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.
Recently we put our big mirror onto the wall after standing there for a year and just like you’ve said it is a totally different feel to the room, lighter and more clear, a different order and it is a joy to see myself in full.
I have observed the ’stuff’ you hang onto you end up throwing out later anyway. I get caught holding onto technology ‘spare’ parts – I’m not sure why when its highly likely and proven that I will not use them. If I need a part for testing I’m better off buying the part that is needed anyway. As Gyl has nominated it is just filling up space getting in the way of true connection.
I love clearing out all the unwanted stuff, the problem is that after some months go by I find I am starting to accumulate more stuff again as I go to the markets and find bargains to bring home and so the routine comes around again more decluttering.
I do understand the cobwebs inside of us as that is how it can sometimes feel in my mind, the unclarity because of all its threads.
When I go to the recycling place of our community I am always amazed by how much we throw away, but too, that all of this stuff must have been in someones houses before it ended there and how it must have felt to have that in your house and can understand that people do not want that any longer.
We consume and use so much stuff, I wonder about the amount of pens and pencils thrown out daily, and toothbrushes, as well as other common items, it’s mind boggling really considering there are 7+ billion human beings alive and how much we use, hang onto, or throw away.
I really do not like the feeling of knowing I do have space but it is filled with stuff that does not serve, or should not even be there. Suppose it’s time to look at my email inbox and the filing systems on my computer…
It is quite amazing to feel the difference after letting go of and discarding things in our house that we were once attached to or thought we needed to fullfill us, such as surrounding ourselves with ‘things,’ clutter and denseness that do not support our evolution but rather represent the need and attachment to have ‘things’ to make us feel whole, worthy or identified. Far more realness, liberation and spaciousness is felt through our connection to our essence where we know all that we are, and that we already are everything.
Yes Carola, I do know that feeling too, the spaciousness after letting go of that what no longer serves and has become a burden to us and to the energy in the house. It is very much worth to do some clearing on a regular basis as my experience is that I have a tendency to continuously gather stuff in the house and before you know it is cluttered again.
I am in the process of de-cluttering my house Gyl, so this is perfect timing to read this blog. I am really enjoying finally letting go of some old objects or clothes I have hoarded for years and have been keeping ‘just in case’. It feels like a weight has been lifted the more I let go of things, and there is a more expansive feeling within the home and within my body. I am looking forward to completing some more rooms this week as it lifts the energy of the whole home beautifully.
I love the fact you are not trying to do it all in one go, just one room at a time and perhaps that means your body and the impact the de-cluttering has on your life is more readily accepted?
I find I always find something better or ‘more important’ to do instead of ordening or clearing out spaces that are actually even bothering. Yet taking the time to clear out clutter makes spaces so much more supportive for the so-called ‘more important’ work. This exposes that there is actually nothing more important than the other thing, it is all equal when you see how one thing supports us to do the next. Cleaning is another one of these.
Moving house is always a great opportunity to do a thorough and huge clear out as we look at everything with fresh eyes, as we take the time to feel what needs to go out, not wishing to take the old into the our new living spaces. But we do not have to move house to do this, we can simply walk around our house putting on a fresh pair of eyes, and ask ourselves, if I was moving what would I keep and what would I leave or take to the re-cycling?
When we start to really look at what we hold onto and understand that we don’t need it, and we can let it go, there’s a huge lightness in us and we embrace a spaciousness, and all of a sudden life is simpler, clearer and we can see so much more, it’s magic.
As we come into autumn and have the change of season I can really feel what a great opportunity it is for me to have a big declutter in my home.
I love clearing out and decluttering, I looked in my winter wardrobe this morning at clothes that I have been wearing for a few years now and I feel a clearing coming on, I am going to take it all out and then feels what may come back, making space for the new to come and be embraced.
I love decluttering too Jill and I know many people who do. Could it be that we love the way our bodies feel once we’ve finished? There is so much that we are letting go of that is energetic, and confirming what we are saying no to and what we are saying yes to and from that foundation we stand and move from again.
Thank you Gyl, I have recently been attending to some cluster and cleaning jobs, and it’s very true that clearing one room actually uplifts the whole house, every other room feels lighter as a result.
It is so great when you feel that moment when you can suddenly go and clear out a difficult space or do a job that has been hanging over you and not yet done. You know that moment when you can act and everything rejoices as you put your hands to it.
The ‘hanging over you’ feeling is much worse than the actual job itself!
“It just feels so amazing to clean and clear this space, woweee! that makes me smile a huge big smile.” Clearing the space we live in brings a lightness to our step.
There is a room where everyTHING goes and because of that a room where not EVERYthing goes.
Loved reading your blog today, Gyl. It looks like I’m going to be moving for the second time in as many years, and I am SO looking forward to getting rid of more stuff. Less is definitely more!
It is always evolutionary to reflect on and discern what quality it is we are filling our space with. For if it is with love, we discover that more space is created and opens up, in order for us to be offered the opportunity to bring more of the same love and so we continue to grow.
Its like I need a sign any time I go to buy something… asking me is this the clutter of the future? If the answer is yes… don’t buy it.
“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.” I know that room and it feels disregarding when we choose to close the door, on ourselves.
When we are truly ready to let go of the clutter/objects we own and their energetic connection to us, it is a joy to see them have new life, because there is more space and life in our body.
I agree Harry – there is nothing on this earth like living in a space that is filled with love.
Great blog Gyl, I am inspired to clear out my whole wardrobe and only put back into it clothes that I am actually going to wear, I am looking forward to creating a sense of harmony clarity and flow into my home and life.
I seem to be so busy that decluttering gets put on the back list, but I really need to take it to the next level as I know how amazing it feels afterwards. ‘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’.
I am again starting to clear out my clutter, I love the feeling after it has been cleared out, but still struggle with holding on to some things, a work in progress.
It is always a great exercise to practice, periodically clearing clutter and letting go of it.
This clearing out within the house seems endless and asks us for a lifetime commitment, as it is forever evolving and always needs refining. There was a time when I thought if I lived on my own the house would be perfectly neat, tidy and clean but now I am not so sure that would be the case (that picture was born out of frustration for picking up after everyone and blaming others). Now I just say what needs doing and the other members of the household agree and help out. Life is so much simpler when you do not expect others to be mind readers.
We think it’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and it might be on one level (the ‘let’s pretend it’s not there’ level) – but in truth the stuff we hang on to is very much in our bodies… in our energetic field, creating unnecessary burden and lack of flow, clarity and harmony. How wonderful it feels to remove the debris.
Clearing out clutter is one of my favourite things to do these days. Even stuff that is neatly filed away sometimes needs de-cluttering. I found some old pay slips that dated back twenty years in one of my box files.
This has inspired me Gyl to do a quick review of my home and look around at what could be taken to the op-shop, sold on or thrown out. Thank you. Actually even typing this a few things are coming out of the cobwebs.
It is interesting to see why we keep things for many years while they do not support us or have any value to us anymore. Things and stuff that one day, sometimes even never, will be cleared and be thrown away in a big cleanup. Why do we not let these things go when they are done but choose to clutter our houses and many other places with it? Could it be that we were avoiding the freedom and clarity that we feel when we clear our stuff and make space to live without any burden of the past? That we actually with a purpose hold onto things that actually do not support us any more? Great question to ponder on for today…
The amount of effort and energy that is used to avoid or delay feeling the truth of who we are is huge and so deeply exhausting.
“It has taken me a long time to admit that I was making a mess in order to avoid feeling how powerful, aware and responsible I really am”.
An inspiring blog to read Gyl. As the external clutter gets dealt with, so too does the inner emotional clutter begin to surface ready to be dealt with in the same way = a sense of more openness and spaciousness within the body and within the home.
Creating space in our homes allows for a deeper connection to the quality that lives within, it is very tangible experience and definitely felt within our bodies as it creates more space for us to be more of who we are and expand according to the pull of evolution.
I really enjoy this article, as I find the clearing, sorting, reorganising, never ends. It is simply constantly refined.
“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.” Where have we metaphorically done this within ourselves?
Yep! I can feel a clear out coming on. A constant refining of what we need is a wonderful way of maintaining our lightness. I used to live under a pile of stuff, and I can say with confidence that whilst I wasn’t aware of it at the time, it definitely contributed to the way I felt about myself, which wasn’t good.
Clearing out clutter is always great to do when we want to re-imprint our life, expand and allow new things to happen.
Yes there’s always a feeling of lightness after it. Burdens lifting.
The more space I create in my home the more rhythmic my movements become. Nothing imposes on me and I’m left to feel all of me. I love cleaning and clearing my home, it’s a beautiful modality we can offer ourselves continually.
Biographers, archivist and historians love it when they have access to all these kinds of things you had in your back room Gyl. This is the stuff from which a knowledge of the times and habits of the race are known and recorded. But, as you say, it feel so great to have cleared the room and thrown out all the stuff!. Could it be that we have been holding onto things that identify us, that make us feel as if we have made a mark, or lived on the earth – evidence of the fact that we have been here. So there can be a ‘security’ energy around the hanging on to things. So this is the history that is being recorded and hung onto! It is almost like a justification to keep on going around and around in the same old way. So I love the idea and the true effect that by clearing out clutter we are evolving if we do so lovingly and with quality.
I love what you say here Lyndy! I can certainly feel this need for security (maybe one day I will need this) and the identification with the material world and the way things are and ‘always’ have been and that too gives me a certain kind of security and comfort, even though we all know deep down that anything can happen and that nothing is permanent. But we prefer to pretend life will stay like it is whilst we are experiencing how the world spins around and around, forever changing, forever offering new perspectives. So in truth it is a big lie that we keep telling ourselves and pretend to believe in.
Absolutely Judith! I have had an interesting experience teaching an Afghani-American poet to a Final year student in Literature. When these Afghani migrants came to New York after the Russian invasion, the thing that they clung to were memories of home, not only of the spice markets, the pomegranates, the night skies, the lapis-coloured doves, and the sound of the calling to prayer that surfs the airwaves five times a day, but also memories of all the things that have been blown to smithereens – the libraries, the museums and the Buddhas. This poet states how important memories are to these refugees and so she documenting it all for them – this is such a ‘seductive’ thought. And I know how seductive have been my memories of childhood and a long marriage that I left. I am feeling that memory in this sense is a form of indulgence to keep us locked in (not saying that we should not appreciate our past). But the same applies to us who have not had to permanently shift country or who have lost all their possessions etc. So I love what you have said: ‘But we prefer to pretend life will stay like it is whilst we are experiencing how the world spins around and around, forever changing, forever offering new perspectives. So in truth it is a big lie that we keep telling ourselves and pretend to believe in.’
Ouch! Judith this is very exposing of the devious ways we use objects to stay fixed and keep us unmoving.
Recently I de-cluttered my bedroom and bathroom and the feeling in my room now is beautiful and much more expansive, I now feel inspired to do every room of the house as it certainly lightens and brightens not only the house but ourselves as well.
This shows clearly how holding onto things has us carry more, quite logically, and the importance to allow us to travel light and thus time and again to reevaluate what is really needed and what stands in our way.
It’s amazing how even tidying up a space that doesn’t need a declutter brings a sense of order and spaciousness back to a home. I have recently been keeping my bedroom cupboard drawers in more order, it’s a delight to bring that level of detail to myself as an expression of love and to feel how the order actually supports me to sleep better. The quality of energy in my bedroom has completely changed.
I agree Melinda – I have had a very joyful experience re-imprinting all the clothes in drawers. Folding them in the same way and from a quality of being deeply connected with myself – it was amazing how much got ‘done’, when all folded in the same quality and in the same way and without effort.
Recently a room in my house which has been unattended was cleared out completely, this was self-initiation by the room owner–not just towards clearing up the room per se but it was an action towards this person’s own initiation back to more love. Observing that is simply one of the most amazing things and one that I have committed even deeper to support in all ways.
The more we say yes to evolve, the more often we need to make adjustments to our livingness and that means clearing old clutter we have been holding onto inside and outside, thanks Gyl.
The more we say yes to evolution the more we fill our body with our true essence from our soul, and the less we may need on the material level – which may have previously been used to fill our emptiness, or comfort or identify us.
Last week we had a good clear out at the office where I work, and it already feels lighter and it’s so much easier to work there now.
This is gorgeous to come back to Gyl. It is so true and I can relate to these experiences you have shared. When I let go of, or get on to dealing with things that I have put off for some time, I instantly feel a far greater and lighter space within me. I can feel within how I have cleared the space, which was once held by the denseness that comes from holding on or delay, and now is returned to freely be with the lightness and love of my Soul.
We had done a huge clearing out before moving house but when we were unpacking the boxes another round of evaluating what’s truly needed in our new home is unfolding and the way we live with each other asks the same attention, the ‘old’ way does no longer suits us and the new way is already there to embrace in full, joyfully so.
Thank you Annelies, I appreciate what you have shared here about embracing the new way – which can be constantly renewing!
It is time to take the cleaning of our house to a new level, thank you for the inspiration Gyl! Taking on the responsibility to change is not easy and I can feel that I need to meet any resistance head on and just get stuck in and make the necessary changes by de-cluttering and cleaning, to bring about a new phase or cycle to my life.
Thank you Gyl, especially for how you have shown us that to clear out clutter can be a part of re-claiming the space that is there to be felt from your heart, and not because there is anything wrong or bad about you – and in fact the de-cluttering can be very confirming of you.
Awesome Gyl. For many years I held on to stuff that I thought I might need to look back on. It was like a fear of forgetting the past if I threw something out…But what if I forget the past? What happens when we forget? Nothing…it’s no big deal really, and I’m only starting to come to that understanding. Holding on to stuff keeps us a bit stuck, in fact more stuck than we know, because we always feel attached, like a rope around our ankle anchoring us back to the past and stopping us from freely moving forward.
I love the joy that clearing this room has allowed you to feel. It is gorgeous that the commitment you had to clean this out offered you in return a feeling of spaciousness and clarity both inside and out… the power of attending to the smallest of things we have been avoiding cannot be underestimated.
Letting go of clutter in our homes is an opportunity to let go of the past and what no longer is needed in our lives, a process completion, and healing which allows us to move forth creating space to live the future now.
Too often we close the door on ‘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’. This can result in us feeling rather overwhelmed. But all journeys start with one step and then another step comes after that so if we keep chipping away at letting go of what we have accumulated but no longer need eventually we will shift and move and let go of it all.
As a child of the fifties my Granny used to save everything from pieces of string and used brown paper to left-over veg to make tasty soups – having no fridge back then. i took this on and it was my excuse for many years as I struggled to declutter….. However I so agree with you Gyl – “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.” Great to re-read your blog.
This is beautiful because each time we clear away the ‘what-is-not-needed-any-more’ we make way for the future that we have yet to live.
‘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’. After clearing out a room or a few cupboards, immediately I feel so much lighter and have so much clarity and my next steps unfold without effort.
Love it Gyl. It is incredible to look at the things we once thought were needed to make us feel complete, only to realise that they did not. It is liberating to let go of these attachments as I have discovered the more I do the more I am freed to explore and deepen my connection to who I am, and feel that everything I could ever want or need is already within me. Then I can choose that what surrounds me in my home, is there to support me to live in honor of my connection to all that I am, as best I can.
I couldn’t agree more- when we leave things unaddressed we often walk past or look at it and think about it and then have a sense of frustration every time we see it again as it reminds us that we haven’t dealt with it. It is great to go in and just do what is there needing to be done- the feeling that comes with it is as you say, very light and freeing. Now off to clean my room and put the washing away…
Several months ago I moved country so went through a full and through house clearing – it was wonderful and it did take time. During the clearing out and I came across a large ornament that I had had for 14 years that sat on top of my bookcase, but it was broken at the base when it had fallen years ago, which you could not see because it was a clean break. I asked myself, why have I held onto a broken ornament all this time. It did not make sense and I did not wait for an answer, straight out it went….which gave me such a good feeling.
‘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’. My sentiments exactly and as such I follow each impulse that comes up to clear a drawer, cupboard, my car, etc, and when I do it is always effortless.
I am clearing out some unwanted treasure (for someone else} , and instead of just shuffling it from one room to another, as I have done in the past it is time to really pass these items on to others.
I have an annual pilgrimmage into the attic which I love.. I’m not one to hold onto stuff for the sake of it and can always feel the benefit of shedding another layer. One less thing to hold onto, and therefore one more piece of me that can be here, now and present in who I am today.
As someone who had over 100 beanie babies (small stuffed animals) the process of letting them go was amazing. As such today I always feel lighter and more spacious in my life and in my body when I clear out something, be it my handbag, the fridge, the staff cloakroom or an illness or disease. Clearing out and not holding onto clutter and the emotions we can attach to those objects brings about huge amounts of healing. Our whole world is about holding on, building security and stocking up and yet my experience with letting go has been far more expansive than holding onto anything ever has.
There is something very healing about throwing things away, de-cluttering and making space within the home. Just walking through rooms is a totally different experience to that of a hoarders room.
We have a shower and wash the clutter of the day from our outer body so it makes sense to equally clear the clutter that we are hanging onto on the inside as well.
Yes Mary, clearing out clutter from our house is like giving our house a good warm shower, and it appreciates the attention and the time given.
What I love about creating space in my home, workspace or car is the feeling that this is then reflected inside me. As I allow this unfolding I feel more connected with life with a much greater clarity of purpose.
De-cluttering is an ongoing process for me and what I am feeling now is that so often I have just postponed making a decision about something and hung onto it ‘just in case’ but not recognised how much this has weighed me down. The more I gradually work through my house the lighter I feel as I let go of so much physical stuff but also the emotional attachments that have held me back.
We put off clearing our clutter because we know what the emotional impact going through it all will mean, and that is a big clue about what all that clutter is doing in our living space: it is clogging up the energy in our homes and letting it go creates space for a freedom of expression.
I share your joy in de-cluttering! I don’t have much stuff but still usually find things I can throw away 🙂
Letting go of things that no longer serve has become a regular pastime for me, so much so that with each move of house I have so much more space. The added bonus is the people I pass on all those old things to love them!
I remember doing the same years ago and feeling the heaviness of all the choices I had made and why I kept things… most the time it was out of guilt and comfort. Like I should keep this because it was a gift or it had sentimental reasons. I feel that we are not only clearing out material possessions etc but also clearing and healing the many unloving and ill beliefs and ideals we have been living with… letting go of so much more than we are aware of at times.
Brilliant Gyl, and humorous too. Like we tempt to keep all this stuff, whilst we know it is silly and actually more of a load and heaviness than it is true and uplifting to keep. It is like we allow ourselves to carry all this unnecessary weight with us in life – by our choice. This is quiet symbolic for how we have life our lives. So this blog is more than just clearing the room at the back of the house! It is a whole body experience and letting go..
It is time to take the cleaning of our house to a new level, thank you for the inspiration Gyl!
Having a good clear out literally makes us feel different – it changes the energy of the room, the flow of energy throughout the whole house. There’s less of a feel of stagnation, more freedom to move forwards, in flow.
I fully agree Gyl, when we have a good clean out of anything we no longer need and let go of the cob webs so to speak everything from our bodies, to our homes and even the world around us definitely ‘feels clearer and lighter and so much more spacious’.
Thank you Gyl, this is the second blog I have read in a few days about clearing out clutter – so there is a clear message for me here as I have avoided committing to my de-cluttering. Reading your blog I am reminded of the feeling that comes when we declutter and clear out the old ‘ the feeling of spaciousness and clarity is felt in my body equally.’ Thank you for the inspiration.
Clearing the clutter in our house is as you say in your blog “it’s like we are clearing the cobwebs away” and I can feel that this is true. If we hold on to our physical belongings we are keeping ourselves from becoming more spacious and clear and with that we are putting a brake on moving on with our lives too.
So true Nico what you share here and so worth a repeat: If we hold on to our physical belongings we are keeping ourselves from becoming more spacious and clear and with that we are putting a brake on moving on with our lives too.
Thank you Gyl for this inspirational blog on clearing out clutter. It seems to me things just creep up on me and before I know it I have “stuff” to clear from my home again after such a short while. When I look into why this happens I can see I often just push thing to one side to deal with later, and later doesn’t always come until much later!
Thank you Gyl for sharing clearing out the clutter, I love going through and clearing out the clutter, and feeling the spaciousness within and without. It seems there is always more to declutter.
There is a lot of truth in the saying that ‘less is more’.
It is no accident that I happened to be reading your blog Gyl. I have been avoiding giving my room a good clearing out but it keeps coming to mind more and more frequently. Thanks to you I am now inspired to start rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into it!
I’ve found this process applies equally to my computer – there are a ton of files and emails that I’ve accumulated over a few years and I could feel it was time to start ‘clearing the clutter’. It’s a slow process because there’s a lot to go through but it feels amazing to be tidying this up, and clearing more space – not only within my computer, but within me. I already feel lighter and I haven’t finished the job yet.
Inspiring Gyl, I feel like I am wanting more clarity and spaciousness too. I think it is time to do the same.
Me too, a continual and joyful work in progress, feels great to keep clearing stuff no longer needed or serving a purpose.
Clearing and letting go of our accumulated clutter feels like it is a never ending process….you seem to get somewhere and then you realise there is more….
About a year ago I began decluttering. The house we had lived in had a large loft space and a small garage, the garage was not large enough to fit a car in so it became the man cave, there was also a good sized garden shed. After 19 years the loft had a floor and racks and aisles and packed with the dreaded important ‘stuff’! We were moving, and it was time to be brutal. We have moved three more times and have now settled. There is still bits to be gotten rid of it is a work in progress. There was an item that I had built in 1977 that had been through 17 moves and three countries… that now resides in the landfill. How can we move forward when we a burdened by our past by the things that are no longer required?
This blog reminds me of what I call my ‘paper pile’ – the thing you build on the edge of your desk, that you blitz from time to time but appears to have a life of its own and grows back just as big and just as quickly. For me, it’s a direct reflection of how cluttered or stagnant I’m feeling personally and I have that same sense of squeaky-cleanness and spaciousness once it’s been filtered and managed. Our home environment is most definitely an extension of us and there’s a direct correlation between clutter and how we’re choosing to live.
This was the blog for me to read today. I have been working so much on various projects in recent months that I have let my home fall into neglect. This has not been to a grotesque level by any means, but it has for too long been very disturbing to me.
A recent bout of physical illness has been the perfect point to stop me, for in looking at my body, I must look at my home. The de-cluttering started strangely enough, with my garage. I reordered it and swept out the leaf litter that gathers there. Even though it is a concrete dungeon it felt like the world’s most amazing dungeon after giving it care and attention.
Then I started to attend to bits and pieces around the place. Yesterday I re-grouted my shower tiles and the whole room feels sparkling and refreshed. This morning I am cleaning the oven.
Later today I will be getting rid of more clothes to make more space, and my very neglected balcony is going to receive the care it deserves.
What I am loving is taking it step by step and making this project equal in its place in my life to all of those other projects.
What is also beautiful to note is that I have restored my friendship with my home. It is no longer the neglected friend I never call or email, but I am making it an important part of my life again.
