What’s in the Way of Your Inspired Journey?

A reoccurring theme has been popping up lately and it’s getting too big to ignore. Whether it’s a matter of tripping over toys, losing that crucial phone number in the stack of paper or needing a helmet and safety harness to get over the boxes in the basement, the story’s the same. We got way to much stuff! And the worst part it is that the stuff is getting in the way of our happiness!

How the heck did we get here?

Okay, I’m not really going to take the time to answer that question because I’m pretty sure that’s not the path to happiness either. What I’m more interested in focusing on is how to deal with the clutter so that we can all make a little more space and time for meaning and purpose in everyday life.

As I sit here at my desk – which I will admit has a few too many papers on it, and look around the room that is in no way organized to its potential – I know I’m not alone in thinking that this whole clutter thing has become a serious issue. I know this because I recently did a survey of my email list and found out that some people didn’t have time to spend on inspired projects because their time and space was cluttered with other, less meaningful stuff. Then I had lunch with a friend (who I’ve always considered to be organized beyond belief) and found out that she too is overrun by every kind of clutter a family can create. My final straw occurred while standing in line at the grocery store, listening to the woman in front of me talk on her cell phone about the mess she had to go home to. As I overheard her confession of strategically hiding piles of papers under the coach just so she could feel some sense of peace and comfort in her living room, I was struck by just how far we all are going to deal with the material items we’ve surrounded ourselves with.

All this stuff is creating a road block between us and the experiences we long for in life. We’re living and working in spaces that are cluttered, and how are we supposed to feel inspired, creative and happy in that kind of environment? And the more we have, the more we have to take care of, so our time is spent cleaning, fixing, upgrading, storing and tripping over stuff.

We all need help!

Trouble is that the likelihood of us all getting a de-cluttering coach to come over and help us sort through our poor decisions is slim to none. And as nice as the rooms look at the end of each Clean Sweep episode, I’m guessing there’s a heck of a lot of physical and emotional work involved in going from chaos to clean and organized in the span of two days. If you’ve got a Peter Walsh to help you out, way to go! If not, what are you going to do to deal with what’s in the way of your inspired journey?

I think I may have a plan – well, actually an adventure. I’ve got stuff in my house I no longer need and it’s not adding to my happiness quotient. My life is full, so taking a weekend to unearth, toss, donate and reorganize it all is highly unlikely. And I’m not even going to do it room by room, because that tends to cause the clutter to find a new home somewhere else in the house. Here’s what my de-cluttering adventure looks like:

• de-clutter by category – old and unused electronics go first (it’s and easy place to start because I have no emotional attachment to a cordless phone with a dead battery)

• let go in eco-friendly ways – tossing the excessive contents of my house in the landfill is just not an option for me. I’m building in time to find out where I can share, sell and recycle what I no longer want.

• be gentle – it took me a while to get cluttered and it’s going to take me a little while to reverse that. I’m all about gentle and effective plans of action. This de-cluttering experiment is going to be added into an already full life, so drastic action is not the order of the day.

• make it fun – I’m planning to enlist the help of others and turn on the music. And it goes without saying that de-cluttering becomes a bit more divine while eating chocolate.

So, there you go. A de-cluttering adventure with a strategy coach along for the journey. Now all you have to do is join me for the adventure. I’ll share what I learn along the way and you can too!

I wonder what we’ll be doing a month from now when our collective loads are that much lighter?

Yours On Purpose,
Tara