just noticed the clutter photo at the top of this! You can feel it, inspiring a good turn out.