Happy New Year! Many of us celebrated the Western New Year on January 1, welcoming in 2013. You probably did a mental review of your last year and a mental “to do” for the year coming up. If clearing clutter is one to-do, this is a great time to start. Making progress now will help you feel more prepared to usher in the Chinese Solar New Year on February 4.
Clearing clutter and releasing your “stuff” can seem overwhelming. The ironic (?) piece is that having too much clutter can make you feel overwhelmed! So, the good news is that even small progress can really make a big impact.
3 simple tips to break through clutter in the new year:
- Start small. Break it down into a few smaller projects so that you can keep on task. Maybe there is a drawer you can tackle one day. Mail the next. Or if you know the bagua, maybe you prioritize using that. For example, start by looking at the prosperity area in each room (one at a time of course!).
- Make it routine. Clearing clutter is ongoing process. It can get the best of any of us. That’s why making it part of your daily/weekly/monthly routine will help. Maybe it’s something you schedule to do 9 minutes every day. You can start by having a permanent “donation” bag in your house. Then when you come across something you don’t need you immediately know where to put it. Donate it when it’s full.
- Remember the bottom line. If you don’t love it or use it, then let it go. Yes, it bears repeating: give new life to something by releasing it to someone who will appreciate it. You can start now with holiday decorations! Then move forward with other items around the house. If you are following tip #2, you’ll always have somewhere for it to go so you can take action right away. This goes for family heirlooms and antiques as well. Don’t hold on to something for guilt. If you aren’t enjoying it, offer it to another family member or thrift it. Someone else will look at it with fresh, new, excited eyes.
Following these tips allows your space the ability to breathe and helps you focus on the goals you have for the upcoming year. It also aligns nicely with the traditional activity of cleaning your house to welcome the Chinese New Year. There’s nothing like a fresh house to renew the energy inside. And that can mean your house, as well as yourself. Hopefully that is one of your “resolutions” this year too: you.
By Lisa Janusz
Wind & Water School of Feng Shui Registrar and Faculty
Leave a Reply