I was working with a client in her home office. There were stacks of paper all over the room, and also organizing containers filled to the brim with miscellaneous items. You could feel the sense of disorder. She complained of feeling overwhelmed and not being able to get things done. I noticed a Buddha mask on the wall. Underneath the mask was world map. Under the map was an instructional poster. Clutter likes to hide. I asked about the poster. She looked down and was troubled. She said it was a poster that explained steps one would take to run a business. She paid a lot of money for it. She had been struggling with the business that she bought it for. She was hard on herself for not following the steps. She kept using the word should, which is a clutter red flag.
I asked her about the business. It turns out it was originally a creative hobby for her. People told her she ought to turn it into a business. She went against her feeling of not doing that and started the business. The business was not making money and she had to have other jobs to support it. She was exhausted. She realized the business was clutter for her. She decided to let it go. Her clarity returned. She tossed the business plan map and eliminated a lot of the paper work for the company. She was relieved.
Sometimes we do things that take us in a direction that doesn't serve us. If we do it for a while, it exhausts and depresses us. It's hard to get the energy to reverse things. But when we take an honest and understanding look around and see what it's doing to us, we can get the strength to make positive changes.