Kindness Goes A Long Way

Clutter Busting brings back kindness to a person's life. You may be inundated with clutter. Perhaps you've over-shopped and are stuck with a lot of things you aren't using. You could have piles of things that you haven't taken care of. There could be boxes of stuff in your closet, garage or basement that you haven't looked at in years. But you're not bad. You're a good person temporarily buried under your clutter.

When I get to my client's homes they often feel guilty or ashamed at their clutter situation. Sometimes they say, "Have you ever seen anything this bad?" I don't see it that way. I know they will feel better once they start to let go of their clutter. I say something funny like, "If you saw some of the things I've seen (joking wink) you wouldn't feel that way. But I understand this is bothering you. So let's begin!" I pick the most congested area and start asking questions about each individual item.

I worked with a guy whose papers littered his entire living room. He sadly stood in the middle of it and looked defeated. He was probably littering his head with thoughts about how bad he thought he was. I sat down on the floor with a trash bag and picked up the first piece of paper. I held it up so he could see it and I said, "What about this, do you need it or can we let it go?" He thought about it and said, "I don't need that." I put it in the trash bag and picked up the next piece of paper. As the process continued he got into it. The slump evaporated. He was thinking clearly in the moment. His discriminating faculties came back. He looked healthy again. Within two hours the floor was clean. The heaviness was gone. His normal state of feeling good and kind to himself was back.