“it had come to that time where I no longer wanted to ignore or avoid it” – ahah, I could so relate to that one Gyl. I remember in the past getting to a point where cleaning, decluttering had to be “right now”….
Getting rid of/ not accumulate clutter is such a supportive and loving thing to do for oneself and the people we live with. Once we get over (take responsibility for) the unpleasant feeling associated with the disregard that we have allowed and which then manifests as clutter, the feeling of joy and spaciousness are just there waiting to be enjoyed.
I am very inspired, Gyl. I do not have much ‘clutter’ in my house, but I am aware there is some feeling of stagnation here that needs to be attended to and cleared. It is time to grow out of the old, familiar comfort I have lived in and with for many years.
You don’t see a bird or animal stuffing their nest full of unneeded things, so why do we?
Very good point, although my fathers little dog has a rather alarming collection of toys that need cleaning out.
I am taking this as a point to reflect upon….
It’s true – we also stuff our bags or cars full of things that we don’t need – which we physically and energetically carry around with us all day.
Oh…the handbag! I occasionally place women’s bags on a chair in my treatment room. Seriously, they weigh as much as a suitcase! For what reason can we need to carry so much? I wonder if some of us have spare life rafts in there…in case of a flood. What a devastation to our body to carry that imbalanced load all day.
Having said that, it is time to clean out my hand bag!
Having clutter and holding onto things in our life is us choosing complication and delay.
And to honestly observe what it has brought you and how it no longer serves you as you thought it did is the way to let go of the clutter and other things in life where we hold onto,
For example, how is our bathroom set up, do we have the shampoo etc that we feel will support us, how are things laid out, is it simple, or cluttered, what are the cupboards like, do we have flowers or candles in there? So that when we go in it confirms how glorious and divine we are, rather than being messy. The same can be said for everything in the house, even the porch and garden. And that’s not being over the top about it, but feeling you are absolutely worth love and worth confirming it.
Hi Linda, what I have learnt today is its not just about clearing out clutter or creating space in one room or another – but actually our home is our loving safe place; a place we can come to each day, that supports us and is there to confirm us, no matter what is going on around us or outside us in the world.
“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”.
There certainly is Gyl, I also love the feelings after clearing and cleaning any space where clutter and complication reside.
Thank you Gyl for an awesome reminder of the beautiful and spacious feeling from clearing out old clutter. You have inspired me to begin the process as I have been putting it off – why put something off that will truly support me in the home?
Exactly Anna and life.
“why put something off that will truly support me in the home?” – yes absolutely, great question to ask oneself Anna.
” 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”- So true Gyl.
I love to clear out clutter, a weight feels lifted off my shoulders and I feel more spacious in my body and clearer in my mind. And the change in the room is palpable- more spacious and light.
The knowing that I have a lot of clutter to clear out is a constant tension and when I do clear out some stuff it feels wonderful but there is always more and things that I realise I am still holding on to. I too have a mirror propped against the wall of the bedroom and you have inspired me to put it in place to reflect all of me.
Awesome Mary, thats great. What I have found is not being so hard on myself, yeah I know I still have stuff to clear out and this is always an ongoing process, but what I’ve learnt is trying to do it all at once doesn’t work, I just end up feeling frustrated or wanting to give up half way through. What I have also learnt is that I’m not responsible for clearing up everyones stuff, yes a general tidy up, as in the house hold chores, but not to wade through boxes or cupboards trying to clear their stuff out for them.
There is nothing like a good clearing. It feels so light and spacious. I had a big clean out 12 months ago and I have made a conscious effort to keep it that way, it’s easy when I have a beautiful sunlit home to reflect the light and spacious.
Your writing makes so much sense Gyl and resonates with practical wisdom, unless someone was on top of their clutter it would be difficult to not be inspired to lighten the load and take warmly to putting a few things in the bin after reading your blog. I find de-cluttering happens in rounds, I get rid of things around the house and then find after a bit of space I go back and there is more I can let go of that I had not even noticed before.
Gyl- even this blog feels spacious with one very clear message – there are cobwebs inside and outside of us to be cleared when we detox physical baggage and clutter both are connected and influence the other.
‘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.’ Interesting that when I read this line I could immediately feel there are some doors left inside me that I have been tiptoeing around. As it happens today I took it upon myself to dig my way through some piles of clothes that I never wear but can’t seem to say goodbye to. To be continued.
Gyl I know exactly what you are saying – “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.” This is the reason why I love it to clear all my clutter! What I observed is that if I made a change in my life I also declutter my flat – it went hand in hand and so I love it that it is clear in myself and in my flat.
I lived with someone once who would have sudden urges to clear out their wardrobe and rearrange the furniture and I knew that there was a big inner change happening in them. As you say esteraltmiks, the inner and outer change went ‘hand in hand’.
So, could it be that the space we live in is a reflection of whats going on in our body?
“It just feels so amazing to clean and clear this space, woweee! that makes me smile a huge big smile”.
I’m smiling with you Gyl and giving a big woweee!!
It does feel amazing and expanding to have a good clean out.
You have inspired me to clean out my wardrobe, woweee
I can relate to what you write here Gyl. I have even found myself holding onto clutter in a room (even if only a little bit) to avoid the possibilities presented by the spaciousness. Crazy huh? The clutter and the dense feeling that it comes with seems to be more comfortable than the spaciousness. This is just me fooling myself, however, as when the clutter is cleared away I am always able to embrace the spaciousness and all the possibilities it comes with.
It’s our responsibility to create spaciousness in our life. To avoid space is to avoid evolution and God.
I relate to this Kate. I used to knit a lot, but completely stopped a couple of years ago. Even so, I have held onto yarn that I will never use. Some part of me wanted to hold on it a bit longer….that “just in case” style of thinking…
But “just in case” what?
So, all of the balls have been gathered to be given to someone who will put it all to the best of use.
The most beautiful part of this is that even though most of the yarn was out of sight, the feeling of my home has completely changed, something has been released. It is extraordinary that it was not just balls that have been removed, but a way of thinking, an attitude and a quality that is no longer a part of who I am today.
Thank you Rachel, you have really summed it up, although we remove physical objects “a way of thinking, an attitude and a quality that is no longer a part of who I am today.” is cleared alongside its physical representation.
I can feel that space as I read your blog Gyl. I am about to have a big clear out myself and I am looking forward to it.
I do love the feeling after a big clear out and it always amazes me that I was holding onto so much!
I do a regular clean out of my clothes, bedroom, bathroom about every 6x months and a really thorough clean out of the fridge and freezer, kitchen and laundry every 1x month – I could not function otherwise, but I noticed the other day that I had not done a clean out of my office in over 3x years – here I had held on to documents, letters, cards and photos, warranties of electrical appliances that I didn’t even own anymore and so on and so on – it took me a whole day and even then I only threw away half of what I needed to, the rest is in piles still to be sorted, it is a horrible feeling to have it unattended to. I am off to complete it, thank-you Gyl and all for the reminder. The office is another area that needs to be put on to the regular clean out schedule.
Your comment/sharing terrianneconnors is a super reminder not to leave such a long period to clean or tidy our personal spaces, whether that be the home or at work, as you share, it then requires a fair amount of time and commitment to clear it all….although well worth it in the end for the spaciousness and feeling of well-being that is felt.
A few months ago we chose to start the process as well and I can defiantly agree that it does feel like a load has been lifted and there is an increase in space not only in the house but in ourselves as well.
Hear! Hear! Mick, we have been doing the same thing in our house recently and as you say, “there is an increase in space not only in the house but in ourselves as well”. However, we have also realised that there is never an end point but a constant re-adjusting – as we continue to embrace more love so does our house, car etc. call for more love in how they are treated!
Beautifully said Anne. There is never an end-point to clearing and ordering. We are constantly adjusting because we are constantly growing and expanding.
I also love stacking dishes away, folding clean washing, re-organising my paint racks, and all the domestic chores that I saw my mother, grandmother and aunties do so gracefully.
A great blog to keep reminding me that decluttering feels spacious and this week I de-cluttered my linen cupboard, so that now when I walk down the passage I can feel the orderly way my sheets and towels are folded. Just doing one cupboard, drawer or table in a room makes such a difference to the whole room, knowing that there is a lovely order to what is not seen on the outside.
I don’t have a ‘room at the back of the house’ that needs sorting, but I do have drawers and cupboards in rooms that I need to to go through. It’s easy to put things away and not deal with them, just like with any issue that may come up in our lives.
‘why do we keep hold of so much stuff, even down to the tiniest of little things – old tickets, pens, buttons, and cards?’ – it’s a good question. For me, I think it’s because as soon as I see the treasured item, it takes me right back to the situation in my past and without the item I feel I may forget that memory. That’s what I tell myself when I am trying to have a clean up! However, I can already feel, as I’m getting older, that my memory isn’t as good as it used to be and inevitably I am creating more and more memories every day, so maybe it’s better to just concentrate on the hear and now, after all, that is what really matters …. being as present as possible in every moment of every day.
‘being as present as possible in every moment of every day’, is a work in progress, but it is what I am committing to…
This is a beautiful blog Gyl. I sit down from time to time to clear and tidy up as I have still things around me and in my life that do not feel right anymore. I love the feeling when I let go of things as it brings as you have written spaciousness, clarity and order – space, clarity and order not only on a physical level/into my apartment but also and foremost on the energetic level.
For me it is also interesting to recognize and observe that there are still things and stuff to which I am attached to, emotionally attached. The question then is “What is it I am holding on to and do not want to let go” when in fact I do not need these things anymore. It then normally takes some more time until I have understood that I really do not want and need these things anymore and can let them go. Tidying up and bringing order into my life is truly healing.
Excellent read gyl. Why do we hold onto little things like those cards and old photos? I think I’m due for another refinement on my “stuff”. It’s amazing how we can be evolving and learning as a person and then we need to let go of certain physical objects so that we can move forward. Some things just don’t belong anymore
Beautifully said Harrison, and it is not only the ‘certain physical objects’ that do not belong anymore that we need to let go of. Before we discard the physical objects we need to continually discard the ‘what is not’ from our bodies. It is a continuing cycle – the more our physical space supports us to evolve as we discard the physical objects, the more we discard from our bodies and hence the next level of discarding of physical objects to adjust the space for the high level of vibration in our bodies. Part of this is sometimes not to discard physical objects but to re-imprint them with a new level of love. Continuing to adjust our physical space so that it not only supports where we are at but also inspires us to be more, is an integral part of the Way of the Livingness.
It’s amazing what we can collect and store behind closed doors thinking it is harmless and yet all the while denying ourselves living with the simplicity that supports us. I love the power of de-cluttering you have so beautifully exposed here, it has inspired me to venture where I haven’t dared till now
I’ve enjoyed re reading your blog Gyl and is timely as I move today. I have found the process of packing up and clearing out old stuff a great process of de cluttering. It feels much more spacious in my body to not hold onto the things that I no longer need.
Moving house is a great opportunity to de-clutter and a great process. Many years ago, I was moving abroad, and I was moving to a much smaller house, but I remember the one thought I had and that was, I want to’ travel light’…..which feels a great reminder that when we do refine our decluttering and bring order to our lives; our bodies can travel a lot lighter! Thank you Donna.
Agree jacqmcfadden04, moving house is a great opportunity to de-clutter. However, I have found that de-cluttering can also be a quality that we take into everything we do – how so? Every moment offers an opportunity to discard something that no longer serves be it a material object, an old ideal or belief that we are holding onto, or a pattern we have been running with – or even a food that no longer nourishes. Travelling a lot lighter is an ongoing process!
Every moment offers an opportunity to discard something that no longer serves be it a material object, an old ideal or belief that we are holding onto, or a pattern we have been running with – or even a food that no longer nourishes. Travelling a lot lighter is an ongoing process! Love the extra addition her Anne, that the decluttering can be taken into everything we do….. spot on.
Decluttering is an amazing experience. The feeling of lightening that comes with it is simply proverbial because we renounce to things that in truth have no place in our current livingness and let go. We do not realise the heaviness of the energy of what we stock up just in case or for whatever reason until we let it go and feel the spaciousness that we have created.
In re-reading this blog I can feel the spaciousness of de-cluttering and the allowing for more of what truly supports me to be able to come in.
We humans are great at keeping things that no longer have any relevance in our lives, but just incase we may need them in the future. We are all well meaning, and promising to clear out what is not needed, but never get around to doing so.
My excuse is when the weather gets better is will clean out the garage, or my wardrobe, getting rid of whats not required any more. I will do it before 2015 is out.
Thanks Mike, what this brings to mind straight away is people we may hold onto or memories – often as a way of holding us back from moving on.
How true Mike, so many things lying about in peoples cupboards because of the ‘just in case’ moments cluttering up the house, even though they may not have been used for years and probably may not ever be used again!! For me it brings up the thought of but I paid good money for that instead of seeing that it served its purpose at the time and now it is time to move on.
I paid good money for that, and it is a waste to put it out when it is not broken or old… thank you James for the reminder, to see things having served their purpose for where I was in m life at that time. Having changed, grown and moved on, it no longer serves, so its time to put it out – creating more space in my home and body for me to be more of me.
Good point Mike, most of us are ready to admit we need to clear out of let go of many things that no longer support us or old clothes that should have gone in the bin years ago – yet it takes much longer to finally let go. What a great feeling of clarity it is when we do.
I’m inspired by your blog Gyl I’ve been clearing out my emails and tidying up files on my computer recently and I noticed how wonderful it felt afterwards, just to be able to look and see the important stuff instead of it being a jumbled list of messages or having to search for what I need. I also took the time to set up a few email rules to sort emails into folders when they come into my inbox to help keep them organized. I hadn’t really looked at it as being de-cluttering but it feels the same. I’m now inspired to take this feeling gently out into my home.. 🙂
I use to hang on to material things (and relationships too) from a sense of insecurity – the material things could be letters from a past relationship and while I hung on to the letters I was still not letting go of the relationship and hurt. It’s no wonder that it feels so freeing and expansive when I clear out all those attachments and make room for me to have a true and lasting relationship with myself.
Your blog got me pondering about how we can hang onto the past for a range of reasons – fear of scarcity in the future, sentimentality, attachment to name but three. In our world of such consumerism, the path is already set for us to overburden our spare home space and your blog is a reminder to me to manage this at the point of purchase, with more diligence and the ever-important question – ‘Do I really need this?’
Really great point about diligence when shopping Cathy.
I recently observed how a couple of things I purchased were ‘almost’ what I needed, but in fact weren’t what I needed and I succumbed to getting them because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I have several things sitting in my wardrobe which I am simply not wearing because they are not right for me and I did not clearly stay in observation at the time of buying. In the centre of my clothes rack are the well-chosen items that I continue to wear frequently.
A metaphor concerning how we often hold on to emotional, physical and mental pain “All the stuff we hold onto, but deep down we really don’t want to keep,…” The truth is is we do not need to hang on to it, I have let a lot go but still know there is more to be free from. Sorting out our homes out and making them a place that flows for us, is interesting. Great to take a look at both and see what they reflect for us?
I am starting to de-clutter my house, something I’ve been wanting to do for AGES. It feels like I’m finally choosing to deal with ‘stuff’ that I’ve not wanted to address before ….. I’m looking forward to the journey.
Fantastic Gyl, I absolutely love decluttering.
Me too Jade.
Gyl i have recently cleared out an old business i used to run – the boxes have been in store for 10 years – what has really struck me is how beautifully i packed the boxes – the care, the order and the labelling of each box has made the whole process of unpacking so easy and joyful – i never imagined that I would feel so much appreciation for myself whilst clearing out my studio!
Just beautiful Lucindag to feel the care and order in what you have said. It is a simple but powerful example of karma – what you put out comes back!
I love this Lucinda, even in a de-clutter we can stop and appreciate, that we’re now willing to let more go, and that we packed it with care. This makes me smile, as I move just now and I feel how I’ve packed with a care I’d not previously done and that in doing so, I am creating a space to let more things go.
Clearing out the clutter is an awesome process, but one thing that I tend to forget to look at is how did the clutter get there in the first place. To me it feels that it has purposefully been created, reflecting back to me that there is clutter going on within myself that I create, hold onto and don’t want to look at. Definitely one to keep an eye on!
“how did the clutter get there in the first place” this is a great question to ask ourselves – not only literally but also with what we hold onto emotionally.
Great question to ponder on Gyl, holding on to stuff is such a reflection of old patterns that keep us in the rut until we choose to heal those emotions that have been holding us back from who we are.
That is a great question Natalie, when I am busy clearing out the clutter I can get very tired and not feeling very well and I know this has to do with what I have been creating and have hold onto all that time, the illusion I kept myself in.
I love the clarity and spaciousness that clearing out clutter creates in our homes but also from within our own bodies. I also really enjoy the process.
Thanks Gyl for an interesting blog. I have also been clearing out a few cupboards where I had been holding onto stuff for way too long. The feeling of spaciousness that is left both in terms of inside the cupboards and more importantly, inside of me, is wonderful.
The parallel between the clutter we hold on to and the patterns, hurts or stuff we hold onto energetically within our bodies is clear. I can feel that it will be a really good practice for me to clean, clear and de-clutter my home of all my old mementos, letting go and releasing any old patterns that I may still be holding on to at the same time. Thank you Gyl.
I recently went camping and upon arriving I was rather dishevelled. Slowly I connected back and by the time I had moved camp sites and re-organised my ute and tent, I was feeling so much clearer and able to enjoy myself 10 fold more. Whether it’s a tackle box or the spare room, there’s a lot to be said for good order.
I totally agree Oliver – I love order – even down to the point I love watching farmers working in a field, as they work in harmony and with the order of nature, there is something to me, so beautiful about seeing and feeling order. Be it in a freshly ploughed field, with all the straight lines, harmony and rhythm of nature, or wooden crates full of farm products, all piled up on top of one another or a clean bookcase, cupboard or room in you home. There is something so beautiful, so natural and so divine about order.
I loved reading your comment Gyl in describing how nature reflects harmony and rhythm no matter where you look and I do agree; ‘ There is something so beautiful, so natural and so divine about order… possilby another blog?
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Gyl, I love your expression “There is something so beautiful, so natural and so divine about order” and it brings to mind how we really do innately appreciate simplicity, a gentle rhythmic flow in our environment, in our homes and offices – it feels to provide that beautiful platform for harmony in all things and in our bodies. I am finding to ‘de-clutter’ our homes and our minds is a very beautiful and freeing exercise.
Very true Oliver. And the act of putting things back in order can make such a difference to how we feel.
It feels so much lighter inside after a spring cleaning, de-cluttering a room or a house.
Whilst I know you are joking when you say ‘I might end up clearing out the whole house’ when decluttering, it does however highlight the simplicity and lightness of only living with objects which support us in living and reflecting our light.
Your blog put a big smile on my face, Gyl, for two reasons. One, I could relate to holding on to stuff that I totally do not need and will never need (ridiculous!), and two, – I could feel the joy through your blog from your clearing your clutter. Awesome. I am in the same process, and still have a way to go.
Some items that lived in boxes, I just took a picture, then threw it away. Feels absolutely amazing. I love space.
Hi nataliesterk, I just read your last 3 words, ‘I love space’, and would like to add: all love needs to flow is space…!
Last week I went to the top shelf of my room where everything goes, as I felt I had not looked in the two boxes that sat on the top shelf for quite some time. One box got completely empytied, and the second, I cleared out half, but I did have a very pleasant surprise, I found a gift wraped shoe box filled with so much love I cried…. in the box I found so many love notes and letters, hearts, so many beautiful hearts from my daughter, all hand drawn, and mother day cards that I had kept from my children, indeed I had found a little treasure box.
It can be really confirming to go through stuff and clear out, realising where I have come from and where I am going. I have to say I can’t wait to clear out all my school books in a few weeks!
I am having a bit of a clear out at the moment, it’s surprising how many little things I’ve held on to as a just incase, or might need that.. when I haven’t. Great to clear them out and can definitely feel the difference in my home.
Me too Ruth, I love the clearer lighter feeling of a room once I have decluttered it, I think it is now it is time for the boot of the car!
Thanks Gyl, awesome sharing. I have always loved clearing out spaces, kind of the opposite to hoarding. I love the lightness of energy it brings and the sense of a new beginning. It feels like a very evolving exercise to partake in.
I Agree Katechorely, I have also always loved clearing out spaces and the lightness of energy it brings. I especially enjoy tidying my sheet sets with mauve ribbon so that pillowcases don’t get muddled and each set stays with its match! Lately I have got a bit behind with clearing out and it weighs heavily on me. Your simple comment has inspired me to make space for more clearing out as soon as I return home.
A timely reminder Gyl, on a smaller scale I have that pile in the corner of my office desk that’s ‘pending’ – but which just seems to sit there untouched. I love just as much to clear and tidy my desk, it makes a difference to the whole room.
Hear hear rosannabianchini. Even taking a small portion of the room and lovingly tidying and sorting it makes a huge difference to the room and the house. I have just re-folded my sweaters and tops on two shelves of a storage stand I have in my bedroom, and the whole room lifted.
In the past I noticed that not wanting to go there with my clutter in my house, was a reflection of being owned by ideals and beliefs about what life should be, and not truly respecting myself and caring for myself as a person. It was the same with the garden, how I keep my car, even my wardrobe, my inbox and desktop and many other things in my life where there was an automatic build up of clutter. It seemed to ‘just happen’ and then I could almost feel like a victim and put up resistance about clearing the clutter, as if it had nothing to do with me, as if someone else had created it (LOL). But it is true, it was someone else, not the true me. Nothing was more clear, than when I began the process of cleaning it up. As stated here in this article, as the clutter is removed, it is the clearing away inside of what is not me, that has been accumulated within me by the choice to not care for or respect myself. In clearing the outer, the inner became freer until the awareness dawned: that whenever I am allowing clutter to build up to ‘deal with later’, then I am again in the ‘not me’, living a false life.
I love your description of the reflection you get of yourself when you start to deal with the clutter, Simon. I find it is interesting to notice which parts of my house are easier to de-clutter than others. I am looking round my study, and it is a big “Ouch!” The reflection feels for me to be an unwillingness to keep order in my daily affairs, and I can feel an attachment to old letters and out-of-date and no longer useful official papers, like old wills made years ago. It exposes a lack of rhythm perhaps in my day-to-day life, and a carelessness and neglect about what supports me at a basic level. My next de-cluttering is the study, but then I also feel I need to go deeper – and find out why this happens, or it will just accumulate all over again. For me, I know it is no use just trying to make up my MIND it will be better… it has to come from a removal of something else in me that is keeping me in a state of denial about how I value myself.
Beautifully expressed Simon Voysey. I love when I read; ‘But it is true, it was someone else, not the true me’, which brings the awarness ( for me too) that whenever I allow clutter to build up, then I am again in the ‘not me’, and that I am delaying being the real me and feeling the power that brings….
More clutter went out this morning. Thank you Gyl, your blog helps me to keep on track. As the clutter clears there is room for new things like painting the rooms of my house with a fresh new paint, and replacing old worn bedspreads. Turning all this around turns me around, and new life with renewed energy opens up.
I love that feeling of spaciousness and clarity and the feeling like a weight’s been lifted from a good clear out, or even just re-arranging and ordering things. It makes such a difference!
