It’s Julia, Brooks’ wife here. I asked Brooks if I could
write a blog post for you about my exhilarating experience in a very short but
impactful clutter bust he did with me on Sunday morning, and he agreed. So here
we go.
After seven years in the same job at Northwestern, I
officially ended my work there to begin my own science & tech services
company. On Sunday morning, that company was still in its infancy, and I was
having a hard time letting go of my academic position. Around the edges of my
consciousness, I could tell that this was the reason that my desk and office
space in the basement had been covered with books and papers for two weeks, and
I hadn’t gone near it.
All I knew was that I felt overwhelmed with all the work I
had to do to set up this new company, and yet I couldn’t do the work. I
definitely didn’t want to go down into the basement and clean up that office
space. So I asked Brooks for help.
We went downstairs and as he usually does, he immediately
asked without judgment whether we could start with one of the piles. I don’t
know how he picked it, but even as I said “yes,” I knew I dreaded that
particular pile the most. I thought it was full of papers that I didn’t want to
keep but I knew I should keep.
My suspicion was part right – there were some papers in
there that I thought I might need if I taught another class on that topic. But
the whole idea of teaching that particular class again felt heavy. Brooks asked
if I could find the papers online again if I did decide to teach that class,
and I said I could. So I let those papers go into the recycling bin.
The funny thing was, the bulk of the pile didn’t consist of
these papers. About half of the pile was made of papers that weren’t even mine.
They had gotten mixed in there when the cleaning crew at Northwestern had
mistakenly (ahem) thrown out my papers and I had gone to the recycling bin to
retrieve them. Now I knew that the cleaning crew was onto something.
There were definitely papers I kept – I’m working on a book,
and Brooks helped me sort the papers into the chapters for which they were most
appropriate. And some papers were really exciting ones I’d forgotten about. I
wanted to keep those so I could write some new stuff.
But after we got through all the papers and everything was
organized, I got sad. I looked at my new, clean office space, and I said to
Brooks, “It feels like I’m being punished, having an office in the corner of
the basement, with no windows. And the other day when those folks came to
interview me for a documentary, I should have felt BIG and FAMOUS but instead
when they saw my office they said, ‘It’s so tiny! We can’t film you there.’” I
wanted to cry, because I knew there was nowhere else in the house we could fit
my office.
Brooks asked, “Is there another place where we can put your
office?” I looked around. The other part of the basement, the part with bright
windows, was where my son’s drum stuff was. I thought, “I can’t put it there.”
Brooks said, “What about there? We can move that drum stuff!”
It only took about 10 minutes to move the office to the
bigger, brighter space near the windows. And moving the drum stuff took about
two minutes.
I spent all day yesterday working in my new office! I love
it. I feel like everything I need to do for my business is lining up, all in a
row. I’m ready, I have the energy, and I can see what needs to be done. Instead
of being overwhelming, it’s now exciting.
What happened? I feel like Brooks helped me get back all the
energy I still had stored at Northwestern. And I invested it in myself, in my
work – in my new work. I feel so alive. And guess what? The entire process took
45 minutes.
I just wanted you to hear a story from a client’s point of
view. Brooks is powerful. He gently guides people, and changes lives. I know
you know this. But it’s a delight to be reminded of it again.
.....
It's Brooks.
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