photo: © Nikhil Gangavane | Dreamstime.com

No, this isn’t an article on organizing your home…or even better, your life!  I wish I could give you 7 easy steps for that, but I can’t.  

I’ve been in a clearing the clutter mode.  It is not without reason.  We expect to be selling our house so we can move closer to one of our daughters in the next calendar year.  Before we have some realtors come to look at the house for advice on which work is most dollar-effiecient, I wanted to lessen the clutter quotient so I would get more feedback than simply, “Get rid of the clutter.”

So between work, blogging and life, I’m going through closets, bookshelves and about 3/4th of our stuff to lessen the clutter so the room and space show up instead of all the stuff…which they will read as clutter.

Here are some of the things I’m discovering:

• Until you get rid of the clutter, you don’t find a lot of the dirt, cobwebs, dead bugs that love to hide in the corners under and around all the stuff.
• Asking questions like “Do I need this?”  “Do I love this?”  “Will it be important enough to try to fit in a smaller house?”  help me decide whether to keep something...that goes for collections that need to be weeded out.
• Sorting through boxes of stuff you thought you needed always seems to turn up stuff that is just plain junk!  So do drawers and closets…they are storing a lot of stuff that is just plain excess and not really necessary!
• In sorting, tossing, giving away and selling the things I don’t need anymore I’m helping others.  I help the needy, those who need something I have and those who want to buy it cheap!
• In getting rid of clutter, I’m giving myself freedom.  Freedom to move around in my home.  Freedom from things, many of which aren’t even valuable!  The attachment is purely sentimental. if that.  I’m tied to my past or my hope that the item will one day be valuable or….  But when I get rid of the item by tossing it or passing it on, or even selling it, I am now free from its bondage.  I no longer have to clean it or store it or repair it.  It is gone.  I may be sad for a moment, but I haven’t had anything I’ve parted with yet that has caused me intense sadness.  That tells me that much of what I had was really not very valuable on any level!
• Getting rid of clutter in my home also frees me to grow!  When I feel jammed into my house with the closets full and drawers stuffed, where can I grow?  Clearing away the clutter…and much of my past, gives me space…and room to grow!
• Clutter is not always ugly to look at.  Even pretty things can be clutter and need to gotten rid of!
• Less truly is more.  I’m sure I haven’t learned this to the degree my children wish, but I am learning it!

 What areas of soul clutter are hiding in the dirt in corners of your heart?

What clutter is distracting you from the important pursuits that GOD has in mind for you?

• Clutter here NEVER involves the people GOD has placed in your life!  Sometimes they feel like clutter because they take much of your time, energy and resources, but they are NOT clutter.  They are in your life for a season only.  They are not a distraction!  GOD will use them to teach you the most important lessons of your life!
• Recognize the past for what it is, the PAST.  Hanging on to it too long or too tightly without discernment often results in its becoming soul clutter that you don’t need!  It will limit your being able to face the future in a healthy way.

What soul clutter is robbing you of the freedom you have in Christ to live as His child?

May GOD give us wisdom and grace as we clear away the clutter in our hearts and homes with His guidance, for His glory!