I agree Fiona, I also love that and the feeling of less complexity which creates more space and joy in life.
Hear Hear Fancisco, as one who has chosen both complexity and simplicity – I absolute agree and know for a fact that choosing simplicity and clarity creates so much space and joy. Both in my body and life.
I love clearing out cupboards and closets and reorganising things but noticed that it can sometimes take a little while for the items all bundled in garbage bags and boxes to actually get thrown away or donated. it’s like a four step process of identifying the issue, cleaning and reorganising, letting go and discarding and then learning to live in the new space..
What I realise now is that it is not about letting go – but moving on.
Clearing out my external clutter feels great. So too when I am feeling great on the inside I want to clear out clutter externally. Now when I feel stagnant maybe some clutter clearing will be another way to help me to move forward.
I have decluttered areas of my house and this does indeed feel like areas of my life are also more clear, there is still more to do but the connection is very obvious I feel much more free and less heavy through clearing away the stuff that does not truly feel part of my life any more.
Yes it feels amazing to let go of stuff that doesn’t serve us,
I agree totally !
It’s fascinating how it translates into the body- this should be studied for the science it reveals , and one day no doubt it will be.
I had been a clutterbug for years, I had totally lost sight or feeling of how this impacted me.
Now as I start to rebuild awareness it’s increasingly obvious to me that clutter and accumulations of stuff simply don’t feel right to me, in fact they feel like a hinderence.
This blog inspires me again to move forward and reclaim my space, inside and out!
I love the expression ‘clutter bug’ Felicity, and the difference with ‘reclaim my space’. I’ve just moved into a new house and everything has a place, it feels so so spacious this way. Not a clutter bug in sight.
Felicity this is poignant “I had totally lost sight or feeling of how this (clutter) impacted me.” and not only relevant to spaces but how anything we are not dealing with and choosing to hold onto is having an impact and how masterful we are at ignoring ‘stuff’. I must say when I look at it like this it feels far easier to clear out a cupboard than to feel what I am holding onto emotionally, the two seem connected however as when i simply clear out a cupboard the lightening in the body feels obvious. Perhaps there is also opportunity for deeper emotional healing too through bringing awareness to the process if something is felt about particular objects without going into a story.
It’s so beautiful to observe how interrelated everything is. In Germany we started an initiative amongst the students of Universal Medicine (and open to non-students as well) to support each other in clearing out clutter. And here you publish an article about clearing out clutter in Scotland. No coincidence.
Yes Felix,how true! The interrelatedness of life is always a joy to feel. That is the truth about energy – all one big interrelated energy field constantly communicating with itself! I had a beauty the other night – I had just finished writing an article which included a bit about the diversion of ‘landing on the moon’ in the 60’s (something I hadn’t thought about for years) and there appeared before my eyes on a TV news documentary, the space-travel partner of Neil Armstrong, advocating that we bring back the so-called golden age of space travel. It was as if he stepped onto the screen to instantly counter what I was saying! ( I realise your example was a direct confirmation, yet so was this ‘counter’ event a kind of confirmation)
What a great idea/initiative felixschumacher8 and a super support it feels because the habit is to hang onto old stuff that we no longer need, so to have help to let go makes it so much more fun!
In Australia we have professional Un Clutterers advertising their services on community noticeboards and in Laundromats and even a student of the livingness under Simplicity in Living offering A 6 Week Online Course To Support You In Decluttering Your Home And Life With Effective And More Lasting Results.
The start of true community felixschumacher8!
I love this initiative Felix, it feels in true community, brotherhood and so supportive.
What a great initiative Felixschumacher8 – how indicative this is of how widespread the ‘stranglehold’ of clutter is in our daily lives. To have the support of others and be playful with the purpose to de-clutter is a powerful way to clear both physically and emotionally as the energetic causes of holding on to this ‘modern day plague’ are revealed for what they are – simply another investment in a way of holding us back from the truth of who we are .
It is interesting, how we bind ourselves to things we do not need anymore and do not want to face dealing with those memories so we store them away, pretending to have forgotten them at some point.
Once we start looking at ourselves and the choices we have made, we will start to clear out the clutter in ourselves and in our lives – for example in our backrooms.
Isn’t it amazing, how the exterior we live in and with is always somehow a reflection of our interior?
Hi there Gyl, I have been feeling for awhile to declutter. I have just started a decluttering program, where we get to feel how clutter in our house makes us feel in the body.
I can feel overwhelm, anxiousness, ‘ just shut the door/ ignore it’ , a heaviness in me. I love what you have shared about spaciousness and clarity once you emptied some of those rooms. And I love what you wrote about the mirror in your room. It makes so much sense and I can feel that getting rid of those unwanted items has brought so much lightness and clarity to you!
I like what you wrote michaelkremer2212, about “pretending to have forgotten”. Yes thank you for exposing that game to keep us trapped in a cycle that goes nowhere. There is a lot for me to ‘off load’. I am starting on my declutter. I realise though that my habit has been to put things in boxes and leave them still lying around. I realise how important it is to also get it out of the house!
Great point Michael, and gives me pause to consider the parts that tend to get avoided and why.
Yes Michael, it’s great when we realise ‘how the exterior we live in and with is always somehow a reflection of our interior’. Being aware of this gives decluttering purpose and gives us the energy to ‘prune off the dead wood’ which holds us back. Shifting has always been a great time for me to cull and it offers great potential for inner change. My husband and I sold a house and moved into a unit. The new owners had planned to build their dream house on the block but it didn’t happen until several years after and the house was demolished in the same week that we decided to split up.
I’ve just had a really interesting experience over the last couple of days of going through my computer and filing all my emails and getting rid of the detritus which also led to me discovering that a malware program had taken over the running of my web browser which I promptly got rid of. Prior to having this cleanout my computer was running slowly and I’m amazed at how much simpler it feels and everything is now flowing with ease.
Wow Deborah – this is super. House-keeping applies everywhere! I am onto my house, car and body, but I must clear up my computer!
That’s so true Lyndy Housekeeping does apply everywhere not just the obvious but also our phones, computers and my handbag is another place I seem to accumulate clutter.
Totally Margaret. The handbag is another universe of its own but so connected to the whole with the simplicity and order in which we can operate.
This sounds great Deborah, I have this problem with my phone and have been delaying clearing data off it so it can run more quickly and more efficiently and the same with my computer, I know how amazing it feels when i do clear things off that are not needed.
Now that’s an inspiring reminder…and an area that could do with the TLC of a chuck out fest. Bring on the bin bags.
Maybe something I should check as my computer has been really slow!
Amazing how simply clearing stuff out highlights undealt with issues, Deborah, and your comment highlights for me that i use my lack of computer skills as an excuse when something happens that i don’t understand (ie it goes wrong), and stubborn independence to not ask for help
That’s another great area to clean up: my emails. You inspire me to pick up that huge box of many many mails….. Can’t wait to experience how that will feel: an almost empty mailbox. Already the thought gives me more breathing space 🙂
I love re-reading this blog Gyl. I’m feeling so inspired to do some clearing out, on a massive scale!! In the past, when I’m supposedly ‘clearing out’ in reality, I just move things to a different area of the house, more out of the way!!
I too have a box of things from my early childhood, under 10, which I NEVER look at. It will be interesting to see how I feel about going through this box and how much I throw out!
So great Alison to be truly honest about why we keep things from childhood. It may be an attachment or identification, or it may be a joyful reminder of the beauty, and freedom of a child to be themselves . . . or indeed many other things.
I feel to echo your words Alison – as in ‘re-reading’ Gyl’s blog, and since doing so the first time I am finding I am now becoming more aware of ‘filing things away in the too-hard basket’. It’s interesting now as it seems a much simpler choice to discard that which no longer serves, instead of putting things in the back of the cupboard thinking they may be useful at some time in the future.
Re-reading Gyl’s blog always takes me to a new level on my ‘clutter hunt’. What I didn’t regard as clutter last time, now is, and I am determined to be rid of it. Then that old monkey brain kicks in and starts bothering about how. Does anyone I know want it? Charity shop? Or straight to the dump. In a world with an emphasis on recycling and not wasting its a big decision isn’t it? Not really, its just my mind trying to hang on to the old way I used to live, and it likes to control the amount of clutter, because clutter makes me needy!
Roberta, I was brought up at a time where nothing was thrown out as we didn’t have much and it could always be recycled for another use. So, for example, we had hessian bags for curtains and an old door for a table. So I still have trouble throwing stuff out that ‘may be useful at some time in the future’. However, I recognise that it is better to move it on so someone else could use it than have it as clutter in my home which causes energy to stagnate.
I love the feeling of lightness when I have just had a good clear out. My living environment feels so much more supportive when it is clear of clutter.
This blog and the comments are so inspiring. Revisiting and reading I am inspired to really feel the impact of and address all the stuff I have been allowing to gather in my life which have no relevance to the present or the evolution I can feel is taking place.
Awesome Gyl – it is super interesting what you have presented, and makes me wonder about what areas of my life need a good clear out, maybe a room, or maybe another aspect which I have not wanted to look at
I love reading this article Gyl, you inspired me to clear out my office, my partner and I spent a couple of hours, clearing out old paperwork, getting things off the floor and cleaning and tidying and wow it feels amazing, so much brighter and clearer and it’s so much more enjoyable to work in this space.
Hi Gyl, Having just returned from 30 days cruising some of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, I recall the day I was able to access the internet momentarily while on board the ship and was able to enjoy reading your great article on ‘clearing clutter’. The feeling I had after waking the following morning was of either a deeper awareness, a clearing, or maybe it was a dream indicating that it was time for me to “clear the clutter” of my mind where I had been hoarding memories or guilt, remorse, disappointment etc. – of which I had not really been that clear about before. Perhaps it was the May full moon that night that magnified the time was appropriate for all those memories of guilt around the things that I had done as a child, a young person and a not so young person, things that came from a different place, a place of non-awareness, emptiness and need for this emptiness to be filled. I really felt it was reading your blog that bridged the time to de-clutter and heal that place within me, so thank you.
Thank you for inspiring a de-clutter! I just had a great clean up of my computer desk after a very busy trimester at Uni. It felt like washing soot off my brain lol! As I cleared away old notes, scribbled on papers, copies of text I no longer needed and etc, I quite literally felt my mind gaining more and more clarity and I felt much lighter. The computer itself is next – there is loads of space on the hard drive, but it just feels so good to remove what is not needed, and appropriately store old files and work on a USB… and delete what is not necessary anymore 🙂
I have re-visited this blog as a reminder and for further inspiration to clear some more clutter. Thank you for sharing and inspiring.
Absolutely divine timing to read your inspiring, uplifting and awesome blog, Gyl.
I have been unwell and resting and looking at some stuff that I have from my mother, who died two years ago, things I don’t want but because they were hers I have held on to. A good friend of mine said that the things don’t represent the love I have for my mother; so keeping them has nothing to do with my love for her. You have inspired me to have another clean out, thank you Gyl.
HI Thomas, my twin brother died many years ago and like you, I too held onto stuff because they were his…. so a lovely reminder in your comment that ‘things’ do not represent the love that I feel for him, and if I be really still I can always connect and feel him in my heart.
Sorting-out a drawer, or your whole garage, it’s all the same – so long as the intent and process is experienced in full, otherwise, you’re cleaning and no clearing.
So true Oliver, our quality of presence and intention determines the quality of the outcome.
‘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.’ Something I can only confirm, it is always very cleansing to clear out things that are no longer needed anymore, a weight is lifted leaving space and room to unfold.
It’s amazing when we clear out clutter. It feels like a whole package of stagnant energy leaves the area or house. I always then question why I hold onto whatever it is, each time? Could it be that we need to have the space filled with ‘something?’ Something for me to ponder on..
Gyl, this blog is such an awesome reminder to clear and clean out the clutter we accumulate in our homes and lives and, to me, it is also a cue to clear and clean out the ‘old stuff’ we hang onto in our bodies and minds. The feeling of spaciousness that this cleaning and clearing out is really awesome and has profound effects on the way we live and learn to respect the present – and the future. The past is gone! Just as the energy of the past is gone so making way and room for the present and future feels really good to me.
Yesterday I clutter-cleared a cupboard that has needed attention for a very long time. It is a fairly small cupboard, but the amount of stuff we had managed to get in there was incredible. It made me wonder why we keep all of this stuff. The usual reason is “just in case”. It seems that “just in case” lasts forever, and so we let stuff go. A lot of it went to charity and some of it went to the tip. The feeling of lightness and clarity in that area was awesome and I felt the same feelings in me. By the time I went to bed I was pretty whacked out but had a great night’s sleep. Bring on the next cupboard I say!!
Clearing out the clutter from our house means clearing ourselves. Letting go of what is not needed and of support in a material sense will be that the attachments we had with this stuff will melt away, which brings an amazing feeling of lightness and freedom with it.
Every time I clear out anything, whether a drawer, the car or my walk-in wardrobe, the feeling it leaves me with is a light, fresh spaciousness. I find it amusing that this clearing out is ever refining, it’s never really done and dusted, reflecting every other area of life.
The room at the back of the house can be very revealing. It can help unlock the choices we have made to hide and hold ourselves back from truly committing to life.
A really simple and delightful sharing of how wonderful it does feel to lighten the load by clearing clutter. It goes to show how bringing lightness and simplicity into our lives allows us to live in a freeing way.
I find clearing out my handbag has a similar effect like cleaning cupboards, draws and even my house – so much hanging on to ‘stuff’ that may come in handy one day! I often wonder how did I let myself get so distracted to let that build up in the first place? Clearing out brings back space – and allows new possibilities to come in. I really enjoyed reading this blog thank you Gyl.
This blog is hugely relatable when you mentioned that mirror I laughed as I also have a mirror that has been waiting to hang itself for years, mine hasn’t even made itself into the bedroom, its still out in the garage. As I read this Gyl I could truly feel how amazing you are saying you feel after doing all this clearing. There is still a big part of me holding on to these things from the past. Every time I have thrown things out that I think I don’t use anymore randomly something will happen like this, I remember chucking out this jumper from the 80s that I loved but never wore and then 2 weeks later I am invited to a 80s party and had nothing to wear. I convince myself I will use these memories of my childhood to one day write a book….I have every excuse under the sun of why I can’t let go but the truth is in holding onto them I know it is a drain just not quite ready to rip the bandaid off yet.
I have been doing some clearing out myself today and yes it feels great. Like letting go of the past so I can live more in the present.
I agree richardmills363 it is a letting go of the past, which can only make way for new choices. For me it is discerning what I am choosing i.e. more of the same or a deeper supportive and self loving choice?
Coming back from a week at a Universal Medicine Retreat where I have been clearing lots of clutter out from myself, I am very aware of all the clutter in the “dark” and hidden corners of my house. They feel stuffy, heavy, and sit there in the corners like grumpy gargoyles in a stupor of indulgence. I can feel how much of it I do not need, but more important to me, that holds me back and even brings the clutter back into my mind. It has strings of attachment I no longer want that can tie me up in knots of complication and confusion. Now is a wonderful time for clearing it all out, one glorious spring clean.
” grumpy gargoyles in a stupor of indulgence “… I had an appreciative laugh at this!! I so resonate with this description, for me it really is what clutter feels like! And it also clears my mind, complication, and confusion when I clear away clutter 🙂
I am blessed to have a flat without storage so the amount of things I can keep is very limited. As I have many hobby-paintings, drawings, knittings, pottery makings, card makings etc – I needed to put all this together somewhere. So I asked my friend to put up a few shelves for boxes in the toilet. Some other small knick-knacks ended up there too. Guess what? For three years I didn’t open any of them and by now I can’t even remember what is there.
The lesson for me – if I can put something away and forget it – it needs to be found and go. No matter if it is things or emotions, ideals and beliefs
And I am surprised how the more I revisit places that have already been cleared that there is more to throw out. It is awesome how much simpler and spacious our lives can be.
Yep! Space is the new Time.
I love this Lyndy, ” Space is the new time”. how true.
I find this too Elainearthey, when I too revist places that I have already cleared and go back with a fresher eye, I then see there is more to throw out…..just shows that de-cluttering is a constant refinement process, just in the same way we are constantly refining our diets.
Putting a mirror up on the wall from being on the floor can completely change the dynamics of room, space, as with making small changes within myself, what I eat, how I dress, shower, walk, can change my dynamics from the inside out to be more harmonious.
A great realisation always comes to me with possessions whenever I have been away. I come back to so many items in my drawers that I never use, realising how little I needed to live when I was travelling. And yet I would hold on to so many items in case they may be needed, that is where the discernment is needed of what clutter is, for me it is in the items that sit there for a rainy day but actually will never have any practical use and perhaps are there as an emotional tie to something that has gone before.
I am realising that hanging onto old stuff is completely rubbish, because it is all rubbish. So I’m chucking things out and it feels good.
Gyl, with the understanding you have shared it’s a lovely example of the fact that everything is everything. What we have hidden in one room affects all rooms, and what a great change happens when we face and deal with what we know is there waiting to be cleaned out.
Having attended a course recently which gave me a greater awareness of our “connection to all things” (and that includes inanimate objects), I’ve developed a whole new slant on clutter – which we tend to see as something we need to deal with ‘some time’ – but how about it being a manifestation in the physical of putting off dealing with areas in our life, as our clutter is a living part of us?
It is such a good feeling to clear out and clean up areas that have been overlooked for some time, what is surprising though, is as I write, I know there is still more that I can get on with. What if I did clear out everything I could? Then I would become more of me, is that what I am resisting? Leaving areas of clutter allows me to limit myself, playing it small. Ouch!
An amazing example of how something so small and considered a daily job can have such a massive effect on not only your house but your self.
Thanks again Gyl for this blog. I have been exploring how the orderliness of my bedroom affects the quality of my sleep. A tidy, orderly room makes for a deep and restful sleep 🙂
I have also found this to be true Bianca, I always notice a huge difference in my bedroom and the quality of the space after I have cleaned it and or changed the bed sheets. These are changes I have always felt but only recently given credence to.
How absolutely lovely to read your blog Gyl about cleaning out clutter. Especially as I have just today been cleaning out my clothes rack, moving the winter clothes out into my bedroom and putting away the summer clothes where the winter clothes were. In the process I have discarded heaps – every piece of clothing that does not go with where I am now at. It felt amazing to do and the whole house has lifted. I am just about to get rid of as much junk as possible from my ‘back room’ and turn it into a music room. When this happens my house is going to have a hard time not flying away in sheer joy.
I love that you got your mirror up in your bedroom – that feels really good.
As I clear out a cupboard, or the car or my make-up bag, I understand, because of feelings in my body, that every small action has an impact elsewhere. For each space I give my attention and respect to applying order and care I am laying a stepping stone for that same care and respect to be in my next moment, be it for me, the next person I meet or the email I am about to write. There is nothing small, everything matters and because of articles like this (thank you, Gyl) and Universal Medicine I have to accept I am supported and inspired every step of the way.
Beautiful matidaclark, everything we do matters and has an impact on everyone and everything around us, we are all swimming in the same ocean so to speak. Our world would be a very different place if we all lived with such awareness and responsibility for our part in keeping it ‘clean’.
What I love about what you have written, Victoria, is that it reinstates all of us, as individuals, as essential parts of the whole – the joy of our responsibility – thank you.
‘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.’ Yesterday although I was tired, I washed out my garden waste wheelie bin so the rotting grass cuttings don’t build up – it felt great to do, and it was an interesting reflection on the rot we can clear in our own lives.
Yesterday I was just inspired to clear out and organise my filing, it was amazing how much paper I had accumulated and how much it was taking up. Once I got through my piles, their hardly was anything really left that was of importances. This just reflected to me how much stuff do we hold onto, that we no longer require or need. Something for me to reflect on in other areas of my life.
This I really relate to Amita, to have a rhythm with our paper work and to only keep what is needed is such a good practise to have. One that I am still working on but really notice the difference when I am keeping this all in order. I feel in order and more spaciousness when I do.
It is so clear from this blog that everything is energy and when we hold onto to things that no longer relate to where we are currently at we are also holding on and accumulating stagnant energy.
Yes Jenny, I feel this, though I still do not find it easy to go much deeper with my clearing out of clutter. I hold onto things just in case and for all eventualities. I am letting go far more, but know and feel it could go further.
I always allow for an ‘eventuality’ grouping of stuff. I feel that is quite valid. It is a simple discernment to feel the quality in the decision to keep something for an eventuality.
Like andrewmooney26 I had a wow moment when I read “the stuff we hold on to but deep down we don’t really want to keep”. So completely true and I can absolutely endorse this. I cleared out my office at the end of last year – amazing feeling but plenty more to get rid of and I already have my sights on a so called store room. What I love is that I know by clearing now it won’t be a burden when I pass over – what better legacy than a clear house!!
I couldn’t agree more Michael. I once had to clear out my mother-in-law’s house in England when she finally went into a nursing home. We were on sabbatical for six months and during this whole period of time, every time the garbage collection happened we put out at least 6 large garbage bags of junk. I vowed I would never leave this kind of legacy for my daughter to have to clear when I pass over . . . and I am doing quite well with it so far. I love the constant upgrading that comes with this.
Yes Michael, I am with you on that one! How I leave my house in the morning, is how I will find it on my return in the evening…. and how I leave this life, is exactly what I will return to.
I absolutely love clearing away the old, when we do this we create space to bring in the new.
And a very simple process Samantha but one with sometimes profound results.
I’ve never been one to hang onto a lot of things, always been super practical: if you don’t use, well out it goes. In saying that, I do love an overhaul, a refinement and appreciation.
Beautifully said Jaime.
I can absolutely relate Jaime. In fact I can go the other way sometimes and get rid of something only to think, well maybe that was a bit hasty.
I absolutely know this feeling! I did a spring clean in my bedroom just over the weekend and cleared out things I’ve kept in the top cupboard of my wardrobe – just in case… There were a lot of things that I knew that I will only find again months down the track and wonder if I need it, if I have gone this long without it then it will be fine to get rid of it! The spaciousness feels much better then the clutter!
A great article to inspire us all to clear out all that stuff we hold on to, whether it’s just a cupboard, a drawer or a whole room, the feeling of having it tidy or having thrown out everything that doesn’t feel right anymore feels so freeing.
I can so relate Gyl. I have recently moved home and its been amazing to let go of stuff I’d been holding onto. I’m having a second round now we are in our new place – it’s amazing how if we are honest with ourselves we can feel how some things support us and some things can really hold us back, anchoring us to a particular moment in time which if we really felt into we would not want to be connected to at all!
When I do a ‘surface clean’, like making a room look tidy, it never changes the quality of the room if it is not done with presence. Making it look tidy by replacing things in different places only moves the energy. If it’s not done with presence, eventually it feels like clutter.
I can relate to what you write. I recently dared to go upto my attic. It was packed with, to use your word, ‘clutter’. The nice thing was that I was committed to go through all the stuff. The more I said: no, this is not for keeps anymore, the easier it became to say no to other things. What I got out of it: not only a practically empty attic, I also learnt that just by starting somewhere, the rest comes by itself. And yes, one day I will do another room, closet or clutter corner. Step by step!
