Things
that you no longer love and use are trash in your home. It helps to see
that your home has become a receptacle for some unwanted stuff. Not to
make you feel badly, but to inspire you to take out the trash.
I said this to a client last week. She had piles of things on the floor next to her bed. There was also stacks of stuff on her dresser. She hadn't looked through what was there for years. I wanted her to associate the stacks with trash to inspire her to do something positive about the situation.
My client started picking up one thing at a time and I asked if she liked and used the item. It was hard for her at first because even though she hadn't used some things in three years, she was afraid to let them go because part of her was worried she might one day use the item.
I said that when you live that way, you end up living with things you don't care for. Even though they may look nice, or your spent a lot of money on them, or they are in good condition, or they are nicely stacked, or you once loved and used the things, they are on the level of trash because they are not serving you in any way. It's like living in a landfill.
By removing and taking out the trash, you take care of yourself and you feel better.
Seeing the clutter as trash in her home clicked in for my client. She started picking up items and questioning them on her own. Many of the pieces went in to either trash or recycling bags.