I have been clearing out clutter in my house recently: bedroom, bathroom, shower room, car… and then I felt okay, it’s time to go for it in the back room of my house. This is the place where I’ve dumped all my clutter for years, from when I was 16-17 years old and I’m 37 now! You know that kind of room, where everything goes. All the stuff we hold onto, but deep down we really don’t want to keep, then it becomes more and more, and we think how am I going to start this or clear it. It feels too big a job, and often we don’t look, or just close the door.
But it had come to that time where I no longer wanted to ignore or avoid it. I wanted to clear out the clutter, to have this amazing space, knowing the room and the rest of the house would feel so much better if I did this.
I had held on to stuff for far too long and now was the time to clear the place where I kept shutting the door.
I was amazed at what I found: letters from people that I didn’t know I had, old photos, paintings, postcards, drawings, just random stuff and lots and lots of rubbish. I asked myself why do we keep hold of so much stuff, even down to the tiniest of little things – old tickets, pens, buttons, and cards? It felt so amazing to go through every drawer, not holding onto all this clutter just in case, but simply saying no, I don’t want or need this in my life anymore. Bags and boxes were filled and taken out, plus a visit or three to the recycling centre, and I’m about halfway there.
Old furniture is going out, plus stuff we have held onto since I was a small child. It just feels so amazing to clean and clear this space, woweee! that makes me smile a huge big smile.
As for my bedroom, wow, what a change by simply attaching a full-length mirror to the wall that had been sitting on the floor for years, waiting for someone else to put it up. I decided to do it for myself and the feeling of the room has totally changed. It feels clearer and lighter and so much more spacious – and it feels amazing to have the mirror up on the wall – I can see all of me properly without having to stand far away, bend my knees or even stand out in the hall.
There is such a real sense and feeling of clarity, spaciousness, contentment and joy when I clean and clear and let go of things I no longer need.
As the lady in the secondhand shop said, “it’s like we are clearing the cobwebs away”, and she didn’t mean in our house, but inside of us . . . I couldn’t agree more. Each time I clean and clear out clutter be it in my home, work, or car the feeling of spaciousness and clarity is felt in my body equally. It is as if a load has been lifted, a heaviness, something that has weighed me down has gone – space has been created, by clearing out the clutter I no longer need… I might end up clearing out the whole house!
Inspired by the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Gyl Rae
Further reading:
Bringing Sunshine inside my Basement by De-cluttering
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
I didn’t understand the clutter and its impact on the home, I used to hoard and keep things as a memorabilia and with it went all the emotions too. I realised how this impacts us and it’s only when we feel the energy it leaves us with after a decluttering, that the difference is truly felt.
I’m learning to feel the difference more and more and it is essential that we clear out clutter on a regular basis, as it feels so much different on the body. It’s like coming to a new home, a new car, a new office desk space and so on. It’s a constant cycle, just like the seasons, our homes are no different.
Sometimes things that have served us well can feel hard to let go of even though they are no longer needed – this is when we have an attachment in some way. Letting go of the object or thing when we are not yet ready can then mean we simply replace it with something similar. Hence it is also important to let go of these things when one feels ready to, and if not ready it is important to look at why this is happening.
How true. Years ago when I was visiting a friend in Adelaide, they lived in an apartment on a lake. The apartment above them was vacant for years after the wife passed away. The old man could not let go of it as it was his wife’s favourite place and letting go of that apartment meant, letting go of his wife. The sadness could be felt.
We are born with no materialistic things and we pass away with no materialistic things. So why hang on?
There is an expression that says ‘One man’s treasure is another man’s trash’ – this can of course be interpreted negatively, but I like to see it more as each of us passing on that which no longer serves us as it is important for the next person to be able to use in a way that supports them.
This blog has also made me reflect on why we even hold on to things that no longer serve us…perhaps this is done in a way to create delay for ourselves. A devious way of self sabotage perhaps? But how energising and supportive to then let go of it and allow the true flow.
Thank you Gyl – clearing out clutter is certainly something that lifts the whole space instantly and hence allows you to get on to what really needs to be attended to 😉
I had a dream about clearing out the house this morning, so it is perfect I found myself reading this blog now. I saw this old person clearing out their house, and I thought I knew the way around their house very well and I thought I was there to help if not initiate whatever the drastic change they wanted to make to their living environment but they never told me about the clear-out beforehand, and they had their neighbours’ help on cue. It was interesting how the more space they created, the more empowered they became and the less familiar they felt to me and I started to feel uncomfortable that they were no longer this old person that I had thought I always had to come to a rescue, sometimes even with a slight resentment but I obliged myself anyway always. But here I was seeing that they were perfectly capable of commanding the support they needed and in their power. Was that old person my mother and the dream was telling me about our relationship, or was that me as I see myself now as not as young as I used to be? Either way, it tells me a lot about my own personal relationship with space, and how I see it reflected by others as well, and the feeling I get is there’s much more being revealed.
When I tidied up my wardrobe I noticed that the clearer energy in there directly affected the quality of the bedroom, and both rooms felt lighter. As we live in an ocean of energy I know it affected everything, but very confirming and delightful to feel it so directly.