The important part that resonated with me about your comment Caroline is to take this gently, one step at a time. We often take years to accumulate our clutter and when we put the pressure on ourselves to clean it up in one day, it can become exhausting and has us wanting to avoid doing the same process at another time! Being gentle with myself and taking my time as part of this decluttering process is something I am working on to support the physical process of clearing space and to support ‘me’ in the process as well!
I have recently had a clean out of my wardrobe and it felt great. I could feel the freedom to move forward rather than feeling “stuck” . I can feel that this needs to be a regular cleansing for me and needs to occur in all parts of the house. Our environment can definitely support or stifle our evolution!
I would agree Anne that our environment is super important and also how amazing it feels when we make the necessary changes.
Gyl Rae the sentence from your blog “the stuff we hold on to but deep down we don’t really want to keep” really stopped me in my tracks because I know we do this in terms of material possessions but I suddenly thought wow how many of our patterns of behaviour, our repetitive habits, our so called issues and hurts do we hang on to even though deep down we know they are causing the discontent in our lives that we don’t like?
Amazing how all the time we know what the choices we make are truly doing to us, whether they support us or hinder us, yet we put the blinkers on and pretend we do not know…
This is a great conversation starter andrewmooney26 and something I have been feeling strongly at present. I can feel how not holding onto possessions is super important for me and keeping things organised really supports me also.
Great point Andrew. Making that connection makes clearing out so much more important. The space to look at life afresh in every moment.
Same here Andrew it felt like a bigger meaning and does raise the question in that we hold onto these things, knowing they are not supporting us, yet providing us perhaps a level of familiarity. As we let go of each one – in the same way as when I clean out that messy cupboard – life feels that little bit simpler. Yet even knowing this there are many that we hold onto.
I love a good clean out – and the more often I do it the better I get at letting go of what I thought I might need, that is mostly just weighing me down!
Agree Helen, cleaning out is never done. . . as you say ‘the more often I do it the better I get at letting go of what I thought I might need’. The less we have to weigh us down, the less we need what we are still keeping!
It is forever an ongoing deepening to let go and be supported and clear. I love how much I have cleared our home out and how much more there is to clear and bring order to!
I love the fact that putting up your mirror made such a difference. Now you don’t have to stoop down to see yourself.
It reminds me to never underestimate how important everything is, seemingly little or big. I know if a small job is left unattended to it can drain me because it is always there to do.
Sometimes it is time to move on, to declutter from a very personal place and having our home reflect this evolution is something we can do to support this inner change.
My ‘room at the back of the house’ is 3 small attics, which I can close and think it doesn’t affect me, having all the clutter up there. But when I completely emptied the one last year above my bedroom, I could really feel the extra space there.
Was just wondering gillrandall, how did your body feel after completely clearing your attic?
Clearing out the clutter from our home is such a reflection of clearing the clutter from our bodies. Whatever is not needed we can discard and focus on what we truly want and what is important.
I agree Rebecca, clearing the clutter from our houses is clearing the clutter from our bodies, it then becomes easier to focus on what we truly want and at the same time, the thing we truly want can come easier to us because there is nothing blocking the flow that delivers what we want.
I have just moved, what a great opportunity to remove STUFF that I have been dragging around for years. We have a site in the UK that is an online, local (your town) place to offer your stuff for free, the new owner only has to come by and pick it up. This is great for big things, we have had large items gone the same day that we posted them. That takes care of the big stuff and the local charity shops get the lions share. There is still more to shed myself from but it’s getting easier with every car load that is gone. The more I discard the easier it gets. Car boot time will soon be here and one more car load will be gone.
That site in the UK where you can offer your stuff for free sounds great sjmatsonuk. It would be really good to have that here in Australia. We have a kind of version of that where one simply puts the object out the front of the driveway and it vanishes promptly. The only trouble with that is that it works when the weather is fine but can be tricky otherwise.
The setting up of our home and what and where everything is placed is such a precise and beautiful art.
Just reading your blog Gyl, makes me want to clear out my cupboards too. I have had a clean out a couple of times and it’s brewing again to be done. It is quite incredible how cleansed we do feel in our body after clearing and sorting out the space we live in. It is such a interactive reflection.
Love your phrase ‘interactive reflection’ Johanne, which just about encapsulates the whole thing!
What I find great, is not only having the big clear-out days like mentioned in this blog, but also, each day or each week, doing a little bit extra here and there helps avoid having to go the full monty and dedicate a full day of clearing.
Ah Gyl – the power of de-cluttering! I love it too! One area I like to de-clutter regularly is the fridge and the pantry. This just seems to be a natural thing I have always done. When I was younger and visiting friends or relatives, I would often de-clutter their fridges too – they would love it and would love my visits as they knew they would get a fresh start with me in the house again! And you are spot on – everything feels more spacious and beautiful -just like we are already on the inside!
Reading this took me back to my childhood and how we used to have a big tip run at the end of each year. Growing up on a farm our motto was “don’t throw that out, you may never know when you will need it”. And yes there is a bit of truth in there but there is also a lot of rubbish. I clearly remember spending a full weekend cleaning the sheds and then heading off to the tip on a Sunday afternoon in our big truck.
Thirty years ago the tips were a whole different world as there was no one regulating what you dumped, I am actually scared to think what may have been there but I was also fascinated that there were always people scrounging around looking for anything they thought of use. It was the foulest smelling place I have ever been to.
The sheds always looked and felt grand for a while but the new year began and we gradually accumulated again. It would have been and is so much easier to clean up as you go. Thanks for the memories Gyl.
I find it interesting that we hold onto things we don’t need, gathering dust and creating clutter. It’s often stuff that we keep ‘just in case’ – which is a way of protecting ourself from being caught short by some unknown future event. The same could be said for the hurts we carry -that we hold onto them as a form of protection in case we get hurt again.
Agree Jinya, “just in case” to hold onto a protection (based on a hurt) will make sure that I will meet the hurt again, because I did not let go of it, did not clear it out.
I can relate to ‘clearing out’, as I just saw a good friend in an old dress of hers that she likes. It is a beautiful dress, but…it looks like an ‘old dress’ on a ‘new women’, so to speak. It looked like she was wearing something that no longer belongs to her, something that supports an old energy that she is no longer in.
And I remember clothing in my wardrobe which is also not up-to-date, so to speak, with me actually. But I still have it, holding onto these “old expressions”. This feels for me like a holding back in my actual expression and a holding on to something old. I can feel that part of me is holding onto this clothing by thinking, “I may need that same day and then I will have it in stock“, but this – holding onto old things, which are no longer up-to-date with me, whether furniture or clothing – is based on safety and not a joyful expression of what I am right now.
That does not mean that I need new clothes every day – but simply to be aware of getting caught in old patterns, like hiding in old clothes which no longer belong to me. I feel that my old things, whether clothing or patterns of behaviour, have to be cleared out. If not I know I block my evolution (my learning), and the space in my wardrobe!
I agree. And it is all in the energy, whether that is old or new. Take a scenario like this one: I used to wear a lot of mid-calf length skirts, but then I embraced the short skirt and had such a spunky time going around in them. For a year and a half I did not wear my longer skirts but I kept them.
Then I bought a beautiful new white, fitting sleeveless top in a kind of damask material, and suddenly this looked just beautiful with the longer skirt but with the addition of the new coloured belt. It looked and felt amazing and I could feel a new grace in me, wanting to be expressed by the slightly longer skirt. In this case I was glad I kept the longer skirt and didn’t immediately ditch them. It was being aware in each moment how things are feeling and having a leeway because in fact these skirts did not feel ‘past it’ or ‘old’ and were waiting for a fresh take.
From cleaning the day’s dirt from my face with a cotton pad, to wiping the kitchen surface, to clearing out my old paperwork, these practical tasks go so much deeper than the surface they touch – each one is an opportunity to feel how you have been in your day, your week, your month.
Letting all the clutter go does make everything so much lighter and clearer and it brings an enormous relaxation to not have to drag this with you anymore.
It feels like when we get to the point where we feel like clearing out old rubbish then we have already made that change within ourselves.
Wow Matts! Really interesting observation. We shift and then we do what is needed to bring our ‘outer’ vehicle (house, car) to correspond and align with the new level. Certainly that is what happens with food with me. I step up and I can feel a certain food is no longer necessary, in fact I can feel it will bring me down. What you have said makes so much sense.
” 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.” I so agree with this Gyl – and this goes not only for physical things in my house etc, but for my behaviours too. Do I still want to continue old habits and patterns that no longer serve? No. Constantly refining everything……
I agree Gyl. Each time I clear a layer of clutter in the house or rearrange the furniture I feel clearer in my body and in the house and I feel lighter.
Whenever I hear people talk about clutter clearing I pat myself on the back for the massive effort I put in 2 years ago when we moved house content that my job’s done!
After reading this post I’m sitting here thinking of this drawer, that cupboard and old bookshelf where I’ve rebuilt a clutter collection.
Nowhere near the previous scale it has still collected and allowed pockets of old to linger.
Thanks for the inspiration and realisation Gyl, that this is an area to bring continued focus to as I allow myself to keep on letting go of the old and to look at the new, ie; objects that I’ve brought into my life in the last 2 years, to see how supportive they are and do I still want them or are they too adding to pockets of heaviness and lack of clarity!
Thanks Gyl for your sharing. I have always been very ‘allergic’ to clutter and to accumulating things unnecessarily. I grew up with a father who would have filled up the three pyramids of stuff if he could. I still remember the sense of constriction and imposition I was feeling when being in areas or rooms he had ‘touched’ with his cluttering wand. I absolutely love to periodically go through my wardrobe, cupboards and office and throw away everything that is not needed. It is such a healing. I feel the spaciousness, clarity and support offered by a tidy and clutter free space. Simplicity instead of complications and clearly a reflection of our whole life.
Thanks Gyl for your sharing. I have always been very ‘allergic’ to clutter and to accumulating things unnecessarily. I grew up with a father who would have filled up the three pyramids of stuff if he could. I still remember the sense of constriction and imposition I was feeling when being in areas or rooms he had ‘touched’ with his cluttering wand. I absolutely love to periodically go through my wardrobe, cupboards and office and throw away everything that is not needed. It is such a healing. I feel the spaciousness, clarity and support offered by a tidy and clutter free space. Simplicity instead of complications and clearly a reflection of our whole life.
HI Giovanna, I Always feel the spaciousess and clarity that is created when I have cleaned and cleared a room, and do this on a regular basis, and love to move my furniture around too and Always know exactly the spot to put things – I like clean and orderly – I like simple.
This is inspiring for me Gyl. I recently signed up for a de-cluttering course. The spaciousness feeling is incredible when I started to get rid of the junk we’ve accumulated. It allows a sense of lightness and clarity too. I think de-cluttering is going to be an on-going thing for me. Setting a time regularly to do it is very supportive. Another very fun and supportive thing I did was organized swaps with a friend to make it a fun and social event to help each other clean or de-clutter our house.
I recently went round to a friend’s house to support her with a good clear out. It was a lot of fun and we shared much in the process.
I also made the experience how important it is to keep my house orderly, tidy and clean. And what impact an untidy attic has on the whole energy of my house, i didn’t allow myself to feel that before.
I know, right? It makes the hugest difference to everything by just adjusting the spaces that we don’t really use. Just goes to show that you can’t sweep anything under the rug!
When we have an attachment to things, we create an emotional energetic load on ourselves, weighing us down. So no wonder when we release these objects, there is an energetic release and a physical experience. These places always seem to be the room or cupboard that we ‘don’t’ go to unless we have to. We shut it away and try to forget it, but that is impossible when we have created an imprint within ourselves with the attachment. We can never really be truly free if we have attachments.
Very well said Matthew – there is definitely an energetic release that occurs when we clear out and release objects/things/behaviours that we’ve held onto for a long time.
Thank you, Matthew and Susie. And for every thing we clear, the space created inspires us to explore further for any isolated dusty corners we are trying to pretend do not exist. Space knows it can expand endlessly!
Is it not stunning in how far we are prepared to fool ourselves into a “reality” that does not not work, but makes us feel comfortable on the surface? Anything that will keep us from taking responsibility will be fine. Where does the strengh of this inner drive come from? Why do we follow it if we feel deep within – that this is just not it.
Clearing and thereby seeing what we truly need and what we just drag around with us as a burden is an amazingly freeing and simplifying experience – be it your house or simply your whole life ;o)
Agree Michael, clearing out what is not needed is not just for houses but as you say for our ‘whole life’. More than that, it is never a one-off event but a constant never-ending refining process, as what supports us at one time may later become a burden which we drag around. The key to cleaning is to remain ever aware of what is there to be discarded in every moment and in all aspects of our life.
Yes Michael, clearing all the baggage out from a room to our inner being is an amazing freeing and liberating experience!
There is so much here to reflect on, Gyl, clearing our the clutter has so many connotations, and if truly felt into on all levels is a lifelong task of continually observing and recogonising where and why we hold onto it. It is well worth paying attention as when we clear old stuff away, everything clears and we have more choices to let in the new.
I love this Gyl. Recently I had this sense to clear out all my kitchen cupboards. A few days later ants appeared in my house and each day as they explored another cupboard looking around, I cleared one more out, throwing away foods I no longer ate, cleaning jars, wiping out drawers and shelves until I’d gone through them all. It was as if they were showing me the way, we were working together! Not only was it easy to find everything but my cupboards felt lighter and more spacious after and each time I opened them that is what came back to me. Having welcomed the ants when our job was done, they naturally left. It was an easy process where I didn’t have to make the time or fix anything, it just happened. At the time I was also clearing out some old emotions and patterns of behaviour that I’d become aware of and let them go too. A clear out on all levels.
Wow! Now that is really working with nature, letting the ants lead the way.
I love reading all the comments on here as it feels like a topic that everyone can relate strongly to, there is a lot to be said for how the clutter in our life can hold us back and stop us from moving forward. Who would think such a relatively easy task could be so transforming of how we feel
Very true Stephen, it is a relatively easy task but I have managed to make it into something to dread or avoid because in my head I always tell myself I have other things I need to attend to first. I see it now as an excuse and a way to allow myself to be held back with this heaviness. When I make de-cluttering part of everything else it feels amazing. Light, loving and extremely supportive.
Definitely Stephen – this is a topic everyone can relate strongly to, as there are things in almost everyone’s lives that we unnecessarily hold on to, that stop us from moving forward.
This is so true Stephen. De cluttering can literally be transforming. Not only does it feel good, but having less stuff makes looking after your home so much quicker and simpler!
My mother was a hoarder, so I followed in her footsteps until about 10 years ago. It was then I decided that anything I did not need nor had used recently would go. I gave the good stuff to family and friends and the rest I threw out. Rather then stuff sitting around not being worn or used it is then being made good use of by others. It is now a rhythm of mine to consistently clear away what I no longer wear or use. It is a letting go process that I am constantly refining.
Thank you Gyl for a great blog.
It inspires me to share something Serge said at a recent presentation, “Does this belong in your future?, Does what you are holding onto have a place with where you see yourself down the track ?……if it doesn’t,……. let it go now”.
This was very liberating for me and I let a lot of things go that were cluttering my space and my thoughts. Perfect way to de stress.
Thank you for sharing this Belinda. Liberating indeed and great words to read regularly that can be applied to all aspects of our lives.
Thank you for sharing Belinda, this is perfect for me to read today and worth repeating:
“Does this belong in your future? Does what you are holding onto have a place with where you see yourself down the track ?……if it doesn’t,…… let it go now”.
I like it – if I can’t see a place for it in my future is a great measure for letting go of things. Time for another clean out!
It’s funny how we try to get a sense of being full by holding onto stuff. But really we don’t feel fulfilled by the stuff at all .
Awesome read Gyl, and I can fully relate to this and feel you have inspired me to do the same. It’s a constant clearing and cleaning up stuff in life so it doesn’t get in the way of being us in full.
Absolutely Greg; when we leave things messy, don’t clear out our ‘junk’ and let that build up around us it completely stops us from moving forward. Of course this then has a huge affect on everyone around us – we have a great responsibility to constant clean and clear up after ourselves.
It is an amazing feeling when we clean and clear away that which we no longer feel is a part of us. This is a very inspiring blog Gyl.
I find I get a joyful feeling within when I de-clutter and clean. I de-cluttered our reception desk the other day and when I was finished, I could feel the space and clarity.
It is awesome to get rid of things we have been holding on to for years. When I first started getting rid of things I kept just incase I needed them one day. I’d get rid of something I’d held onto for years incase I may need it in the future and then I would actually find a purpose for it, this happened several times when I was first throwing out stuff I had collected. I felt like these situations were opportunities where I could doubt getting rid of things and keep my old way of holding onto things incase, or to get really firm in creating a new way not let things collect in my life. I felt these situations happened so I could either go back to my old ways or really claim my new way of not letting clutter fill my life. As I kept confirming my new way of not holding onto stuff these situations stopped happening.
I agree, why would we hold the past with us when we cannot change it. Looking behind us for some confirmation of how we got here, ready to be found if needed to prove the fact.
Why not just present what we are now, unattached to the past, knowing that, that is all another truly needs to see us.
I have had a pattern of hoarding all my life and always felt it was good to hang onto stuff in case it was needed, how wrong could I be? The funny thing is I could never find things even when I’d saved them because I had so much stuff. So I am slowly clearing a huge backlog of my mothers and my own stuff, and i’m getting a real sense and feeling of the spaciousness you describe Gyl when I let go of things I no longer need. I don’t need a bigger house, I just need to continue the clearing of the clutter.
I smiled when I read your comment Gill. I am learning to be an ex-hoarder! I am in the process of clearing my parents house which has helped me to let go of ‘stuff’ and the sense of relief is so obvious that when I go back to my home, it is with a renewed sense of knowing that as I let go of my clutter, I sense that freedom at home too.
I love clearing out of unwanted items and the feeling that comes with the clear space.
Each time I have a clear out I find something that I couldn’t let go of before or didn’t see and then when the time is right I can let them go and it’s easy. Reading your blog has inspired me to take some more stuff out of the house at the first opportunity.
“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.” I so agree Gyl – decluttering is a liberating phenomenon. The resulting spaciousness feels amazing.
Thank you Gyl and Sueq2012, I agree, a totally liberating experience that brings a truer expression to our bodies!
I love the feeling I get when clearing out clutter, I love the whole process especially putting it in the bin. Then it feels complete.
I am with you on that one Denise. That final letting go when it goes in the bin is a great feeling. I sometimes have a bonfire too for paperwork and old things and this feels quite amazing to release the old.
From my experience, ‘clearing the cobwebs’ is saying ‘yes’ to simplicity and ‘no’ to complexity. A complexity that clutter invites in and seeks to keep us enmeshed in, forever entangled by its sticky web of nostalgia and romanticism. It is a clever move on the part of a certain aspect of us (our spirit) that seeks to keep us from living the future now (our Soul) by keeping us in the paralysis of the past. Gyl, the joy of your de-webbing is deeply felt and completely inspiring.
I’m with you Liane and Gyl releasing the binds of the past in de-cluttering and keeping our rooms and our homes simple and uncomplicated creates space for us to be simple and uncomplicated in the way we live – what a joy and relief. Thank you both for this great inspiration.
As is your comment too Liane. Thank you for stating it so clearly – it is yes to simplicity and no to complexity. I am inspired to be quite ruthless in my bedroom as it feels quite complicated at the moment.
I completely agree Lianne, it is indeed without all doubt, a choice that one allows in choosing our sprit and its complexity, and with that a felt stickiness and dis-ease in and of life, or the forward moving aspect of our Soul which is simplicity in action, that comes with absolute clarity, harmony and ease.
Very cool blog Gyl.
Absolutely – cleaning out clutter is like clearing the cobwebs away. I find there is always a feeling of spaciousness when I let go of that which is no longer needed or doesn’t truly serve me.
I’ve come back to this blog today, now in the midst of moving house, and I realised it is changing the way I pack…sorting BEFORE things go into boxes – not taking any clutter, unnecessaries or ‘just in case hold-ontoers’ to the new space. Cleaning out a cupboard is so refreshing, but setting up a new house as a clear simple loving space for the family is another scale and a great opportunity. Inspired by your new room and how I can feel it has lifted the whole house.
How perfect is the timing of this blog as your set up you new house. I love this confirmation that we are all connected 🙂
That’s great Kate. I’ve just moved house and the most joyful aspect for me was to put only the things used regularly by the family inside it. Finding homes for everything and putting everything in its place has our house feeling clear and spacious even though it is a much smaller place from where we have moved from. With no attachment to any possession it has been an easy process to make and we can enjoy our new home joyfully.
Gorgeous Michelle, I love the finding homes for everything and putting everything in its place – this is such a joy for me too, to feel an easy flow of daily life from where everything is placed…your joy is tangible and inspiring.
So true Kate. Moving house is the perfect opportunity for clearing our clutter and not taking anything with you that you simply don’t need. Now that I am settled in a home that I am happy in I have to remind myself to clear our clutter instead of waiting for a house move to assist me! It is usually the last thing I think of doing, but is well worth the effort and time.
What a wonderful opportunity Kate to begin your time in your new home free of the “clutter” that you are letting go of and leaving behind, especially those “just in case hold-ontoers’. I know those ones so well, and finally letting them go is so freeing. Enjoy your new home.
Love it Kate. For many, many people moving house can be an extremely stressful time, where they are faced with all of the items, clothes, furniture and ‘junk’ they’ve held on to over the years that is no longer used or needed. You are completely changing the stereotype that moving house has to be complicated!
So true Susie, it’s not complicated or stressful though definitely uncomfortable to deal with those procrastinated pockets, like piles of unsorted and unloved papers tucked away into ‘overwhelm corner – it can be confronting clearing up consequences. Lots of resolutions being made about different rhythms at the new house that allow for pockets not to re-accumulate. To make space for dealing with it all I am putting more physical space into the move schedule too, like nearly three weeks, in stages, to clear the way for not just shoving old clutter into boxes and bringing it with us, but packing and setting up with care – all pretty un-stressful so far, enjoyable actually. I am though definitely feeling the different care that is needed for the body during this time to sustain the physical and organisational aspects of the moving, (particularly in a one adult house). Pacing the clear out to not be a wipe out is definitely called for. I’m the number one precious item that is moving…to be ‘handled with care’!
Very true Susie if we have the storage area in a place we tend to fill it but when we move homes the layout is always different and everything has to get reconfigured and moved around so it is a great opportunity to let go of what you no longer need.
Yes, in taking time to lovingly pack you are setting up the energy you will be moving in and with. En-Joy.
I love what you share here Jane re the power of simplicity…and still surrounded by packing etc, I can feel there are a few more items on the cull list. It is amazing how the new house is already feeling as supportive simplicity in function and family flow is the basis for the whole set up. Loving decluttering.
Beautiful Kate – doing the clearing out before moving into the new house sounds awesome, so that when you move in the space is, and remains, totally fresh.
You article Gyl and the comments offered me a moment to recall how I have felt more spacious and clear as a result of getting rid of what was no longer required, and how I have felt foggy and tangled as a result of keeping what I have known should be abandoned. It seems a very wise move to ongoingly keep removing what is no longer required and has turned to ‘clutter’.
