I am a firm believer in decluttering my physical space. Every six months, I wander from room to room, closet to closet, with one goal in mind: purge what I do not need. Piles of stuff start to grow like anthills in the middle of the room. But each little mountain is assigned a purpose. One pile is to keep, the other is to discard and the last mound moves to a donation bin. This process is simple, but effective. Within a two week time frame, several garbage bags form a single file line in our garage. I am reminded again how much I do not need and for the next month, before I add another “must-have” in my cart, the image of white garbage bags flicker in my head and I decide not to make certain purchases.
The physical emptying of my space offers comfort and clarity and it is a ritual that does not require any extra effort, but is a natural extension of my self. For the last few years, I’ve tried to adopt this same emptying technique with my mind, but I am not certain how successful I am in paralleling the clarity that I’ve achieved in my physical space.
Read the rest of my essay on The First Day.
Image: “Clairvoyant” by Jason Samfield via Flickr
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
I have learned to achieve it in my physical space yet not in my mind. 🙂
It is so hard, isn’t it, Ayala? One day at a time. Sometimes one minute at a time to achieve that mental clarity.
This is a good process. In the process of decluttering right now, will have to attempt it in my head as well.
Since you are so connected with nature and hiking, you probably are on the right track to working on achieving that peace in your mind.
Rudri,
This is such a great post! I’ve had to learn how to do this. My mother is a hoarder, which I’m now understanding is an evolutionary throw-back– that the greatest gatherers were once an asset in hunter-gatherer societies… but not so much anymore. So, I’ve had a lot of deprogramming to go through to get to the stage of the bags lined up in my living room for the quarterly purge. It does feel good, but I need to work on going deeper, since I still often find the creep of stuff overwhelming. Thank goodness for friends who do this for a living. They have instilled the process in my girls. So perhaps we’ve intercepted evolution for their sake! For me, I continue to struggle. I suppose, it keeps me thinking! Great post!
Seems like getting into the habit with your physical space would cause your mind to follow along. I am a “piler” of paper and other things, and when I finally clear them away and take care of whatever task they were supposed to be reminding me of, I feel such a burden is lifted from my psyche!
You raise a good point, Sarah. One would assume cleaning my physical space would lead to less restlessness in my mind, but for me it translates on just having more time to focus on what’s in my head. But I am hoping some day, that isn’t the case. Thanks for your insight.