We never do anything in isolation, there is a ripple effect to the slightest movement just like being in water. If we lived with this level of awareness we would be much more aware of the impact of our clutter I suspect!
All that excess baggage, both material and emotional, weighs us down and prevents us from feeling the clarity and light of who we are.
Yes, definitely Mary, everything, including myself, feel so much more spacious after a good clear out.
When we eat just enough to nourish, rather than fill or overeat, our bodies feel light and spacious, we have room to breath and feel energised.
Little understood when we clear homes and rooms is that we are clearly emotional stuff held on to for years, often without re-visiting. The task is never completed, equally important is the unfolding relationship we have with space as we move forward. Important to continue to observe, feel and clear what is irrelevant, no longer serves and relate with reverence to spaciousness in and around us.
It makes sense that we feel lighter when we let go of material possession that we have been holding onto as behind it all is a quality of energy that we align to that governs our behaviours, our emotions, our needs and what we are holding onto. When we let go of these possessions, we are no longer owned by the energy that is tied to them and the space in our body is freed to be imbued with the love that we are, the quality of energy that represents who we naturally are and is everything we need and more.
The ability for us to love eachother and hold eachother dearly.
My favourite part is where you stopped waiting for someone to come and hang your mirror – it’s so great that you just got on and did it, I think this situation happens so frequently in life – we wait for someone else to do it or help us, when we are actually perfectly capable ourselves.
I wouldn’t say I am a person with a lot of stuff. 3 house moves in 4 years helped. But I do love that feeling of decluttering and clearing spaces of my home/car/bag etc. It feels like I have more space and room to breathe when I pause to appreciate the task once complete.
Yes, when we hold on to things that are no longer needed it feels like we are dragging things around behind us which can become monstrous weights! Learning to let go of the past, lets go of that heavy weight and the difference in our movement is palpable.
One of my sons was always amazing at decluttering, probably getting rid of far too much in my opinion, but his room always felt amazing afterwards, and I appreciate how that supported how much lighter I felt.
I love the whole decluttering process, I always find it quite exposing as I get to feel the way I can be attached and invested in certain items or clothing even though it is obvious I have moved on from them.
Of course we can choose to close the door and leave our clutter unnoticed but we carry around this energy of things we want to keep in case.., or things we cannot let go of yet, items loaded with emotions from the past etc. It makes us feel heavy and it drags us down. I relate to the joy of clearing out, the space in our house and in our body gives us such a complete different and open perspective. Should be enough to not start all over again with collecting items and putting them away somewhere in our house and or in our cupboards.
I have found that holding on to old stuff that no longer serves us allows for stagnation and comfort. At the moment we are in that is where we are and we deal with what is presenting at that time, why do we need things from our childhood? For me looking back on old photos or memories in a ‘good ole days’ or ‘I miss this or that’ takes me away from all I have now.
Thank you Amiee, and yes the reminiscing can be very damaging in terms of de-valuing all we have allowed in our lives on a current level.
The process of clearing and refining is forever a deepening one but well worth the effort.
Yes, I feel I need to go deeper with some clearing and refining at present, the process is on-going.
The cluttered back room is a powerful metaphor of how our handling of life affects our body and us.
It’s interesting how we can kind of get accustomed to mess or something being a particular way, and that can actually be effecting us every day, that’s why it’s so important to be constantly re-evaluate and constantly review different parts of our lives.
It always feels great to have a clear out and to remove items that have a feel of stagnation but I know it can be quite daunting for people who have the ‘This might come in handy one-day’ kind of thoughts. We’ve had many house moves, and each time the piles of clutter have been reduced, and each time it brings a sense of opening up the space in the house and our bodies.
I tend to hold onto things because I will need this at some point, and I probably will, but it hinders how deep I can go with getting rid of too much ‘stuff’.
Very inspiring Gyl, I just cleaned out my handbag and it was like it lifted a weight off me, and I felt a sense of clarity and lightness in my whole body. Gosh, what would it feel like to do a declutter of my whole house? I feel it’s off putting to look at the whole job, so I feel to divide it into parts and focus on each of those one at a time so there is no overwhelm.
Can you imagine if the clutter we have in the house and the things we ‘hold’ on to were actually tied in a bundle and we had to drag it everywhere we went?! That just makes me laugh because I bet there would be so many of us who would have trouble moving!!!
Love the image Lucy and what is not so funny is that energetically we are carrying it with us.
Agreed, it perhaps manifests in the extra weight we carry around our middle or our bottoms, or perhaps in the tense shoulders or the bags under our eyes.
Most of us wouldn’t get out the front door with all our clutter. The thing is, we don’t actually physically have all our clutter tied to us but how much of our exhaustion, tiredness and anxiety issues are associated with having it energetically in our lives.
That is such a great question, we have a society that lives with a level of exhaustion beyond logic, it is time we considered what is exhausting us and this could well be the place to start!
Reminds me of the trash goblins from the 90’s film The Labyrinth. And the junk around us can feel like a burden on the body. When it’s cleared away we can feel lighter in ourselves.