I find De- cluttering is a very freeing experience and creates spaciousness and clarity in both the body and the physical space space I de-clutter.
I agree that the physical clutter effects how you feel. Clutter can make you feel cramped, frustrated and annoyed.
Thank you Gyl. Over four years ago now I was all set to participate in a garage sale at a friend’s house wanting, like you, to clear the clutter. A major event took place preventing this from happening. I have been talking about having a garage sale myself ever since! I now have more ‘stuff’ to clear and venturing into the garage loft seems daunting but, also like you, I know it will feel amazing when I finally take the steps……soon! I can literally feel all the cloggy old energy sitting there, a part of me that no longer belongs. Definitely time to “clear the cobwebs away”.
It was amazing to feel the clear out of my garage when I moved house. For years It had been used as a dumping ground and when I swept the last dust away off the floor it felt light and clear. It’s incredible what we put up with and live with. My next garage stayed clutter free and I learnt from my clear out.
I keep getting drawn to reading this and also to removing clutter from my home. I am continually looking around the spaces and going – how can I simplify this? What is truly needed in these spaces? I so agree with your comment “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”. Hear hear sister.
It’s my experience that clutter affects my mind and body too. I love order and have to clear my clutter regularly or else I start feeling weighed down by it in some way. I feel distracted like it’s calling me to deal with it and it makes me a little nervous. A mess on my desk feels confusing and makes it harder to work. There is no doubt that we can feel the effects of everything around us. The intention of everything we’ve done in our space. What energy we were in when we left the clutter, of how we placed an item. The deeper we go into the decluttering experience the more we realise how affected we are by it. I know why you are smiling Gyl, it just feels so amazing to clear clutter.
I agree, keeping a work space clear and simple helps with focus and purpose. It definitely makes a difference.
I’m with you on this one Vicky. I now try to read, deal with or file papers straight away to avoid a pile forming and with it a feeling of anxiousness..
Gyl what a fabulous blog! I have two spaces in my house that are a little like that… it’s my fabric storage room and it’s my desk and my book work that needs that attention and you are right when you said that I put these jobs off because if feels too big and I just don’t want to start it! After reading this though I will commit to making the time and clearing the cobwebs. Thank you Gyl for the inspiration with love.
Simone as I read your comment, a cupboard in my home came to mind. Left untouched for a few years, it’s time to open the door, give it some attention and perhaps pull out the weeds.
I couldn’t agree more, Gyl: “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.” Even tidying up a cupboard, emptying a garbage bin….replacing everything where it feels right for it to be….it all feels spacious in the physical body – like breathing easily again. Amazing, really.
I agree Coleen, the smallest thing such as emptying a bin regularly can help set up a rhythm which is more loving and this can grow. I find if I tackle a bite-size piece of clearing, it inspires me to do more. It feels great, as you say, like breathing easily again.
“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” . Yes, Gyl, I know that feeling, it is such a wonderful feeling when I have finished clearing, room by room. Time now for me to go to the next layer of letting go what I no longer need.
Beautifully expressed Beverley.
I have definitely felt that, how cleaning a room does not only affect the room by it having more clarity, spaciousness, contentment and joy but it also changes the house and your body to. Feeling that very same energy.
I agree Vicky it like cutting attachments that the body has held onto for so many years. Definitely making the room,body and life much more spacious.its pretty incredible really that such a simple act can have such a huge effect.
Thank you Gyl and Beverley, I agreed what a tremendous blessing we get from freeing ourself from the past. When it is time to clean out after I have passed-over my feeling is that there will be minimal effort required. It is so joy-full to continually clear every aspect of our lives!
So true Greg, it feels great to let go of the past and to clear that which we no longer need that can hold us back, I really enjoy clearing things out and feel much lighter as a result.
I agree Beverley, it feels great when we get rid of what we no longer need.
I second that, very well expressed Beverley.
I know that feeling too Beverly and Gyl, the way that things feel is very important.
I agree Beverley, I am quite good at de-cluttering my house but every time I do there is yet another layer of letting go of what I no longer need. I just moved to a new house, letting go of more “things” in the process, I find it almost impossible to bring stuff into my new house that I truly don’t need anymore.
Yes Beverley, I agree, ‘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’. Me too, time to go to the next layer of letting go what I no longer need.
Go Gyl! Fabulous read. We can underestimate how much our clutter can weigh us down – not just the look of a room. How is it that we think that old postcard,ticket or pen is going to serve us – yet we all, at some stage, hold onto these momentos to transport us back. Is that the secret – a part of us is wishing to relive the past?
Is it also a possibility that sustaining attachments to the past with memorabilia holds us back from being able to step easily into our future? As highlighted here there is a shift of feeling weighted with the past to a freeing and expansive feeling when we do clean out – anything, cobwebs included.
Well said Francene. There is no real need to hang onto so many things – they are just things and if they do not serve the future, it is serving to let them go.
Great point Francene. Do we hang onto the past (our clutter) for fear of living the future (the ‘space’ we know ourselves to be) ??
And is that why we acquire clutter in the first place, because to see that space is just a little bit scary?
making space to be more spacious….love it Liane.
This is a very interesting point Francene, ‘Is that the secret – a part of us is wishing to relive the past?’, I can feel that part of the reason I hang onto old postcards or letters is because in a way i want to relive the past when i read them and look at them, that if i get rid of the letters and memorabilia then i cant go back to that time and relive it, i can feel how this holds me back.
I know there have been so many times when I am clearing out my room that I wonder if ill need it again one day, when I almost never do. We currently have a garage full of boxes from when we moved that couldn’t fit in the house and two years later we haven’t needed anything in any of them, showing me just how much clutter we can take with us or have in our homes.
I should add there is one benefit to having a small place – there’s no room for junk – or at least a spare room to put it in. It forces you to be disciplined!
It’s so interesting, this matter of place and space. On a slightly different but related note, my husband and I made the move from a tiny, one-bedroom apartment to a large house for five. Wow! I’d been feeling so constrained in the old place, as if I’d expanded beyond it… which I had. Having space and room to move gave us both a new lease on life.
Thank you Gyl Rae “All the stuff we hold onto, but deep down we really don’t want to keep” when you said this I read it as everything we hold onto from furniture and photos to issues in our body, issues with people, resentment or bitterness. The things that we choose to not let go of, when they happen and at the end of the day.
A great article on “saying no, I don’t want or need this in my life anymore.”
Gorgeous.!!
I recently cleaned out a house after someone had died and I could feel that all the layers of clutter had become this person’s wall and barrier against the world and to keep their own hurt, deep anguish and pain at bay; not that it really works, but it felt like it had provided them with a sense of identity and perceived security.
Writing this makes me think of overeating and how we can so easily clutter our body with foods that are not truly needed or with more than is needed and even when we are not really hungry.
Is life then one big opportunity to get rid of the clutter, inside and out?
Are we all already everything that we will ever be and are all the complications and stresses just stuff that we have burdened ourselves with and that does not need to be there?
I’m a thrower outer, not a hoarder yet i still have clutter in my life. I always found it interesting to feel the emotions that can be attached to items, yet the clarity of having more space far outweighs any sentimental attachment. Why live in the past when you can keep making a clearer and clearer new future. Great blog Gyl, one for everyone I feel.
its almost as if we release some stuff in ourselves, at the same point as we clean out our house and all that can be cluttered. interesting huh! (:
It certainly is a wonderful feeling to clear out old clutter we have hung onto for years. I recently downsized quite considerably for a move and it felt fantastic to just let so much stuff go – rubbish, recycling, things shared with friends – a major clear out and it’s true – my body felt much lighter too.
Same experience for me Jo. When starting to make big changes in my life, I let an enormous amount of my stuff go for a move and it feels so much simpler and lighter to live with less things around me – and I did not miss anything at all.
Every now and then another decluttering happens which always follows a moment where I have reached greater stillness and clarity inside myself. It so beautiful to feel it going on and on.
I love how you put that michaelkremer2212, that when you reach a greater stillness and clarity inside yourself, it allows for further clearing. I am developing further the ability to clock this deepening connection with myself and realise that there are always things to let go of to make room for what is next. Awesome really!
Awesome Gyl keep going, clear the whole house! My wife and I do this regularly where you get to the stage where the house is completely ordered. When you feel it’s time for another thing to go it stands out more and it is obvious it has to go compared to how the whole house feels.
Great point Rik. It is just one perpetual cycle, as we evolve, so too does the space and energy around us need to too in order to support us in every way. Just when you think it’s done…..there’s something else to look at.
Clearing away old baggage and stuff from the past is something to really look at. Why is it so hard to let go sometimes of things we no longer need or use anymore when it does feel great to have a clean break from time to time.
Spot on Jane. Letting go of things that are no longer needed is ‘something that is not just a one-off but a constant refining process’ has also been my experience. It can even be a moment to moment thing when we go through life consciously aware of what we are doing and where we are, and hence continuously adjusting what does not feel true as we go.
Lovely to read Gyl, I know when I declutter it just feels so good! And I always find that there’s more to let go of. What I’m working on is not gathering anything and putting it away ‘in case’.
I loved reading your blog Gyl and now feel very inspired to do the same in my house. I can feel the disregard staring back at me as there is so much that has never been properly filed or thrown out and now the task seems totally overwhelming, in a house where 5 people have lived in this way!!! But as you say, I know that not only will the end result feel amazing, but the process will also be very healing. Thank you.
Hi Gyl, it’s so true what you write – having just cleared out my office, I definitely agree that clearing out clutter and re-organising really does bring such a feeling of spaciousness, not just to the room in question and your house, but a spaciousness that can be felt in your body – I find it is as though I am creating more room for me!
Just as we load ourselves up with emotions and reactions and develop personality traits which are not true to who we really are so we accumulate physical stuff around us. We feel we need this ‘stuff’, it becomes a crutch, we feel it defines who we are, it provides recognition and marks perceived successes. But when we let go of the emotions, reactions and behaviours and feel the simplicity and essence of who we truly are, there is no ‘need’ any more to hang to the stuff – the de-cluttering process becomes an important part of our own personal development to come back to true self.
Such a joyful read Gyl. I also love cleaning out clutter and the clear feeling it gives. Although the pockets are getting smaller, I still have some small boxes that are full of all kind of things I do not have a space for yet. I am inspired by your sharing about the mirror. I too have some small things in my room that still need completing… Thank you!
Your blog has caused me to ponder on why, having cleared out stuff, I then start to accumulate more again, Gyl. I feel when we have cleared stuff out, as well as the feeling of freedom and relief and clarity, there is a space which the old stuff used to occupy. This is the danger point, it feels unfamiliar, and there is a temptation to start the whole process of cluttering all over again. This applies to inner stuff, old habits and long outdated beliefs and ideals, when cleared away often bring a feeling of vulnerability, as they were depended on for the old style of comfortable living. Once we have cleared something out, we need to feel more into what might replace it if need be, and that comes from within.
Reading this blog and the comments, I get how even a small amount of clearing makes a profound difference. I am learning that everything in life needs continual refining to keep up with the expansion that is forever taking place within us. It makes sense that clearing out is something that needs ongoing attention.
Gyl, this is a very cute and sweet sharing. I can totally relate – especially to the random stuff – movie ticket stubs, kinder surprise toys – I used to have shoe boxes full. I feel there is still more to go, but have learnt to accept that after so many years of hoarding, the letting go of everything doesn’t happen overnight. But each time I feel so much lighter, it is definitely worth letting go of clutter for ‘clearing out those internal cobwebs’. There is so much emotion, sentiment and general heaviness that leaves the body when we let go of what we no longer truly need. Thanks Gyl.
Gyl I can feel the lightness and joy in you as you clear away the old, making room for all that beautiful light and love. I’m looking forward to moving house in the next couple of months because it’s always a great opportunity to lighten the load.
I agree Gyl, how amazing it feels when we let go of the laziness and tackle those areas that have been accumulating stuff. I did that in 5 days just before moving, I threw out so much stuff one would never think it was possible to have, since childhood! Not moving all that stuff from one house to another, what a great feeling, and then I thought: why didn´t I do it before, so I could enjoy the feeling while living in the house? So you inspired me and I am going to do clearing right now, and without doubt feel it in my body.
I am in the process of de cluttering and it feels good finally letting go of all those things I have held onto ‘just in case’!
Haha, my ‘just in case’ pile now gets thrown out after a month if it has not been used. It feels liberating to no longer be needy of ‘things’ to fill my emptiness in the way that it seemingly used to.
I like that Janet, great idea.
What I felt on re-reading your blog Gyl, is that not only is de-cluttering of our physical enviroment important but even more inportant, for me now, is to look at what is cluttering up my mind.
Great blog it always feels great to clear a space.
I have noticed that only emotions make me hang on to the past and to old “stuff”. If I become clear of these emotions then I am able to let go of this “stuff”. Moving houses and also re-decorating have been great de-cluttering phases for me and the opportunity to make space for lighter energy.
Thank you Gyl for a great blog.
Very true marylinecd, holding on to old emotions and hurts is just like holding onto old rubbish.
Gyl I can really relate to your feelings around clearing out clutter.
I find it extraordinary how much I enjoy putting the rubbish/recyling out every Friday!
I love putting all the bits into the right boxes and neatly lining them up outside the house so that the refuse collectors can do their job with clarity and ease.
It’s feels like more than simply clearing out the past weeks litter but a moment to appreciate the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new.
A very interesting and revealing blog Gyl. When you say…”.All the stuff we hold onto, but deep down we really don’t want to keep”, it begs the question, What is stopping us from throwing it out? I hung on to stuff from school until I was well into my thirties. Each time I re-read some old A-level Maths notes or something, I marvelled at how I had actually done it at all, and how irrelevant it had become to my life and work, but I still managed not to chuck it out!! I remember feeling how much toil and sweat had gone into it and how it would be disrespectful to just sling it away. The longer I held onto these things, the more difficult it became to part with them, as if I had become the unpaid curator of “The museum of my life” and thus had the (self-imposed) responsibility to protect and maintain its artefacts. Perhaps at that time, my present was failing to live up to my “glorious past” and I was keeping items as a sort of benchmark for my capabilities? Anyway, I must have ‘turned some sort of corner’ because one bright sunny day, the whole lot was just unceremoniously, filed in the dustbin! I must add that I felt much better afterwards!
That’s awesome to read, Jonathan. It occurred to me when reading your comment that the reason I want to hold onto items from the past, is because I may not be feeling that I am living the fullness of myself in the present consistently. I note you have said something similar, but it seemed prudent to re-state it because it brings the whole notion of ‘living in the past’ into context.
Great comment Jonathan, I am sure that’s half of it…the holding on to this stuff to show what we are/were capable of. Yet in that we are indeed showing our emphasis on what we do rather than who we truly are and what we feel in each present moment.
Yes, I can relate to this… evidence of past glories (so called)… recognition for the things we did. Though there is one thing I’ve kept, from primary school. We were asked to write an autobiography – it’s a gorgeous portrait of the young me.
A timely reminder for me Jonathan. Only last weekend I was going through old photo albums and found one of school friends – none of whom I have kept in touch with, so why am I hanging onto them? Good question! Thanks for the inspiration to clear the past and move forward into the now. Great blog Gyl.
Beautiful Gyl the process of clearing spaces to reflect the spaciousness within just feels truly supportive and harmonious, thank you for sharing and living it.
I love it Gyl, what a delight to read. There is nothing like clearing out clutter for bringing a pep to your step… and it is certainly apparent in yours, thank you.
Thank you Jenny I absolutely agree, definitely a pep in my step, no hiding there 🙂
I am right there with you Gyl, I love clearing the house out, doing a spring clean or decluttering. We are going to be moving house in a few months, which means having a massive deep clear out of every room so that when we move we don’t take anything with us that we don’t need – I have to say I can’t wait!
I love clearing too!
Awesome, Gyl! We just moved and in the process decided to do a mega-clear out of things that simply did not fit. It’s something that I have done on several occasions, but there still always seems to be those last few things that we hold onto for some reason: the old tickets, random screws, things that at some point had some kind of significance, but whatever it was is long forgotten. It is a fantastic exercise in presence and letting go to claim what is truly relevant in our life and let go of the baggage we’re carrying around!
I like that phrase ‘truly relevant’ Naren – it is wonderful to ditch the baggage! It feels like there is a fundamental insecurity at play when we hang on to what is no longer needed.
It’s frightening how easily it is to accumulate things if we choose to be unaware. Many years ago I was travelling through America and had all my stuff stolen I was literally left with the cloths I was wearing, shortly after this I was on the phone to my mum and she informed me that the person that was renting their cottage, where I had all my furniture moved out taking all my furniture. It was the most liberating feeling.
Wow. True story heh? I remember when I was moving house and packing up to move house and had the house down to the bare essentials – 2 bowls, 2 plates etc…and when I opened the drawers, it was so liberating. Yes to downsizing for sure!
That’s so funny! Losing everything all at once – brilliant. How great to start afresh – it feels like it was the start of a whole new cycle for you, a whole new phase of you.
Top blog Gyl. About 9 years ago we had a couple of rooms like yours but over the last few years we have moved house several times and each time we have let go of more clutter. It’s an amazing feeling of clearing that space and what we have found is that the more we let go of ‘stuff’, the less we actually need.
I love what you say Tim (from universallivinguk) – that the more we let go, the less we actually need.
That is a profound statement and so true.
Just to add to my husbands comment, 9 years ago our house move had 215 boxes plus all the furniture, suitcases and yes you can imagine.
Our house move next month will be around 20 boxes and that is a fact.
The real beauty is to NOT REPLACE the clutter or ‘stuff’ we choose to let go of.
The space created feels quite precious and the simplicity really has a profound effect on us now and I could not imagine living the old way.
However, I reckon there is always more and more to let go of. Its a work in progress for me and to that I add emails too. Letting go of them is liberating to say the least.
So true Bina, the more we let go, the less we need. I recently moved house and it is not big, so there is actually not much space for stuff and I love it. I only have the things I really need and use, and most importantly, that really support me.
Bina, that is a great de-clutter you will have achieved. How wonderful that feels. I hope to get down to that sort of level. I have just started another de-clutter, it does not seem long since I did the last one, but it built up quite a bit again. As I gradually clear more areas, the house begins to feel so much lighter. And I can relate to the emails too. I cleared 400 of them off my computer yesterday. There are always some that need to stay for a while, but I need to delete them much more regularly.
Oh Bina that is so true – emails are a bit of a bug bear for me and they are so hard to keep on top of in all respects (reading, actioning and eliminating them) but oh so great to get rid of. I find it hard to know how long to keep them, though some correspondence I need to keep for business purposes. And then I worry if I delete them ‘before their time’, I won’t have a particular email down the track! On reflection though this is so rarely the case it doesn’t feel legitimate to hang on to them for that reason. Though I did naturally find I was drawn to clean out a fair bit and tidy up my technology at the end of last year – it’s an ideal time when things are a bit quieter.
I agree Gyl, clearing out clutter is a sign for letting go of the old and as you say the weight of it which is an important part of life.
I agree Amina, letting go of the weight of the baggage of the past is quite liberating.
I couldn’t agree more Gyl. I cleaned out my cupboard recently and got rid of so many things. The old things just didn’t ‘fit’ with me anymore which is no wonder because as we change and develop it makes sense that the things around us do too. No more holding onto the old but more accepting the new.
How liberating it is to cut away the straggly edges of our lives, to free ourselves from all that we don’t actually need to hold onto, and how in the holding on to what we don’t need in fact keeps us held back.
Way to go Gyl. I am inspired to tackle another room in my home. Thank-you.
Gyl I can completely relate to you when you share how clearing out clutter creates a space equally in you, I find that too. I equally feel space and clarity when ever I clear out clutter and re-organise, it just makes me feel amazing inside, I have felt moments like this from when I was young.
I love de-cluttering and clearing out things – I can totally relate to feeling like it is creating space within me as well.
The space we clear around us seems symbolic for the space we create within…
Very true lukeyokota, I notice these days that my dustbin never fills up like it used to. Obviously the life I am choosing these days is creating less mess and more space, a great feeling in my body and one that I constantly enjoy refining. Clearing space in my house definitely supports me to clear space inside myself and I have learnt that I can cherish the beautiful moments in my life without needing to hang on to material souvenirs to remind me of that love, because I can now feel that everyday within.
Beautiful rowenakstewart. Not only have I discovered that the refinement in my life now enjoys a tidy home but also adds to the simplicity in my life. Bills seem to be paid on time, things are less often forgotten and relationships are becoming more streamline. So how about not only a tidy home but a tidy life…
Me too fiona55 – whenever I clear out the clothes in my closet, drawers in my desk or shelves in the kitchen I feel like it’s creating space within me at the same time… Quite refreshing actually.
So lovely to read and be reminded about de-cluttering and the joy you shared about letting go of things that we hold onto but don’t really want to keep. Its as though I don’t want to let go as some of those objects that remind me of the past and I need to indulge in my past! I feel a de clutter coming on …thank you for your inspiration Gyl
When I hold onto clutter it seems to create an energetic drain pipe which sucks my vitality. I feel overwhelmed, a sense of, ‘it’s all too much’ and it seems easier to ignore it than to do something about it. A cluttered space also seems to attract more clutter whereas a clear space does, as you say Gyl, give me ‘a feeling of spaciousness and clarity… in my body’. Why is we hold onto clutter? It’s almost like a deliberate sabotage of our wellbeing.
Good point Sandra, holding onto clutter is like a deliberate sabotage of our wellbeing.
Hello Gyl, this is so true. I tend to hold onto things but then when they are cleaned out it is like a breath of fresh air. For me it’s the same with paying bills, sometimes I leave them and wait but I know when they are paid again another breath of fresh air in my life. Having your life clean, clear and simple says a lot and makes it easier to see what’s next to clean. It’s amazing the feeling these things have on your body as you say Gyl, the letting go, clearing out definitely free’s me up. So for me it’s not necessarily the ‘doing’ part alone. So not just the cleaning, but the feeling where was needed to be cleaned, then that action and lastly the feeling again. So 2 parts feeling and 1 part doing which shows me more attention needs to go to the feeling, thank you Gyl.
This is true for me too Raymond, ‘For me it’s the same with paying bills, sometimes I leave them and wait but I know when they are paid again another breath of fresh air in my life’, I can feel how there are many areas of my life like this, like de-cluttering, paying bills, sending an invoice off, posting something off straight away rather than carrying it around in my bag for days, I can feel how easy it is to go into delay with all of these things and how draining this is until they are completed.
Hi Raymond, it feels great to attend to things when they need doing, and not walk past or leave them till later. It is very obvious things in our life stick out like a sore thumb: it may be not putting the dishes away, paying a bill, clearing out a room, or the food we choose to eat, or even an old pattern, behaviour, or thought that we no longer need cluttering up our life, our body or the universe for that matter. We already can feel and know in our bodies what needs to go, but sometimes this can take a few trips to the skip so to speak.
