The Key to Decluttering

I just started reading Peter Walsh's book, "Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Big?"  I'd read an excerpt at the time the book was published, but decided over this past weekend to read the book itself.  The decision to do so was probably triggered by an organizing/cleaning frenzy that my husband and I embarked on at the end of last week.  We came home early from our week at the cottage due to issues with the septic system (I'll spare you the details . . . ).  With a couple of unexpected days at home and our calendars cleared for vacation, my husband decided this was the perfect time to clean out and organize the two storage rooms on our lower level (one room is for short-term storage and other room is for long-term and seasonal storage).  Once both rooms were brought under submission, he turned his attention to the walk-in closet in our bedroom - which prompted me to get involved.  I hate sorting through things, but once I got started, it felt good to clean out and declutter.  From there I moved to my dresser drawers, then the linen closet . . . my new motto is "I'm going to get organized if it kills me!"

It's hard to get rid of stuff, even stuff I'm not emotionally attached to (which applies to probably 90% of my stuff).  But there is something wonderful and freeing about finally doing do - opening a closet door or a dresser drawer and finding order is a wonderful feeling.  It makes me feel lighter, no longer weighed down by stuff I really don't need.

It was that "lighter feeling" that prompted me to pick up the book.  When Peter Walsh begins working with a client to help them declutter their home, he always asks them, "Is this the life you want?  What is the vision you have of the life you want to live?  Are you living the life you want?"  He goes on to say that many of his clients have list sight of what it is that they from the life they have.  He contends that creating a vision for the life you want to live forces you to make decisions based on the real priorities that should drive your life.

These are good questions for us to ask, not only as we perhaps tackle cleaning out a garage or basement, but also as we strive to declutter our lives from years of unhealthy eating habits.  Cleaning out old habits that are no longer serving our best interests (and perhaps never did!) isn't fun - it's hard, sometimes tedious work.   For me, the journey began when I looked at where I was and asked myself  "is this the life I want?"  The answer was a resounding "NO!"  I hated being morbidly obese, hated the size and style of clothing I wore, hated being tired and out of breath, hated being diabetic and on medication, and I hated feeling self-conscious about my weight all the time.  I was (and am!) happily married with three wonderful grown children, four grandchildren I adored, a great group of friends . . . but my ability to fully enjoy these blessings was muted by how miserable I was. 

If all we do is ask ourselves, "is this the life we want?", we may be pretty discouraged or even depressed.  More than that, if all we do is attempt to move away from what we don't want, we're just trying to solve a problem - and that's exactly what diets are designed to do.  We have to move beyond trying to distance ourselves from what we don't want.

Peter's second question is the key to decluttering our lives, including our unhealthy eating habits:  "What is the vision you have for the life you want to live?"  Once you have a vision for what you want, then you make decisions to support your vision.  In his book, "Dr. A's Habits of Health," Take Shape for Life/Medifast's Medical Director and TSFL Co-Founder, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, describes this process as making a fundamental choice which is then supported by our secondary choices. 

Are you ready to do some decluttering today?  Ask yourself those two important questions, and make sure you spend some time envisioning what you want to create in your life.  That vision will keep you moving forward, even when the decluttering process isn't much fun.  That process happens one choice at a time . . . choose wisely :-)