It’s truly amazing what we can do when we take responsibility for our mess, and clear it out, rather than procrastinating and postponing doing anything until someone else steps in. Thank you for sharing Gyl 🙂
I have been in the same process as you Gyl for the past 2 years, learning to let go and clean out. I’m consciously re-imprinting how I pack the cupboard or draws away after I clean it out. I now feel the love when I open the draws or cupboards, which often brings me back when I feel a bit out. I now know when I walk past a cupboard, room or draw if it needs some re-imprinting and I will bring love back to that space. I love watching my house transform as I do, creating more space for love to live. It’s a constant reflection for me in my livingness.
We recently moved and it was a great way to declutter. Whatever is left is much more essential now.
Gyl, you have me thinking about the mirror that has been leaning against the wall of my room for 2 years, waiting for someone to hang for me. I could feel how I have put so much care into clearing out my room and yet I have let a piece of stagnant energy sitting there that is always felt even if unconsciously. I have been noticing how this has often happened around my house as I’m learning to move and clear things out. I allow little pieces to not enter my eyesight but yet they are always felt. It’s like not bringing all or me to the house. It shows me there is always more I can bring.
I have always loved Decluttering, when things were not ok I would go through my things and tidy, sort, get rid of the things that were no longer me, but as I read this blog Gyl I realised that my paper stuff is my back room, it is something that I have always left to last, keeping it out the back so to speak. Not wanting to take responsibility for the choices that I have made. I have 2 clothes baskets full of papers, bits and pieces that I did not want to deal with. Could it be that I have been hanging onto these so as not to be all of me, and just allowing something so simple to hold me back.
Here here Gyl, i know the feeling and have gone through my whole house a year ago and loved it. The attention to details such as with your mirror can make all the difference. For me now it is not so much in clearing but in doing the chores that are still there, painting, repairing, buying the rugs i can feel my rooms need and such. It feels amazing to care for my house with this attention for detail and love and to make sure my house does not get behind on maintenance. My house feels so much more loving and supportive because of it.
I know what you are saying here Carolien, there is still much to do in relation to de-cluttering my home, but of late I have begun to truly love my home and to care for it with this love. Already I can feel my home responding and supporting me like never before. Yes I can feel a weekend of tenderly loving de-cluttering coming up.
I so relate to your blog Gyl. I have two rooms full of clutter on my boat, they are sort of storage spaces anyway and when I cleared out my workshop in the Caribbean fifteen years ago, anything of value got packed in, either in the for peak or under the cockpit.
Most of it is still there and any imaginary worth of long ago has turned to dust and what I thought I needed is just a dead weight holding my boat deeper in the water. Time to get it out of my life.
Thank you Gyl and Nicholas. We all have our baggage or clutter we carry around in life. Bats in the belfry could be one such animal. To get off the boat before it becomes over crowded with clutter seems like great idea. Maybe in claiming all the unwanted emotional attachments or by taking a broom to the house-boat before the vessel sinks, ether way it is out of your life.
That is so true Nicholas, how much junk do we store because we assign a false value to it, that when re-visited years later has as you say, disintegrated into dust that just weighs us down. Could this also be applied to the many beliefs and ideals we treasure and stow away?
Good call Nicholas, holding onto stuff does drag us down, definitely not a weight we need to keep around – feels so much more amazing to be light.
Love it Gyl – time to be lighter, lighten up and de clutter.
‘What I thought I needed is just a dead weight holding my boat deeper in the water’, Although I don’t own a boat, I’ve experienced the same thing with myself Nicholas. Holding onto unneeded, unused ‘junk’ is just extra weight that holds me back from moving forward and evolving.
So true decluttering is the equivalent of a rubbish bin not being emptied, instead of the smell, the unwanted energy hangs around.
I shredded photos, letters, even books and CDs that don’t make me feel good. Work in progress and more decluttering to come
My desk could really do with a de-clutter, it is one of those areas where I de-clutter and in no time it is full again, I can’t always bring myself to throw away that piece of paper I might need but never do.
Alison, I can really relate to what you say, my desk is almost always covered with pieces of paper. All those little things you can’t throw out, but then every so often I do a big de-clutter, polish it all up, and then it all starts over again. I have to have a re-look at my filing system. It has to allow for all those little things that I do not want to forget, or need to deal with a little later.
Dare I admit online but hey ho, no point pretending – my desk has piles of different projects and in need of even more clearing out. Thank God I have space in my office for another 2 desks. So my computer desk is super clear and so is my admin desk.
The one with the ‘stuff’ has a white sheet over it and whilst it is organised it needs more letting go. Like you alisonmoir I can’t always bring myself to throw away something as I have got that “just incase syndrome” going on especially with paperwork and emails. However, I make a point of dedicating time weekly just to let go and it does work.
What is so amazing is that once I let go, I always feel so much better. I would have to say that I really and truly love clutter clearing and letting go of anything and everything. Having no attachment is such a freedom and its getting easier. Gosh what a hoarder and clutterholic I used to be !
Gyl, I can really relate to this. I often follow an impulse to clean out drawers ,clothes etc. even though I may have done this not so long ago. I have noticed that as I deepen my connection to myself and shed the layers of what is not me this is reflected in cleaning out drawers, cupboards and changing furniture and layouts within the home. I find this process so joyful, uplifting and affirming.
Anne I can relate to what you share, I too have impulses to clean. It’s great what you share as we deepen our connections and shed more layers of what is not us, it can be reflected in our decluttering and cleaning. I too really find the process joyful, very uplifting and affirming.
I, too, like to move or change furniture around the house Anne. It gives a fresh feel that confirms the latest energy we are in.
Very cool Gyl – it is awesome to hear you speak about a topic I know very well from experience – if my room is messy, how I feel is often all muddled and my emotions are very messy. But when I clean it, I find it helps me to think clearer and gives me space instead of being another thing I have to worry about
Such a true observation, Jessica, that one’s living space is a reflection of one’s mental and emotional state. As clutter can so easily accumulate in one’s house so I find that this if this occurs it is a great reflection that so have all sorts of unnecessary thoughts, imaginations and daydreams have filled my head. Clearing the room definitely seems to help these unnecessary thoughts.
My office is due for a tidy up Gyl, not such an overall as your back room, but even so, I know it’ll feel a whole, whole, whole lot lovelier once I’ve finished!
De-cluttering creates so much space, not only physically but also energetically. We can leave old stuff behind we before couldn’t let go of, may it be a memory we held onto or an attachment to a certain object we may use later one time, but never do.. it is clearing so much; it is amazing.
Hi Gyl, I enjoyed this I can feel how much joy you are feeling about the spaciousness appearing in your life. A few years ago I moved from a 3 bed detached to a one bed cottage so I had a massive clear out just like this. Since then I have moved into a 2 bed with a little more space so I can feel I have gathered a few things I don’t need to and I feel a little rummaging in cupboards is approaching! Thanks for the prompt!
The joy I feel when I come back to a clean and orderly home is amazing. It does not need to be immaculate in every way, it often isn’t but if I have cleared out what is not needed then there is a lightness and freshness which feels lovely.
A very timely blog Gyl as I have been feeling the impulse to move things the last few weeks. Stuff that’s been hidden in drawers and out of reach cupboards suddenly has become impossible to ignore. It feels like I’ve hardly made a dent but I’ve broken through the ‘it’s too hard, I don’t know where to start’ phase. It totally is a release of stuff and all that it carries that is no longer relevant, creating a spacious feeling.
Clarity cannot be underestimated in our mind, body and environments- it supports us to make clear and loving choices in every aspect of our lives.
I’ve just cleared my food cupboards this morning and I agree, Gill, I feel so much lighter in myself. How much clutter I have stored in my body too over the years, and it is taking its time to clear, but clearing the outside stuff definitely helps as I look at what I have stored and recognise my attachment to old things that are “past their sell by date!” It is the same on the inside, so much many attachments to things I no longer need.
I enjoyed reading your blog Gyl. I do find it challenging at times when throwing out things that remind me of my past. The times when I have been able to de-clutter, the feeling is one of clarity and lightness. It does feel like I am throwing out the old me, allowing more of the real me to shine through.
People are making a good living out of helping others clear their clutter. At times it seems much easier for someone else to help us with this process, maybe because they don’t have the attachments we do. For me though, I love to do it myself, the feeling of freshness, staring that clutter, dirt and grime directly in the eyes and saying “you shall not conquer me”!
That’s such an awesome, light and fun article….mmmm, you have reminded me of a box i have where it’s time to throw those old held treasures out….so i can create space for the new ….it’s like that one annoying pimple on your face….
I am with you on this one Gyl, I love a good clear out. I have moved house many times in the past 13-14 years, so while I don’t have a huge excess of things, it still feel like there is always another layer to go each time, and each time it feels more spacious. Thank you for sharing.
De-cluttering sure is like clearing the cobwebs away both in our physical body and our homes. It gives me a real freeing feeling. I always noticed with my kids at the end of a school or uni semester once that last exam was over and that last assignment in they would come home and have a huge de-clutter.
Gyl it’s always inspiring to have someone share their experience. After reading this I start to feel the areas that need a bit of loving attention and lightening. Enjoy your new space ☺.
Im hearing you Gyl, clutter makes me splutter! i would consider myself a minimalist – I am so good and not keeping clutter that I have often thrown things out and wondered why i had done that because I needed it in that moment! Ha ha.
You have made de-cluttering such a joyful and healing thing to do Gyl. I have been going through drawers in my bedroom and bathroom and work spaces, and clearing out anything not being used, and then walking back into that room later feels lovely. I agree the body feels more spacious too!
I have recently cleared out much unwanted bits and pieces on my beautiful (now) enclosed verandah . Part of the room is for toys and furniture for my little Grandchildren and the rest is for my lovely cane lounge and indoor plants. The floor was a shocking pink (some previous owner painted around a rug on the floor)and bare timber , now it is a lovely off white with rug. I still have other pockets to empty but not much. Some old pieces of furniture need to find their way to the revolve centre. I love my “new” room and the kids do too. Thank you for reminding me there is a little more to go yet Gyl great blog!
I love how everything feels more open and lighter when I have a clear out.
Recently I have moved house and in that time of packing I came across all these things I was holding onto for years, these small ‘sentimental’ items we hold onto. For years I have believed that sentimental items are to be treasured and held onto, that they are the only way we can remember good memories, but then why are they avoided? why do we feel heavy when we look at the amount of items we have collected?
A quick google search found the definition of sentimental to be related to sticky and emotional. When we let go of these ‘sentimental’ things that feeling of space and lightness that you shared Gyl I too have felt when sending my childhood toys to the charity shop. This is a great blog as it brings up the question – do we really need all this stuff to remember ‘fond memories’ or are they weighting us down from creating new ones?
Thank you leighmatson! Reading your definition of sentimental has been very helpful. In the past I’ve felt if I throw out these items that somehow I’m rejecting the person who gave them to me. What a lie that is!
Wow this is timely. I have a need to clean out a whole shed and I do know that feeling of all the stuff I might encounter that has been buried. Definitely an inner cleaning as well as outer and I can already feel myself wanting to avoid it, get someone else to do it and make the decisions. Great to be remind of how spacious it can feel afterwards.
I just did exactly the same- de-cluttered my whole apartment, every drawer and it felt awesome!!!! I so know what you feel like- it is a clearing of old stuff inside oneself and letting go of it. And I know de-cluttering will never be finished 🙂
Steffi great point you make, de-cluttering is clearing out stuff inside and letting go. The more we de-clutter, the more we let go. This process will never stop, as there will always be things to let go.
I have been slowly clearing out the garage. After reading your blog, Gyl, I can feel how much clearer I will feel once this is done and it is time to do it with more purpose and less holding onto the “just in case” items.
Gyl with each clear out or even when I clean my home I also feel lighter in myself. Interesting there are always little places that I don’t get around to clearing out normally as they have bits I don’t need but hang onto. A pre summer clear out is now on the cards and I’ll be sure to start to tackle these areas.
This has brought so much inspiration to me to clear out my bedroom and my loft. There’s is so much stuff that we hooked onto like you said just in case when the reality is it’s likely we won’t ever use it again. Thank you for sharing this
Being prepared to get behind the surface and actually see and take responsibility for what ‘lurks beneath’ – I feel the opportunities this presents and having just done a house move know the liberation of this – there is always more to clear and for me it is then about the commitment of how I live in the days, am I maintaining simplicity and clarity or re-cluttering. I have another house move in the autumn so I am being offered everything!
I can relate here Gyl to your blog as we are in the middle of a gradual clearing out the house of junk and clutter as well. Did a big chunk of it over Christmas and the house and all of us in it felt so much lighter!
Great blog Gyl, thank you. I can feel how simple and joyful clearing out is when I drop any attachment I have to all the stuff that has gathered around me at home. It is great also to feel that reflection in my life where I still have attachment to things, for instance wanting situations to go a certain way to suit me – how freeing it is when I let these go too.
Thank you Gyl for sharing: “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”. I love a nice clean house and feel exactly the same way. I find it really hard to get started but then when I do the difference I feel both in my house and body is amazing. It is definitely something I need to master more as keep finding things build up. It feels like a continual evolving and unraveling relationship with cleaning and de-cluttering. When I buy things I now ask myself more and more do I really need this? I have to be careful though and not simply say no because I have something old like it. We can make do with old clothes, possessions etc.. but the difference when we get new ones, which reflect who we are now, is huge – why would I want to keep something that when I wear it no longer feels lovely to have on? and saving things for the just in case moments – well they can hang around for years and never see the light of day!
Gyl, what you haven written here is so true! It’s immensely liberating to get rid of all that stuff that is simply no longer relevant or part of us. I love the part about the mirror, which in my case is pictures waiting to be hung, now, next week, some time never! I feel that frequently, our ‘stuff’ imposes a sort of tyranny upon us as it lurks in dark corners and taunts us! When the ‘day of reckoning’ arrives and we act, what a powerful sense of release!
Thank you Gyl for the inspiration to tackle the harder to address places that I have in my home that need my attention. I love the picture of this being about clearing out the cobwebs in myself and can really feel how it will create more spaciousness in me and my surroundings.
Yes, clearing brings space – in the house and in body & mind : ).
Exactly Sandra! And that precious space allows the light in, frees our movement up and seems to slow time down.
Yes, and the light what is now allowed by cleaning shows a little more dirt, which was hidden in the corners and shadows – ready to get cleaned as well.
And space and time e x p a n d. : )
There’s nothing like a good clear out and is something I do often in the space around me. With items I am not sure about getting rid of, they tend to go up into the attic and I have to say that is an area I could do with clearing! Thank you for the reminder.
A great blog – thankyou Gyl – one I can so relate to. Clutter clearing is on-going in my house and also in my body, as I refine my way of living. Old habits that no longer serve can then disappear as I build a clearer and truer foundation for myself. ” 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.” So true.
A nagging thought in my mind is my storage in the cellar, for a long time I feel it has to be cleared big time, but I have a million reasons not to do it yet. So now I decided I call in some help and do it so I wont be tempted to keep things that I don’t need.
I love this simple, playful article Gyl, ‘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.’ It does feel amazing to clear things out, I still have things that i don’t need and don’t use that I am hanging onto around the house and as you say i don’t really want to hold onto it, it seems like i hold onto these things from the past like old letters or postcards or things to remind me of where i have travelled to and people i have met so that i don’t forget them, but actually i don’t look through them and do I really need to remember the exact place i visited and the date and where I stayed? i can feel how the house and i would feel much lighter if i wasn’t hanging onto all of these things.
My life has been Magpie cross with a snowball. I have spent my life collecting shiny-things and think that I still has a use for it… some place. Did you know that every microwave oven has two large round magnets in them. Now days everything is disposable and no one fixes anything. I had always thought that owning a scrap yard would be a fun job but I probably would have not wanted to sell any of my good stuff. Over the past few years I have been ruthless in de-cluttering my life of stuff… the mountain is getting smaller. I sell what I can, given away lots to have it gone regardless of what value I had once put on its worth. Life is getting simpler and my plies of stuff are getting smaller.
Gyl, I loved how you shared about hanging your mirror. Even the smallest self loving task has an enormous effect.
I too now love to get rid of things I no longer need, instead of having drawers and boxes full of ‘stuff’… (I used to keep everything lol!)… feels so light and clearing in my body to just remove this unneeded ‘stuff’ from my life! Thanks for the sharing Gyl I feel inspired to have another little declutter!!
Gyl I am a natural de-clutterer. I love the feeling of clean, clear lines. Can’t bear piles of stuff on top of surfaces, I like to be able to see all of my surfaces. With clothes I have come to know that if I go off something that it’s highly unlikely that I will like it again and so off to Vinnies it goes ! It’s a wonder my family have anything left to sit on !
Thank you Gyl for such an amazing blog – I too love the feeling of space that is created when we clear clutter out, holding on to the past stops me moving forward and embracing whats in front of me. I am feeling inspired to clear out clutter now – thanks for the reminder.
I love this blog Gyl, and I can so relate! I have recently moved out of a family home I had been living in for nearly 22 years, and there was a LOT of stuff to go through as part of the move! Although it was a big job, it felt great to go through everything and feel what I really needed to keep and what I could either throw away or take to recycling etc. – it not only created a spaciousness and completion with the home I moved out of, but also created the foundation and space for the new home I moved into. I was able to feel this not only in terms of physical space but also in clearing a lot of the inside baggage I had been holding onto and carrying around as a result of hanging onto things that were no longer needed or no longer supported me. It’s been an amazing process… here’s to more decluttering
Awesome Gyl, I feel inspired to clean the clutter I have been holding onto. Whenever I do clean and clear I find I feel revitalised it is as you say like clearing cobwebs out of ourselves.
Your sharing Gyl reminds me of a few days I recently spent with my daughter and her partner in their apartment they’ve renovated. As their space is small if there’s not a place for something – out it goes. It was really beautiful to feel the simplicity of this way of living firsthand and to feel their lack of attachment to “things” and the spaciousness that opens up in the body as a result.
Yes Deborah. I have felt my body open up as a result of clearing my house out. I have felt joy, expansion and completion when the job is done.
In the early days of sailing our boat ‘Tamapatum’ we had this policy that if you had not used or worn something for a year you threw it out or gave it away. We were young then and most stuff on board that we did not use was given to us anyway so we had no attachment. As I got older and spent more money on things that I thought that I needed so the resistance to just dumping it increased and now what was once valuable will cost me money to dump.
I can so relate to the loveliness and spaciousness of cleaning out the clutter and unnecessary remnants from the past. Our house needs to keep up with the changes in our bodies and our energy. Our past is not necessarily ‘bad’ but when it no longer fits where where we are headed, it is time to go. I get such a strong feeling when something needs to go or be moved in my home. This creates a tension until I act on it – it feels so right when I do, like everything is aligned and as it should be.
Our house definitely speaks to us – calling us to re-arrange, discard and clean very regularly. As you say Fiona our house is asking us to keep up with and support the changes in our body. I remember getting rid of a lounge once. Together with a friend we moved it out ‘just to get a sense of what it would be like without it’. The lounge was moved outside and then it started. Once the lounge was out it was easy to start clearing out everything that needed to be moved on. It was like the lounge was holding everything and as soon as it was moved, everything else just stood out.
Yep, clearing clutter. It’s one of those things I love to do, I love to have a tidy space but rarely do I make the time to do it. I spend more time fantasising how a room might look without the extra bits and pieces than actively getting rid of them. I love walking into my bedroom or living area when it is tidy and welcoming, and it’s something I have every intention of stay more on top of!!
I agree Elodie, I just recently completely tidied out my desk area, in doing this find doing work a lot easier and more efficient, it makes me wonder why I don’t make more time to clearing out my clutter?
It is inspiring to feel your joy Gyl 🐣💞
Great work Gyl! I can feel the ease and flow you are now living after letting go of the old and stagnate energy in your home. I too have a room with all the ‘old me’ stuff that I continue to slowly refine – but that is not enough – its time to let it all go! I actually want to use the room for doing sessions.. I can feel the potential and space this will create in my house and the delay is so silly! I can really relate into falling for the ‘just in case’ symptom of clearing – glad to expose this again.
Yes I can relate to the ‘just in case’ scenario, and yes there are occasions when I do have just the right box, ribbon, whatever that I have saved for eons, however I wonder how much of the other stuff there which is sitting there, and has been sitting there, for a looong time and not being used.
Wondering if I was renting space from a storage company what the charge would be has led me to wonder what the tariff is on the way I live my life?
Whenever I’ve kept things ‘just in case’ I rarely ever use them. I’ve actually sometimes resented keeping them! I feel now to let go of the just in cases and trust that what I need when I need it can be sourced at far less cost than hanging onto the stagnant baggage!
I love this Gyl. I clear out my wardrobe and bedroom regularly and l love how much lighter and clearer they and I feel. For me it is something I embrace and love to do but appreciate for some it maybe a little harder to do for as you say we are not only clearing out our rooms but ourselves also. This I have noticed with my daughter. I used to try to push her to clear out her bedroom but now as I understand that this is not the same for her as it is me, I support her to clear out what she can each time and allow her her own process of letting go in her own time.
Great point Penny, I clear out my bedroom every week. It is something I have just recently felt to do and it makes a huge difference to my day. I look forward to coming back to that space that I have created at the end of a busy day. It feels like I have done something very special for me and at times when I think about it, it makes me smile. It’s like a present to myself.
I love the understanding you bring to this Penny, that we will each get there and let go in our own time. And not to put pressure on anyone else, but allow them space, free will, and support them along the way.
I agree Jane, It is really empowering to let go of things that are no longer needed, and this can be in all areas of our life, not only in de-clutteing or clearing out our home. It may be the way we eat, what we eat, or behaviours and patterns we choose.
‘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.’ I feel exactly the same way dear Gyl. Thanks for your uncluttered and inspirational blog. 😊
Nothing is a coincidence and since reading this blog a few days ago, I ended-up finding myself conducting a thorough desk clean-out. I was thorough and efficient in my discarding – with no doubt some support in this having just reflected on what you had said Gyl.
Totally agree Gly, I recently sorted out my wardrobe and it was such a clean vibrant feeling in my body. I am in the process of having a sorting out of things from the house that are no longer needed, and they seem to make their way into a pile accumulating to a part of my house, ready for the next step for them to actually exit my house. I recognize how a body does this in a similar way, when there is a brewing of a virus developing, releases the symptoms and then can feel cleansed afterwards. The house certainly is a parallel reflection of our own body. No wonder we feel vibrant after we have had a big sort out and de-clutter of our house.
Oh I so know this feeling Gyl! Clearing out the inner cobwebs is very much reflected in our outer world, they go hand in hand. And I love having everything in order and in it’s place, it brings a simplicity and ease to everyday life and little reflections and reminders of love everywhere I look. Might be time for another clear out…or should I say a bringing in of the next level of love in my home. Thanks for the inspiration Gyl
Thank you Gyl, for this beautiful testament to simplification. We all have the choice to live junk free, with clarity. I agree our outer environment is often a great mirror for what is occurring with our inner, I love noticing how each of these relates to the other.
Gyl, I couldn’t agree more! And the best part is that after clearing and cleaning a room I feel so drawn to just stand in it and enjoy what I’m feeling. I love the order and the space after one of those sessions.
Love it Gyl, I feel the same way. I love going through drawers and cupboards clearing out into the very corners of each space, leaving nothing untouched. I am moving house next month and you have re-ignited my inspiration to continue the sorting and packing process!
Gyl what a great blog. Last year I went through some serious letting go of attachments to things and furniture, ways I thought of myself, all sorts. However, after reading your blog I’m inspired to go deeper. For example there are still pieces of furniture I have that were bought with a specific place which is now no longer part of my future so time to let go.
And there are items that take little space in physicality but still I let pull me back to pasts of reminiscing, of what could have beens and what was. So letters and school reports I keep as reminders of achievements or special relationships when actually I no longer need them. I learning to embody the knowledge that I’m enough. I have connections with people I meet daily that far exceed the intimacy of what was in the past. Looking back is a real dis-service to myself now and everyone I meet because, in some way, I’m holding something of myself back.
So I no longer need that reminder that that person loved me because now I feel the truth of it is me who loves me and I don’t need anything outside of myself to do this for me. It feels it’s time I let go of these attachments and let go of the people involved so they can be free. What an inspiring blog. Thank you Gyl.
Thank you Karin this is just what I needed to read to support me with letting go of lots of unnecessary papers: ‘I have connections with people I meet daily that far exceed the intimacy of what was in the past. Looking back is a real dis-service to myself now and everyone I meet because, in some way, I’m holding something of myself back.’ Feeling inspired.
So true Gyl, I have started going through old papers I have been holding onto which either represent me a long time ago or I kept as a protection if I needed to recall some knowledge at some stage. The joke is that much research and facts become obsolete soon after their written and are no comparison to the knowing from my inner heart. So out with the old and in with more spaciousness and appreciation of whom I truly am.
Thank you Gyl for the simple revelation of much we hold in our bodies that no longer serves us but we are not willing to let go. Life can not be compartmentalized when it comes to energy thus by clearing the horded stuff in the house/car/work we also clear our human frame of what no longer supports or serves us.
Yes Sandra I’m always going through pantry, cupboards and discarding, my wardrobe gets a reshuffle with every change of season. I feel it comes from an impulse to refresh and lay new foundations as I am forever evolving so do my belongings need to reflect this evolution.
Hi Gyl, yes, it’s a wonderful feeling having a clear out and a tidy up. I love the feeling you describe of spaciousness and clarity after your clear up. It makes a real difference when you do things with purpose and presence rather than it being a chore.
I love clearing and giving things away Gyl. It does provide a feeling of spaciousness. I am now starting to declutter my brain and that is a more challenging task. But letting go of ideals and beliefs held since childhood is wonderfully liberating.
Thank you for sharing Gyl, it is so true clearing the clutter away of stuff we no longer need but are choosing to still hold on to creates the feeling of lightness and freedom to express in our bodies, the changes can be profound as we create more space to be more of who we truly are.
Beautiful Gyl. It’s amazing how the feeling of the clutter can be “ignored” for so long. So much time and energy is spent trying not to feel it but once the job is actually done, it feels incredible and often didn’t take up as much time or energy as we thought it would. And even if it did, that feeling of spaciousness makes it all worth the while. My “back room” with all those childhood buttons and tickets is conveniently at my mums house in another country. Amazingly, I still feel it and have the urge to clean it all out.
I can totally relate to this Gyl. Every year I take a pilgrimmage to the attic and clear the whole year’s worth of accumulated debris out. Yes there are things that I hold onto, but it’s all organised, and year by year another layer comes off.. showing me I’m ready to move on to the next layer!
I love clearing out old stuff and keeping things clutter free. Moving house is a great time to do this and I love feeling lighter when things go that are no longer needed.
De-cluttering seems to be the theme that is coming up for me a lot lately so thank you Gyl for adding more inspiration. Cleaning out unwanted “rubbish’” whether it is in our homes, garages, work or even within in ourselves, is definitely, as you say, “ like we are clearing the cobwebs away” and when those “”cobwebs” have gone the feeling afterwards is so amazing; a feeling of space and clarity, and for me, a feeling of lightness that is almost tangible. I am slowly realising that the best way to de-clutter is one small step at a time, but more importantly, it is to become even more aware of how I am living and to not let the clutter build up in the first place. That, is a work in loving progress!
And each day you go pass the room at the back of the house, you get a confirmation of clarity and spaciousness – each day a marker of joy.
Yes that’s so true felixschumacher8, it is so gorgeous to feel the spaciousness and freshness of a room after it has been decluttered and cleaned, a constant reminder of how lovely it feels to keep cleaning and refining who we are and the place that we dwell in.
Since I came back from the Retreat in Vietnam several weeks ago, every day that I have been at home I have spent 1to 2 hours clearing out things or tidying cupboards and drawers. I do feel loads lighter and my thinking is also more organized, less chaotic and hampered. I love it. I am celebrating with you Gyl, all the way.
Hi Gyl, having gone through a similar clearing exercise recently, it has been interesting to face the pockets of choices that I have avoided, been disconnected from or even tried to forget entirely. Clearing and claiming every part of your house is a super important step as you say, and is representative of embracing a greater level of responsibility for yourself and your body.
Clearing out is awesome, I clear my closet at least twice a year and it feels great, very liberating, but it also shows me how loaded clothes can be. It’s a great way to let go of attachments to past moments and live every moment as a new beginning.
I do this too Rachel in the change of seasons and i love creating spaciousness in my wardrobe with beautiful wooden hangers. I have come to realise that i don’t actually need a lot of clothes, just select quality items that i love.
I agree whenever I have began to clear out corners and cupboards in my house I can feel this clarity build within myself “…the feeling of spaciousness and clarity is felt in my body equally.” Life does become more ‘spacious’, we physically are able to stop tripping over things, or badly stored objects do not land on our heads as we open the cupboards and we also feel this quality follow through how we are living. A wonderful reason to make space for sorting out where we live, as it supports how we live. Thank you.
Ahh, one of those rooms. This is so common for many to do that is accumulate stuff “just in case” when in-truth it is simply a lack of responsibility.
Nice one Joshua – ‘just in case’ is one I use often.I just went through the bathroom – so many ‘just in case’ samples stored there of products that I would never use – and they get in the way of being able to access the things I need easily. Such a perfect metaphor!!!
Gly, de-cluttering as you say is like opening doors to the different rooms in our homes and ourselves and is a way to self healing. It can be easy to hoard and hold on to stuff both physical and emotional and yet difficult to face what we’ve created! Such a huge release when we finally let go of stuff and aspects of ourselves we no longer need or want. I’ve de-cluttered many times, and find it’s an ongoing process, like pruning a plant: each year we have to cut it back hard, at the times it seems too much, but it’s essential if it is to thrive and produce more flowers or fruit. Something I sense in you as I read your post, such joy. When you cleared and created more space you saw more of yourself and surroundings. The mirror, there all along, re-positioned in its rightful place could truly be of service to you and you could enjoy seeing all of you.
This is great Gyl and so beautiful to read each step of your development as you share it with us. The state of our homes is so reflective of how we are. If our homes are messy it is likely that we are feeling chaotic and when they are clean and clear this often has an effect on our mood. This always reminds me how much everything is connected.
Clearing out the clutter always feels amazing Gyl. I love to keep my flat clear of old unnecessary stuff. It feels clearer and lighter and so do I.
I agree Gyl and can relate to your experience, it is also a fantastic metaphor for me for what it feels like when I start to work on an issue that I may have kept buried for a long time the feeling of spaciousness and clarity is felt in my body there feels like there is more room. How powerful are these simple loving choices.
Absolutely nicolesjardin, this is what it felt like to me. Not only was this physical objects I was clearing out, but these all held an energy with them that I no longer wanted or needed in my life. I had been carrying all this stuff ( not physically, even though it felt like it at times) around with me. As the room began to get more clear and spacious so did my body.
Both within and also in our houses, little pockets of ‘treasures’ collected and stored for some deep purpose. When you look at it with fresh eye you find it was actually just dead weight and clutter.
Lovely comment Nicole, when I start to work on an issue, letting go of something that is not me and I don’t have to carry with me any longer, It feels so spacious and freeing in my body. It’s like taking off a coat that is a bit too small…
What a great way to describe the feeling as ” taking off a coat that is too small.” Sometimes it can feel, and start to look like, a whole new body, as we have seen with many students at Universal Medicine- complete transformations, from the inside out.
I agree Gyl, it is a liberating feeling that allows space not only in the cupboards and the basement, but in life all around us. You can actually feel the hold that these things have had on you when the decision comes to let go, and the impulse is followed.
De-cluttering is now my favorite past time. If I get a couple of spare hours more often then not this is what I choose to do. Re-organising and decluttering is the best medicine and is also slightly addictive. Plus when you have young kids stuff just seems to come in faster than you can throw it out.
I have had many a dear conversations with my nan about our mutual love affair with decluttering and this is a definite and absolute thanks to Serge Benhayon and the Universal Medicine teaching on energetic truth. When my husband first met me, before we started attending UM courses I had sooo much clutter and boxes and boxes of just in case I one day may think I might, maybe, even possibly want to look at it.
I am so glad those days are long gone!!
When I first came to my current house, I arrived with the same attitude of holding onto things, just in case I might need them. Slowly it dawned on me it was simply me not wanting to move on, and I share your experience of how good it feels when things are cleared and that sense of space that comes with it (both inside, and outside).
I know what you mean about clearing clutter can be slightly addictive. I know when I have a shift in my body because that is when I feel the need to go to the next level of clearing out, and if there is nothing left to clear out, I will re-arrange my drawers or cupboards, and re-fold my clothes.
Thank you Gyl, rebeccalpoole and Serge Benhayon. It certainly is addictive to declutter one’s house, as well as our emotional issues from our cob-webbed encrusted beliefs and ideals that complicate our lives!!!
An awesome confirmation Gyl of the difference that can truly be made and felt, from clearing out old clutter and belongings. I love that you came to that time where you ‘no longer wanted to ignore or avoid it’, and, that you listened to the prompting that said it had to be done.
I am so glad I did it too, it’s funny as this can be with one thing out of place in a room or even not putting my jacket away as soon as I come in – it is very clear when things feel out of place or need cleared away, they stand out like a sore thumb.
I recognize the great feeling of space and clarity in my body after cleaning and clearing in my house. What I also loved is what you wrote about you (us or me) waiting for another to do something and often it is so simple with such a big effect if we simple do what we feel that is needed.
Gorgeous Gyl. It’s amazing what we allow to build up, or we put up with in life that can be so easily changed… your example of the mirror really stood out to me… Why do we leave things incomplete, or allow them to make life that little bit more difficult for us (like the posture you had to put yourself in to see yourself in the mirror every day) when they can be very easily taken care of. It’s as though some of the things that support us the most become massive chores or tasks that get put off and off and ultimately delay the clarity and benefit we could be experiencing right now.
It feels to me that saying no to the clutter is also saying no way to the complication and the way you have compromised yourself in the past.
Brilliant.
Great comment Kylie. Saying no to clutter is also saying no to complication and the compromises of our past.
This is so true Kylie. Saying no to clutter is like saying no to complication and compromise✨
Thank you Kylie, funnily enough I was waiting for someone else to come along to fix the mirror, then one day I said nope I am going to do it for me.
Yes Gyl and Kylie – brilliant postings. Akin to clutter is anything I put off doing. The actions that I delay soon become a little weight to drag through every other thing that is there to do. So not only do the tasks I delay drain, everything I do going forwards takes more energy than needed. It’s a very effective recipe for sabotage by creating overwhelm.
I completely agree with this; clutter feels like it is causing real complication and disorganisation in my life right now. I’m not able to lay my hands even on the everyday things like my mobile phone or house keys because the clutter is there distracting me which is entirely compromising the way I am living. Thank you.
Awesome Gyl, I am attempting to do the same thing and love the spaciousness I feel in my body when I do get my room into a loving order that supports me. It feels great to be in.. However there is that one room that brings up huge resistance in me, that I keep walking past – interesting. Is it because when we are holding on to stuff its actually an excuse – so we can’t free ourselves to step forth into the spaciousness and find out what we are capable of when we give ourselves the opportunity? Holding on to stuff feels like a comfortable way of staying stagnant in old familiar patterns.. but time to move on.. 🙂
I agree Annie, it took me around 17 years to look at the room, then enough was enough. Now when I walk in I am met with love, every single time – it always amazes me, then I stop and appreciated I did that. It was the choices I made, the space I created, even down to when and what colour of paint I bought and how I painted the walls. ( all inspired by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine) It’s not quite finished yet, but it doesn’t matter, as it still feels amazing very time I walk in. Now there’s a few other places to look at and move on from 🙂
I love having a clear out of cupboards Gyl, and it always happens when I am changing within myself ie. letting go of old habits or patterns. It always feels like the clearing out of cupboards is the outer reflection of what is going on inside.
Doesn’t it feel amazing to get rid of junk! I can always remember my Mum periodically clearing out the garage and her joy and shrieks of ‘I love this’ that she would burst out with. Cute Mum. I love it too, I love it when things feel clear and everything has its place. I’m inspired to go and have a bit of fun in my garage where unwanted/unneeded things seem to be having babies (as in junk is piling up!). Ha.
Kate, your comment made me laugh, the piles of paper work accumulating in my home totally feel like they are reproducing. If we choose to ignore our clutter it is inevitable that this will happen. The clearing out process for me is happening slowly but little by little there are pockets of space opening up.
This blog is amazing to read. I am inspired to have another look at my home and go visit the areas that feel like ‘cobwebs’ I have left far too long and to start addressing them.
The feeling of spaciousness one can feel in their body and the particular room/house cleaned is incredible. I thoroughly enjoy having made regular decluttering part of my livingness. Great blog – thank you
Decluttering and cleaning is such a precious gift to ourselves and such a healing.
Great sharing Gyl and it reminds me that there are many areas my life that can do with a declutter. I could do with a spring clean of my judgments and expectations and there’s cupboard with some ‘poor me’ remnants from my childhood. There are still hurts in the bottom drawer and some dusty cracked records somewhere too! Decluttering is my responsibility and your blog has raised my awareness of how much unnecessary and unsupportive clutter dulls my awareness of the truth of my being. Like you the clutter has been moved to the back room, however until it is intentionally ‘dealt with’ it affects the quality of the whole of me. Why would I choose not to declutter! Thank you Gyl for this inspiration.
A great reminder Bernadette to clear out the cupboard of the mind! Great blog Gyl.
I love how you reflect decluttering back onto your life bernadetteglass. It does feel great to let go of these dusty old behaviours and hurts – it really makes you wonder why we sometimes hold onto them so stubbornly.
Yes Judith and I am finding that every interaction I have is a reflection of whether I am in reaction or truly responding to the person I am with. I found this last week when working with a client who has a history of incredible trauma. Her behaviour was erratic, chaotic and she was extremely emotional and abusive. She was ‘reaction on steroids’, however I could feel my own frustration and reactions during the day too which were just a ‘much milder’ version!
Thanks Gyl, what you are sharing here is super important as de-cluttering and letting go the old stuff is clearing out all that identifies us with a false idea of who we are. This individualistic idea of ourselves limits us and keeps us in separation for in truth we are but transmitters of energy and the more we can clear the space of any identification the clearer a transmitter we can become for the divinity that we are .
I have felt the importance of de-cluttering, clearing out those false ideas, and am beginning to fully realise that even the way I clear my clutter tells me something. I often clear stuff as far as the garage, or the boot of the car, where it can sit for weeks before its disposed of. Memo to self – stop holding on, and really let go!
I agree Gyl, why do we hold onto those little things like bells, tickets and old wallets! Ive done a few big clean outs and it does feel so much better! I quite enjoy the process of feeling where I was at when certain items were a major part of my life, and how I feel now considering they dont have the same resemblence anymore. Thanks for sharing your de-cluttering blog!
You offer a great reflection with your sharing. I had a go at my stuff stored in the basement. There is only a few things left because I once had a flood taking all my stuff – and I had stored everything I had owned these days in the Garage that was flooded. So there was only a few things I could save. But still – there are photos and little things I’m still identified with. I “can’t let go of”. They are the hidden contracts and beliefs I have set myself into an arrangement. To hold on to them – and not facing them. So as I’m hardly letting go off some hurts that I have stored down inside. But I felt and still do feel freed from a heaviness whenever I get one of the items out of my way. So it’s worth going downstairs from time to time and see, what I can let go of now.*
Perhaps it is these hidden contracts that are the real weight and what imposes upon us when it comes to clutter. Letting go of all those attachments lets go of the hurts, or at least allows us the space to begin to move on without them.
Inspirational blog Gyl ! Feel like doing a bit of clearing myself .Thanks !
Great blog Gyl, I feel the same when I clear out. I feel reading your article, that I could be a great support for people with this process also, something further I could offer my clients as you know how long we can leave this festering in the background.
Gyl, I love this, I also love clearing clutter and keeping things very open and simple in my home now. Hard to believe I am saying that as I was once a devoted hoarder just in case something might be needed. It never was. As you say, when we clear clutter, it is reflected in how we feel in our bodies too and I think that is the part I love the most. Clarity, simplicity, space.
I totally get what you are saying Gyl and yes it does feel super supportive to do this. At different stages of your life we are prepared to let go of certain things so it is something that we can always re-visit.. Guess what I’m doing this weekend – my room and yes can feel more spaciousness coming in doing so. Bring it on!
Thank you Gyl. What’s interesting reading this is that I can feel how I have been putting this off. I love doing clean outs, but limit it and just don’t go for it and really move things on that are no longer needed. I too have a room where everything ends up and I must say too it’s starting to look a bit cluttered. The question is what am I really not wanting to let go of? and why do I need to hang on to ‘things’ that I really don’t need anymore?
Awesome Gyl, when we let go of clutter we’re letting go of all sorts of emotional attachments, which is super freeing. We simply let ourselves be in the spaciousness that we have claimed.
You touched a button here for me Gyl! I woke up this morning knowing that I need to get into my back room that has been the dumping ground for all those things I don’t know what to do with and will deal with later! Why do I hang onto so much stuff,? Is it comfort, a connection to the past, family connections, the list goes on and on. What I do know is that it is out of control and exhausting just thinking about it! Your blog has inspired me to enter the room….and start the process of clearing things that no longer belong in my life.
This felt lovely to read as I could feel the change it had brought within you, your home and car. I can really relate to holding onto stuff just for the ‘sake’ of it. Crazy! I have been putting off clearing out rooms and dealing with things I need to go through for a while now and this has inspired me to just get on with it.
I love this Gyl the message you give us is so simple and yet so profound. It just goes to show there is not one area of our lives that does not effect another area.
I agree Gyl, it feels amazing to clear things out. In society we seem to collect so much and not let go until we move house or run out of storage space. It is really freeing to cut the attachment to things we don’t use or need, to create that space and simplicity in everyday life. You have inspired me to clear out some more cobwebs – thank you.
How lovely Gyl, clearing out clutter, making space for new energy to flow into your life – that’s so powerful. Yes, I have some pictures to hang up still that have been waiting for some time – and some spaces to clear; thank you for the inspiration : ).
I love to clean, I love a tidy organised house, because I feel it gives me more clarity. On a regular basis, I move furniture and get into clean the wee’ crooks and cranies’, in other words the corners, so there is nothing that has not been cleaned, and afterwards, the room always feels amazing as I also do.
I been recently clearing out my house as well. It does give a clear insight to what things you hold on to. Both materially and spiritually. It is a lovely accomplishment to just appreciate the newly cleared out room or home. It is awesome
Thanks for a great blog Gyl. I love that feeling of spaciousness and clarity in the body after a good clear out that you mentioned. I feel clutter clearing is an on going job which keeps getting fine tuned the more you clear out. This relates to the body as well. We can get so bogged down with old stuff we no longer need. A great reminder to keep on top of things and also delve into the harder to deal with stuff as well.
This is my experience too Sue that a clear out it is an ongoing process that supports our bodies to get more open and spacious. It feels that it is a step by step process. I once did some clear out too early because of knowledge that it would be good to get rid of some stuff but I was not ready for it and I really regretted what I had thrown away that time.
An inspiring blog Gyl. I have a few boxes hanging around with contents similar to those you mention and it very much feels time to address them. I know when I have done so in the past it feels amazing to shed the old and stagnant energy of the things that I had been holding on to. Thank you for the further inspiration to get on and ‘clear some cobwebs’.
Hi Gyl,
it’s true, cleaning the clutter brings lightness and ‘space’ outside and inside. Everytime I look at or open a closet for example that is not clear, I somehow get irritated. So I have to make order to be able to breathe when I look at it again and see clearly what is inside.
We hold on to silly things, with the thought that maybe some day we will use it……
Thank you Gyl for such a great favourite subject of mine – Clutter Clearing.
I love the question you ask that I have asked myself countless times – why do we hold on to old tickets, buttons, photos and letters and …
Well good news is after 7 house moves, we are finally downsizing as we simply do not have clutter. We have had a triple garage house before our current home, which has no garage because of our clutter and every big fat house in the past has been because of our “stuff”.
Last month we gave away half our furniture and there is more to go. The house felt more still and super light. The crazy thing is we did not miss anything. How strange is that?
How I know I have changed from a clutterholic is that I have no need now to shop and buy things to fill up my home. In fact I am the opposite now – if it has no meaning or purpose, in other words it does not support me in my life at this time, then it has to go.
I am a work in progress as there is always more. I am constantly and consistently reviewing things that are not needed. For me it will be a life long process of letting go and I have to say I love letting go because I feel more clarity which comes with a sense of space.
I know exactly what you mean, there is nothing like the feeling of having discarded unwanted items and feeling the clarity within the space you gain. We have been working on this for years having gathered many items over the years but slowly the unwanted items are leaving and another layer is uncovered.
Thank you Gyl – an inspiring blog as a reminder for taking action with any de-cluttering however small the area is, is to simply to restore more flow and harmony in ourselves and our home, which ripples outwards and affects the all.
Dear Gyl,
This is truly inspiring to read, for some time I have been feeling to clear more clutter from with in my home and reading your blog is giving me the incentive to follow through with what I feel to do. Thank you.
Hi Gyl, I know this feeling well and equally love it, what I have noticed is it never ends, it’s a continual process of discarding and clearing. We moved home three times in a year so I had lots of opportunities to clear out what we as a family no longer needed. Yet I have started on the process again as so much gets kept and piles start happening. And it never takes anywhere near as long as feared. Its a funny process often one put off but once in it and doing it I feel great!
I really agree with you Vanessa that clutter clearing is a ‘continual process of discarding and clearing’. We have moved house so many times and in between the moves, choosing to spend some time on a regular basis letting go things just seem lighter and we don’t feel stuck. I am amazed how our “stuff” has such an impact on our life.
Just moving things out of a room and dealing with it and not piling it up elsewhere in the house has a profound effect on me.
What I love is the new clear space and keeping it clean is equally important to me as the letting go.
Gyl I feel like starting a clear out of all those drawers, closed cupboards and areas of my home where I have let thing accumulate that I don’t need any more. I do love the feeling of simplicity I feel when I’ve had a big clear out, taking things to the tip etc. I find I can appreciate what I have and myself much more when this is the case.
“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”… so true Gyl.
I have never been one for hoarding things, being ruthless in my clearing. But there have been times in my life when I still felt I had too much “stuff”. Moving house several times in the past few years has given me the opportunity to clear out big time, and I realised that I had been keeping things that I didn’t really need, I surprised myself with what I had been holding onto for sentimental reasons. Charity shops have been my best friend and I absolutely love creating space in my house and having empty cupboards and drawers, the trick is to not fill them up again! Beauty is in simplicity and less is more, good for you for choosing to clear your room and create space in your house and of course, the significance of this is reflected in the clearing of your body. Clean and clear on the outside and clean and clear on the inside 🙂
Wow Gyl! Sounds like you have totally transformed your house, and your relationship with the house, by simply nominating what does not need to be there anymore!
I am a hoarder. I love collecting things and like you I laughed when I read you sorted through buttons, napkins, cards, coasters and pens.
I thought it would be better if I stuck all these things in a book to ‘keep them in one place’ – but it is the same thing – holding on to reminders of a certain day I’d had.
I thought because I had a bad memory, if I hold onto memorabilia – then it will be a reminder for me.
I’ve stopped collecting these things now – because I’m more myself in all these moments so I remember them and have no reason to hang onto a coaster. But as I come to moving house soon, your blog has inspired me to be honest about all the things that it is time to let go of.
Thank you Gyl, from reading your blog I feel a renewed sense of purpose to address the clutter in my storage room, which is as you have said, just me holding on to that which no longer needs to be held on to. Perhaps as a cushion or as a comfort I have retained these objects, but they are no longer needed and I can feel that now.
Hi Gyl – your blog was a great reminder for me that although I am often willing to clear the clutter out of my house I am not always so willing to do the same with my head. Now I have another opportunity to clear out my head and my home together – and as you say have that gorgeous feeling of expansiveness. I also find that de-cluttering is an ongoing and unfolding process that will continue till the end of life………and then more.
I love the feeling of throwing stuff out too – it’s amazing what we hold onto that we simply just don’t need but won’t admit it for a good few years, yet space and clarity after a good clear out is heavenly!!
This is a great demonstration that nothing is separate from anything else and that everything counts, down to the smallest detail. It also means that when we attend to one detail or part of our life, the whole of our life gets affected and how we are in and with it.
It feels to me, that all the clutter we hold onto represents parts of us from bygone times, it’s like a holding on, which can impede the natural flow to our lives. De-cluttering allows us to cut these ties and to move forward with more fullness. Just like what you shared Gyl when you said ‘I can see all of me properly’ when your mirror was hung on the wall.
“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.” Just as we hold onto house clutter, many of us hold onto our hurts for far too long. Thanks to Serge Benhayon, this is all changing for many many people.
Gyl I love reading blogs about clearing clutter. It has such a great significance for me too. I was at the recycling centre only yesterday, and already our home feels more spacious and supportive. We have just moved house and even though I really don’t like moving, it has always felt like an opportunity to get rid of the old and make space for the new. Once you make that decision to get rid of something you have not needed and have been hanging onto for years, it makes it easier to do with the next thing. I tend to hoard things at work as well, but this year I have been clearing out old stuff as I go along rather than waiting for the end of the school year. As a result my work space also feels clearer and lighter and amazingly, so do I. I have often heard it said that our external environment reflects our internal environment. I think that’s very true.
I once had, and not so long ago over 700 DVDs I was like a Magpie that liked shinny things perhaps. When it came time to down size and shed some of collection that was just taking up l lots of space and colleting dust. It was a process over time. I now have ten that I have in may collection, is there a minimum number to be a collection? Maybe I should just say there are a few old DVDs I have always liked and have the original, kind of like first edition books that I had also had a collection of that are now all gone because they are no long needed… just like my few DVDs that will no longer needed.
Gyl I can absolutely relate to what you are sharing here. I cleaned out my wardrobe last weekend and at first I was a little apprehensive because it seemed like there was a lot of clothes I got rid of – I wasn’t sure if I would be left with much. However, it felt so lovely and each time I open the cupboard, it feels very different and I can also feel that space in my body. Exactly as you say – cleaning out the cobwebs.
The clutter that sneakily builds up in little corners and behind closed cupboard can be an indicator of how we’re living – not completing tasks and procrastinating. This article has inspired me to clear my clutter too.
Thank you Gyl for sharing this insight, it is amazing how much stuff – memories, emotional objects, presents that we collect, horde and hold onto and the reflection it offers of how our expression is held back by what we hold onto. Instead of expressing clearly through a light spacious body our expression is thwarted through all what we think we need to hold onto – our ideals and beliefs.
There’s nothing like a good clear out.
Great blog Gyl. When my husband and I moved house we examined all the things that had been handed down through the family and asked ourselves if we were to see these things in a shop, would we buy them? I also realised that many things I have been given where given to me because someone else did not want to take responsibility for that item. So many things went to auction or where returned to their rightful owner and our house felt much clearer as a consequence. But the process is ongoing, as I find that the changes I make within myself need to be reflected in my home, so de-cluttering is a regular event and one I enjoy immensely. As you say, the clearing out is equally felt in our bodies and supports our self expansion and these days I love that feeling more than the sentiments I have towards certain objects.
Over the years I have cleared much but I am aware that I am now ready for another, deeper clearing. That things that I had previously kept have now become superfluous and ‘stuff’, as well as there being ‘new stuff”. This is a great reflection for me of both that I am moving forward but also that there are areas in my life where I am not dealing with things as they arise but allowing them to accumulate. Thank you Gyl for bringing this to my attention through your blog.
Beautiful, Gyl! I know this is a beautiful feeling to get rid of things we do not need. It is a letting go that never ends, once you have done the ‘big’ clearing, it comes along in cycles again and again. You go through your house but with much more ease.
I couldnt agree more Gyl, giving your house or car a good clean out is so refreshing and cleansing and makes you feel really good.
I love cleaning and throwing out what is not needed anymore. I do this every week, sometimes every day. It feels so good to liberate myself from ‘stuff’. I find that the house feels lighter, as do I, and the rest of my family who live in the house. There is certainly a connection between our house and our bodies. This I feel every time I clean or throw something out.
I’m helping my dad clear out his house and it’s really obvious how we can create a relationship with things and not wanting to let go of them.
I agree Gyl clearing out the clutter is a great feeling bringing our life back to making it simple and functional with a lovely spaciousness.
Great article Gyl, I agree that “it’s like we are clearing the cobwebs away”, and she didn’t mean in our house, but inside of us’, it always feel amazing to let go of things from the past that I have been holding onto, whether it be old letters, old clothes or bits of furniture that I do not need but am just hanging onto for sentimental reasons, I feel inspired to clear out more of ‘the cobwebs’ thank you.
I can imagine the difference in how your food has felt and the feeling of space and openness is great, it is also very caring to do the things that bother you and not leave them left undone. A great reflection.
I help people de-clutter as a part of my job, and I love it when the job is complete and the client realises they have always had that quality and amount of space they now see in front of their eyes, and deserved and could have had it that way, whenever they chose. It’s a very touching moment. We often don’t realise how awkward and cumbersome and unnecessary our old habitual ways have been until they are gone.
The best example I have for me is, to keep cooking simple I feel the need to start with a clear and clean work space, the same goes the bathroom and in my bedroom. I have also come to realise that holding onto things that hold sentimental memories from the past, or because they were given to me as a gift but there is no real purpose in keeping them, has even more effect on me. I agree with you Gyl keeping my home clear of clutter not only makes it more spacious and feel lighter “the feeling of spaciousness and clarity is felt within my body equally”, “something that weighed me down is gone”.
Thank you Gyl for a light and ‘clutter free’ read! I often feel amazed how when I clear out or tidy one small corner of a room or simply rearrange an area it changes the feeling of the whole room, leaving it feeling spacious and clearer. Like we have a massage on the body, this is a massage for the home as a flow can return in both.
I completely agree with your last para. I won’t add any clutter by saying more than that!
When I create space in my house I always feels like I have created space within myself for something new to develop. The two go hand in hand. There is something so very satisfying about having order within us and around us.
It is quite amazing how having a clear out or a tidy up makes such a difference to the way I feel. Even if I just tidy up one cupboard, it really effects my mood and the way I feel each time I go to that cupboard to get something out -I smile when I look at the things neatly arranged.
I have felt how strongly clearing and decluttering a space clears more than just the physical, there is definitely an expansiveness that is created in my body too, extraordinary how energising it can be to do this. I love the analogy of the cobwebs, removing something complicated and unsupportive that frees up more space for light. Definitely an underestimated consideration in our health and wellbeing is how much we declutter our lives, thanks for your blog Gyl.
Thank you Gyl. This knowing that I need to clear out the clutter feels very familiar to me. I do occasionally start the task and feel so much freer when there is more space and I have let go of ‘stuff”. However, Letting go of attachment to memories that you had forgotten you had is an interesting process.
Thanks for this blog. I so agree with how great it feels to de-clutter. Inspiring words.
Gyl it is a sensational feeling of joy and clarity when clearing out things we no longer need to hold onto anymore. This goes for all parts of our lives.
It’s lovely to feel your joy come through in the article. I love how you drew a connection between clearing out the clutter in the house or car, and how it felt in your body, ‘..the feeling of spaciousness is felt in my body equally.” Beautiful to feel, and confirms how wonderful simplicity is.
Gyl this seemingly simple blog is profound. Everything in our house has an affect on the way we move through it and how we are with it. There is such a freedom in decluttering that is not just a literal spaciousness but one which is felt in the body as you say. Thank you for sharing.
Gyl, this is really a getting rid of past burdens. Beautiful how you describe how light a room feels after being cleared.
When something starts to clear and change inside myself, there always is the strong feeling to clear out the house as well.
I have been fascinated by each and every layer that I cleared out in the last 2 years. I have the tendency to think that after one clearing out is finished that “now it is done”, only to discover a few weeks later that there is still another layer that after sorting it out will make life clearer and even more simple.
It is but gorgeous.
After reading this blog I feel to go and clear my many boxes accumulated over time and make space for some new inspirations to come in. Thank you Gyl.
Your blog prompted a curiosity in me Gyl about the attachments we humans often have to our stuff. And when you consider words like ‘belongings’ and ‘possessions’ it’s little wonder why. The way humans tend to go about accumulating belongings it’s like it’s set up to give us a sense of identity, of worth, something to claim as our own, and often a reminder of good times and/or bad times from our past. But none of these things seem to offer what’s truly needed to support ourselves (as the vehicles of energy that we are) in the present moment, nor future moment – or offer the ‘clarity, spaciousness, contentment and joy’ you speak off following your de-cluttering exercise. More and more I’m realising that my ‘belongings’ require regular re-assessment to determine their suitability in supporting and preparing me for the next stage in life, the next moment of service. Do they reflect and support the quality of love that I am choosing to live my life with? If not, they will be like a weight that continually pulls me backwards and holds me down. Thank you for this reflection.
I can agree Gyl Rae that it is great for our health to clear out the clutter from our houses. I know the feeling of letting go of some heaviness when I have let go of some clutter in the house. From the lady in the secondhand shop who uses the metaphor of “clearing the cobwebs away,” we can learn that we all know that this is how it works. When we do not let go of stuff that does not belong to us anymore we are creating cobwebs in ourselves that makes us heavy and dulled and this will have its reflection in the house we live in. How amazing this is!
De-cluttering feels absolutely amazing & as you’ve shared Gyl it feels lighter afterwards. I have been wanting to clear space in this particular back room & have had 2 rounds of it but still can let go of more. You have inspired me to go back in there to create more spaciousness & clarity. It’s true that even one corner of clutter in the house affects the whole house. Also, I feel it’s a reflection of our state of being i.e. clutter outside is an indication of clutter inside of us. Thank you for sharing, it’ll bring another level of clarity in my home & being :).
I recently moved to a new place and for weeks, I had this mirror standing on the floor, some paintings as well and a shelve that was longing for a wall. Last week I asked for support and now everything is where it is needed, I cleaned the whole house, including the windows, and it feels great. Today I am going for a second round. My house is a reflection of me and my relationship with myself. It needs loving attention and frequently a big clean up.
I can only agree, it always feels great to go through things and clear things out that are not needed anymore. It makes life lighter, simpler and more spacious.
I agree with you Gyl, I love the feeling of space, clarity and order that comes from clearing away what has been held onto that is not necessary. It certainly feels so much more supportive to live in a clear and uncluttered home and for me increases my energy. I take a real pleasure in order and I find to keep this sense of uncluttered order it means constant review of my possessions, my desk, my kitchen, everywhere in fact, so de-cluttering and cleaning is a daily part of the rhythm of life. It’s amazing how fast stuff builds up if it is not attended to, leading to a fuzzy kind of feeling which does not feel good in my body.
Aah the old “just in case” collection…..I have a few of the “oh I might need that in the future” objects lying around my home. Loved your sharing and reminder that we can choose to hold on to stuff or choose to let it go. I think some of my drawers might need a re-visit to see what else can be let go….thanks for the inspiration.
I am with you Gyl. Clearing out the clutter from a cupboard, a room, the car and that place where hidden nasties love to hide – the work/tool shed, sets up an expansion that allows for lightness, spaciousness and love. How do I know this? Done the de-cluttering many times in my life but there is always more to do. Perhaps that suitcase that holds a whole heap of children’s drawings and stuff that I can’t remember shoving in it, is next on the agenda.
Hi Gyl
It was lovely reading your blog thank you. It’s very loving creating more space for ourselves and as you say de-cluttering isn’t just about the space in our home but also in our body. That feels very freeing and the opportunity to feel more of you without the clutter that has a heavy weight that comes with it. Awesome!
Hi Gyl, de-cluttering is so cleansing and deeply rewarding. I found your comment – 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’ was powerfully symbolic. ‘The place where I kept shutting the door’ because so often excuses are made to not go there, i’m too busy, it can wait, maybe when I’m feeling better and it becomes this big thing that has grown out of all proportion. It is so simple really when we just nominate and let go. Thanks for sharing.
Great work Gyl. You have inspired me to go to the next level of cleaning out and getting rid of old books, unused gadgets, and other stuff in our garage and elsewhere in our house. I can feel how I have had that ” but what if someday I need that?” Syndrome that you mentioned yourself, and am looking forward to how it feels after go through it.
Gyl I love a good decluttering and I can feel another coming on after reading your inspiring blog.
I so recognize what you saying Gyl. And I agree, you can feel the reflection of cleaning out the clutter in your house, car or work area immediately in your body.
Gyl I am totally with you on this. Each time I have a clear out, the space feels better and better but I am not there yet. I feel that there are new layers to discard each time and the spaciousness this brings is amazing and beautiful. I have watched others do it and I can see the lightness in their faces the more they discard.
Mine is a work in progress and I will get there. I used to go into this with a kind of ruthlessness and a sense of frustration with myself so I am learning to do it from a sense of love and care and this changes everything.
It’s an amazing feeling isn’t it Gyl, when we choose to let go of something and have a huge clean out. I have had several over the last few years, but there are still some things that I hold onto that I need to ask myself why is that, as they are things that I haven’t used, for years, but something says, keep it, just in case. Your blog has prompted me to look into that more closely.
I read your blog with great interest Gyl………..because I’m going through exactly the same process. And I even have one of those rooms at the back of the house where I have all that same kind of “stuff”. I’m about half way through the project and already feel such an enormous lifting of weight, I’ve had to take a pause just to let myself readjust! I highly recommend it.
Gyl, your post reminds me of how I cleared out the bookcases in my office about eight years ago, particularly the many books about self-development that I used for a quick fix if I was feeling down or life was not moving along the way I would have liked. After many years and thousands of dollars spent, I had finally come to the realisation that the self-development movement was unsustainable and based around ‘self’ and making money (particularly for the authors), rather than genuine service.
After I removed the books from my house my wife and I felt a remarkable difference in how clear, light and open the room felt. I realised that I had become trapped by the heavy energy those books carried. It was a very liberating experience.
I see sentimentalism as a construction of the mind, an emotion being held onto and the physical action of removing an object that holds sentimental value is directly clearing this.
Ahh yes Gyl – it is an amazing feeling to clear out old things we no longer need! I had been feeling this this morning looking out to our little courtyard that needs weeding and de-cluttering, and also all the shoes I own that have not been worn in the 3 months I have lived in my new place. Most of them untouched from when they were first placed here when I moved. It’s going to be a great feeling to move them on as I know I underestimate how much holding on to these old things and having clutter really affects how I feel. Thank you for opening this up today Gyl – a confirmation of what is needed.
Completely agree Gyl, nothing quite beats the feeling of spaciousness by clearing out all the clutter, sounds like you had a great time of letting go and also of the nostalgia too. Cleaning has the same ordering effect for me too. Mess creates complication, simplicity creates flow.
“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. “- I definitely agree with you Gyl.
You have just inspired me to look at areas where I have clutter but have not wanted to go there.
Inspiring Gyl…I am looking at the redundant extra lounge that is filling my living room, hung onto because I have lacked the confidence to sell it.
Thos old ticket stubs, books, trinkets seem to represent moments in time, a fleeting happiness that we try to hold on to. But we cannot. It just turns into junk and denies us space. This is a great metaphor for our emotions and those memories that we cling to that stop us embracing the spaciousness of who we truly are.
Your house, your body and your guests will love it, Gyl !
I can really feel how letting go of this clutter has created much more freedom and space for your whole family Gyl. On both the inside and the outside. What a blessing you have brought to your home.
It really does feel amazing to let things go.
What an awesome blog and timely reminder Gyl that every nook and cranny in our house we’ve filled with clutter holds a correspondingly stifling energy within our body, one that we carry around 24/7 oblivious to the fact that its weighing down on our sense of clarity, joy and overall lightness in being. No more putting off the decluttering when we see and feel the truth of this.
Gyl, I know that feeling of dread in facing the pile of clutter that feels to big to face and I can feel the lightness in you from reading your blog. It’s time to address those piles. Thank you for your inspiration.
Gorgeous blog, Gyl, light, refreshing and very inspiring! It is so true that the clutter we live with in our daily lives – bedrooms, houses, offices, cars – is but a reflection of the undealt with stuff we harbour in our bodies, and attending to one, inspires us to clear the others! Thank you for sharing your lovely lightness with us all.
Good call annemalatt, the reflection of how we hold onto issues from the past being the real layer underneath all the clutter.
Gyl I loved reading this blog and could resonant with what you were doing to de clutter your home. I did the same last year with an old storage room at the back of my house where I kept 20 plus years of work resources. The room was tidy but jam packed to the door that every time I went searching for something I would feel like I couldn’t breathe. I like you took the plunge and over the Christmas break spent 4 days removing every last item from the room and slowly taking a look back at my life with all that I had accumulated. 35 x large rubbish bag bins later it was complete. I like you Gyl felt an enormous weight had been lifted and that this was no longer me.
This month I have decided to do the same in my living area. Even though there is no clutter I can feel that the furniture doesn’t feel right in the space and its time to go shopping for something new and bright like me. A great blog that is a gift in helping others feel how clutter does clutter the feelings within us and the cleaning out the cob webs is a great way to go.
Great Gyl … its just like all the mental clutter that we carry around….and we just don’t go there… we put up with the weight and the cobwebs and on going disturbance of the thoughts and patterns that we have ‘entertained ‘ for years, not realizing that if we just stopped and started to address them and clear them out then the feeling in our bodies and in our lives is profoundly different
Very timely blog for me to read, thank you Gyl. I have been feeling the time has come to do a major clear again. My wardrobe is calling and the kitchen third drawer down… and then the garage needs attention. Every time I do a clean out it is just as you say there is a lightness and spaciousness that is very tangibly felt in my body, and a clearing of the way in life for what’s next. Thank you for your great blog.
Great blog Gyl – stand out line for me today was: “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,”
I can so relate – freshly inspired while I’m moving house again to make sure we only take what supports, and nothing that clutters us up, or weighs us down.
Spot on Gyl, cleaning out or de-cluttering for me is also a symbol of an inside job – clearing out of my body everything that is ‘the what is not me’ and this is an on-going process.
I agree Gyl it feels wonderful to clear out clutter, and your article is a great reminder that cleaning and clearing out is a lovely gift to myself and not just a job that I “need to get done”, an attitude which can leave me in procrastination and stagnation.
Great comment 1timrobinson. De-cluttering is so often put in the category of a chore and with that comes a dragging heaviness. Taking the first steps are the hardest, with all that heaviness that has been associated with the “job” (the longer it is put off, the heavier it can get). But once they are taken, quick to follow is that feeling of clarity and spaciousness in the body.
I Love this blog Gyl and I love clearing out clutter and the spacious feeling it brings to both my body and my home. Thank you for sharing your experience, I feel another decluttering coming on at my house soon 🙂
Thanks Gyl, I can really identify with the mirror and leaving little jobs for ages but when they get done it’s a beautiful feeling. It’s surprising how much heaviness leaves that is attached to not following through on things. Each thing we do not do is like another energetic weight on top of us. Very freeing to just get things done and to do so with care and love.
Clearing out and letting go of the old is such a great thing to do, and something I have done often since I travelled a lot and was not able to take it all with me. Its amazing what we hold onto that we don’t need, and in fact the only thing these things do is weigh us down…. and this does not just apply to physical things.
Thank you for sharing this Gyl – I love a good clean out. It is as you say, as equally spacious in our bodies as it is our home. I always feel so much clearer and still. I really love how you took responsibility for hanging the mirror and how lovely that felt for you.
Great article to read Gyl thank you. Clearing out clutter really does bring such a freedom and joy which is the opposite of holding onto stuff and not letting it go . We become so much clearer and lighter from this process and brings an ability to see what is truly going on. I am finding everything needs constantly re-imprinting by cleaning, moving and often reconfiguring things in my home and it makes all the difference. It is great to address that place where everything collects to finally clear out almost like a deeper stage of clearing following on from the initial clear out to a deeper level and this also feels so about our bodies. A great reflection and inspiration and so simple to support ourselves.
So eloquently put tricianicholson, and, “It is great to address that place where everything collects to finally clear out almost like a deeper stage of clearing following on from the initial clear out to a deeper level and this also feels so about our bodies”… this is so true, we can always take our clearing out a stage further, it is a never ending journey.
Gyl, I love that image, clearing out the cobwebs literally and figuratively. It’s so true, when we take responsibility for our space and how we are with it, so many things change. And it’s funny we do indeed keep so many things and yet why, in case, maybe, and the truth of the matter is they sit in cupboards gathering dust and we don’t use them. I feel another clear-out coming on.
Well said monicag2 – it is taking responsibility for our space. I love what Gyl said about hanging the mirror. When we don’t take responsibility it is only we who suffer. No one else is affected if the bedroom mirror isn’t hung. As always, when we do take responsibility for something it feels incredible.
I also love clearing out what no longer serves me and always feel awesome for doing so. I love how you describe that awesome feeling: “It feels clearer and lighter and so much more spacious” – I totally agree!
I can see the cobwebs floating away from here! I will see what part of my house, even if it is a draw or shelf requires some attention today. I do love to feel the flow of a room when you move some things around or remove something.